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2025

Spots with keyword: swimming

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  • Hampshire Rocks Campground
  • Tahoe National Forest, Cisco CA
  • At the Rainbow Road exit off I-80. On the South Yuba River. Super nice place, even if the freeway is 200 yards away. If you're familiar with the Bay Area to Reno run on I-80, there's a place where it crosses some beautiful rapids. This is about ½ mile downstream from that.

  • MacKerricher SP - Pinewood Campground
  • California State Parks, Fort Bragg CA
  • Pretty big campground as these State Beaches go. There is another smaller campground over near the beach. There is a road straight to the beach that doesn't pass the Ranger kiosk, so you can use the beach w/o paying park fees. A mere 2.5 miles north of Fort Bragg.

  • Lake Solano Campground
  • Solano County Parks, Winters CA
  • Pretty campground and park on a little lake made from damming Putah Creek, the outflow of Lake Berrysea. The park is long and skinny following the south side of the lake/creek for quite a while. On the north side is the fairly busy road from the lake to the freeway. Some trucks and a lot of noisy motorcycles.

  • Buckhorn Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers - Black Butte Lake, Orland CA
  • Due west of Chico, about 12 miles on the west side of I-5 is Black Butte Lake. There are two ACE campgrounds. This one is the main one, with a nature preserve and large recreation area. Open all year, on a point of land jutting into the lake, quite scenic. This campground is closer to the lake.

  • Petersburg Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Augusta GA
  • On Strom Thurmond Lake, god help me. According to the map I am on the Georgia side of the lake, South Carolina ten miles away. There are a number of ACE campgrounds on the lake. All except this one closed at the end of September.

  • Doheny State Beach
  • California State Parks, Dana Point CA
  • in town, next to the harbor, but kind of isolated because the little river separates it from the day use area. Small, not very private sites, but right next to the beach

  • Crab Orchard Campground
  • Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Marion IL
  • real nice find! Crab Orchard is a pretty big place, with four campgrounds. The other campgrounds have full hookups for the big boys and cost more. But E Loop is the oldest and has become the bastard stepchild in the corner. Electric only inside the loop, no hookups outside. Its bathroom is kinda gross, but hey, $5 for overnight and a shower ain't bad.

  • Elkhorn Valley Campground
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Mill City OR
  • pretty far off the highway. Deluxe as BLM CGs go. North Santiam River is pleasant to swim in. Little red recycling boxes everywhere.

  • Standish-Hickey State Park
  • California State Park, Leggett CA
  • Stayed here twice. Once for a quaint little folk-rock/garage-rock festival across the road (Hickeyfest!), and once on a sultry August night returning from Eureka to Reno. The South Eel River is 200' below, US 101 is about 100 away, and quite loud if a loud truck or motorcycle goes past.

  • Oak Bottom Marina
  • Whiskeytown Lake, Redding CA
  • Two campgrounds in one! A nice little tent campground on a knoll jutting into the lake, and a section of the boat ramp parking lot. RVs can only go to the latter. Since I sleep in my vehicle I'm supposed to sleep in the boat lot with the big boys, but there's already a pickup camper setting up, and it turns out that this time of year with only 8-10 site taken, nobody cares..

  • Alley Spring Campground
  • Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Eminence MO
  • Another very nice, well maintained campground built around another gorgeous freshwater spring. The one has Alley Mill, a grist mill driven by the outflow of Alley Spring - now a park info center. The mill is a short walk from the campground. If you hunt around for it there is swimming access to the river (swinning in the spring outflow, that's a no no in all these parks).

  • Manatee Springs State Park
  • Florida State Parks, Chiefland FL
  • Aquatic recreation paradise. swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, scubaing. You can swim or snorkel in the mouth of the spring Checkout is 3 pm.

  • Swasey’s Beach Campground
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Green River UT
  • Twelve miles north of the town of Green River, on the Green River. A nice swimming beach, boat ramp, dramatic formations of the Book Cliffs in all directions.

  • Campland By the Bay
  • Mission Bay, San Diego CA
  • Epically deluxe RV park: pool, hot tubs, beach, playgrounds. In the middle of San Diego, two miles from Pacific Beach ocean beach, four miles from Balboa Park.

  • Red Oak Campground
  • Okmulgee State Park, Okmulgee OK
  • Most of their tent sites are truly for tents, but there's a little group of three new no-hookup sites that are really nice. Up on the hill, fairly level, private. I chose the one away from the folks playing loud country music. It's a short walk down the hill to the swimming beach, which was incredibly refreshing on this muggy day. Bathroom and shower are close but not too close.

  • Silver Mines Campground
  • Mark Twain National Forest, Fredericktown MO
  • Signage is very poor ==> hard to find. I ended up going to the river level loop with hookups and the camp host who directed me up the hill to the non-hookup sites on the bluffs. Nice big sites. There's a trail down to the swimming hole by the old dam. Very cool!

  • Banbury Hot Springs
  • private business Buhl ID
  • Oh, this place is soooo nice! It is now the same management as Miracle Hot Springs, so for your $10 ($8 for senior) you can go to both. Camping over here is both cheaper and way nicer. The Miracle soaking setup is way better (see their Spot entry), so driving to Miracle for your soak and staying here the rest of the time is the best bet. Banbury is a very large concrete pool, with very hot water coming out one place and cold water as many other places as needed. It is next to the river. No wifi.

  • Merrill Campground
  • Lassen National Forest, Susanville CA
  • huge-ass campground on ever-diminishing Eagle Lake. Full of giant RVs with hookups and run by a concessionaire, so it is much more bureaucratic and rule-bound that most. Site 159 is pretty sweet, unobstructed lake view (150 yds away), open, but the tall pine behind (south of) me give it pretty good afternoon shade.

  • Pigeon Point Campground
  • Trinity National Forest, Junction City CA
  • On a bend in the Trinity River. The main deal here is the heavily used boat ramp, I think the campground was built as an adjunct to it. Just seven sites, a couple of which are really nice. Busy Route 299 is only 30 yards away, so when a truck passes you hear it. Fortunately, the road is not busy after dark. Not quite as torrid as Redding, but still pretty darned hot until the sun goes down.

  • Amanita Campground
  • Boise National Forest, Cascade ID
  • 10 site campground on the quiet side of Cascade Lake. 6 miles from the main road (55), which is a feature rather than a drawback once you get here! Site 7 is the bomb!

  • Cotton Hill Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Ft Gaines GA
  • A well laid out campground on the Georgia side of Lake Eufaula. All manner of water pursuits, many from the edge of your campsite.