Crags Campground

If you ever want to get away from it all, here is where it might be found. This gorgeous and sprawling campground close to the tiny resort hamlet of Twin Lakes is worth the drive.  We came for a night or two and stayed nearly a week.

With many FCFS campsites along the loop above the river and among Jeffery’s Pine trees and Sierra sagebrush, you can find a quiet space to set up a beautiful camp. The sites are huge and lots of space in between them.  They are designed for any rig size that is set up for off-grid camping, with double sites for small groups.  Almost all of the sites have a wide open sky and lots of sun for good solar gain and strong Starlink, so no need for a generator.

The river is only a short walk away from any of the campsites, so fishing and cooling off are always an option, and you can start a handful of hikes right from the campground.  The lower lake of the twins is walkable as well, at about 1.25 miles away. 

The vault toilets were sparkling clean and well-maintained by the camp hosts. Showers were available for purchase at the nearby RV park. The town of Twin Lakes has a small grocery store at the marina with a few things -- a bit better than a convenience store, but not by much.  At the top of the upper lake, there is a small restaurant located at the other RV park.

There’s lots of water activity opportunities to do in this part of the world, but check the boat regulations as there are speed limitations.  Fishing, paddling, and SUP’s are all great here, but it can get REALLY windy so plan accordingly.

Hiking is amazing on the many trails which take you to the higher elevations. Wilderness backcountry travel looks delightful, but we only went on day-hikes. Multi-day backpackers can park in the upper lake marina lot for a fee.  With so many trails and OHV trails nearby, this is also a great campground to bring your mountain bike or other toys.

Our early fall adventure in the eastern Sierra was coming to a close and many of the campsites were closing down for the season. We stopped at the ranger station outside Bridgeport to get the lowdown and found out our first choice had just closed but got recommendations for other nearby campgrounds. 

We ended up at Crags Campground which is actually 2 loops. We stayed in the Matterhorn loop after seeing that Crags was mostly big RVs with generators. Most of the primo sites were double sites (at double the price). We ended up in site #20 which was next to the empty camp host site. 

• Beautiful, high desert scenery, surrounded by granite peaks
• Great star gazing
• Dog friendly 
• Very clean vault toilets (public campgrounds in this area are managed by a third party vendor) 
• Great hiking nearby. Our campsite neighbors shared an 8 mile hike to Barney Lake that delighted us with fall color, a stunning lake view and moderately easy hiking (there was some easy elevation gain). The trailhead was a short drive away.
• We needed to dump and shower and were able to get both at the Twin Lake store for small fees. There was also a nice, clean laundry facility next to the showers open to the public. 

We definitely will be back to this area and explore this and other campgrounds.