Tucker Ponds Campground

I encountered this campground(I had zero knowledge of it prior to arrival) during my annual month-long motorcycle trip in the southwest states. I drive a big machine, a Honda Goldwing 1800, nearly 1000 pounds fully loaded, so I was hesitant to take the dirt road to where I hoped a campground would be found. However, I encountered an opposite direction driver who said I only had 1 1/2 miles to go- he was wrong, I had 2 1/2 miles to go- I decided to try it out. Thankfully the road had minimal washboarding and was in large part fine for driving Black Beauty to this campground. 

Upon my arrival I was greatly impressed by the surrounding beauty of the scenery, but I had business to do so I proceeded to drive to each of 14 sites (which were all empty) to analyze each one for the best tenting available. Though they all offered some decent camping locations, I was distraught in not finding a single one with anything close to a level tent pad. I’ve had my experiences in prior years sleeping on the slope of a hill, fighting all night long, trying not to slide out of the tent, and I didn’t wish to repeat that here. 

I finally chose site 14 which I thought might work for me. It was the closest site to the water (pump) spigot, was less than 50 yards from one of the toilets, and had outstanding views of Fox Mountain and one of the ponds. As I began set up I finally determined where I had originally planned to set my tent, on the pebble-studded ground beside the picnic bench, just wasn’t going to work, so I went hunting for a better location at that site. Included in this determination was the desire for some tree-shelter from the rain, since the clouds clearly indicated it was coming. The big decision was made, a few limbs trimmed, the footprint set down, and the tent set up- despite my angst of the 3 to 4° downhill slope. 

I’ll end this review with the bad and the good. 

The bad was– you probably see this one coming– I had to fight throughout the night not to slide downhill, and the fight was not winnable. Toss in rain, thunder and lightning, and I might have had 2-3 hours sleep at the most. 

The good was… the morning finally came, and after brewing some coffee and sitting down to enjoy the bird songs within the mountain silence, I could finally appreciate the beauty of this locale. 

BTW, the envelope to pay the fee (I paid $13 - because I’m older than dirt) had a flap asking for suggestions, so I said a HUGE improvement to the campground would be that each site would have a level tent pad (complete with a tent-friendly top layer of some type) for future Tenters to enjoy.