We absolutely loved our stay in Site #11 in Campground A. The site was absolutely massive, and turned out to be even better than the one that we had initially picked out, but was already reserved. We were a little concerned about lack of shade in this site, as it only had one tree in it, but it shaded at least some of the site all day every day, and even provided a nice umbrella to hang out under during the brief bouts of rain. Hiking was fantastic, with each trail being dramatically different than the one before, and we did at least 7 of them in the 4 full days we were there.
Things I loved:
- no cell signal. They did offer ViaSat WIFI for a fee, but I love to unplug when I get the chance.
- the quiet natural beauty and dark sky
- very clean bathrooms, which were cleaned daily, even though there might have been a total of 4 sites occupied at any given time during our stay.
- frequent patrols by park rangers
- beautiful trails
Things I was not fond of:
- the park rangers that patrolled did nothing to enforce the rule that dogs must be on-leash, even when we know they saw this multiple times. Thanks to this, we had two dogs in the site next door that would randomly wander over to and through our site, much to the consternation of our two on-lead dogs. Thankfully, this couple left the day after we got there.
- the firewood was soaking wet when we purchased it, even though it was stored in a shed near the visitor's center. Decent price for the amount, but it was very difficult to start.
- a few more people than I would have expected during the week at this time of year. I would hate to see it on the weekends.