After parking right off the trail head and hiking down about 0.8 miles, you have three “established” spots to chose from. I say established in quotations because they are marked with plaques but are all the way rustic sites. The middle sight is definitely the biggest and is where me and four others stayed for two nights. This is a very busy national park in the summer months but going the first week of October (as suggested by the ranger) made it so that we were the only ones in this area. We did have a couple backpackers stop for the night at the first site but other than that is was really quite. The lightning springs trail itself is incredibly long and we only went to where water was flowing so that we could fill up. We opted to hike out the first day and then drive to the Watchman Lookout Trail head and do that one first. It was only 0.8 miles long but I believe a 400 foot elevation change. Absolutely incredibly view. After that we drove north and did the Cleetwood Cove Trail which was around a mile with a 600 foot elevation change. This allows you to get right next to the water. Both hikes we semi challenging but well worth it. While the backcountry campsites do not allow fires, there are other location around Rim Village that have established sites that you can. When we went it was a little colder and windy but the tree coverage offered some shielding from that. There are plenty of other longer hikes as well in the area and other established sites if you are looking to have a more traditional camping experience. The Rim Village center was open and we were able to get a meal and visit the gift shop as well as go farther south and get our NPP stamped. Definitely recommend checking the NP website to see what is opened and closed as well as fire bans. We were lucky that the entire loop was open and got to drive all the way around the second day. While not directly at these sites, there are trash and bathroom areas really close. Really all around incredible views and an incredible weekend stay.
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