Affleck Campground

This was a nice little campground: quiet, clean bathrooms, a creek running through the back of our site. I like how far apart the sites are, and the creek masked the nighttime noises that tend to keep me awake.

There is a good trail accessible from one end of the campground, though it would be good to have better indicators of where we could park when not in our site.

I would love to come back here again; the gate, however, was a dealbreaker. It was incredibly cold and raining our first morning there (no rain in the forecast when we'd booked two days earlier), so I drove out to cell service range to check the day's forecast. To do that, I had to deal with the gate.

Unlocking, re-latching, and then locking it again was an ordeal, especially with frozen fingers in the rain. There's a cap over the latch, but the piece that slides out was stuck. I had to get at it from below.

The next time I came through, it slid away just fine. I don't know if someone stronger had gotten at it, or if the warmer and drier weather did it. Even with that improvement, it was still a huge pain in the rear. The latch kept wanting to fall back into the gate, so with two hands you have to do three things: hold the latch in place, hold the lock apart, and then slide it through the hole in the latch. All with the chain in the way.

Fix the gate situation, and this would be five stars.

Most important thing to know about Affleck Campground: You can't get in without a reservation. When you make a reservation, you receive the code via email for the combination lock at the campground entrance.

There are vault toilets and a trash dumpster here....that's it, but the sites are completely in the woods. You can't see this place from the road.

Site #14 was great. If you're interested in the California, Mormon Pioneer or Pony Express trails, there's a sign by site #44 indicating those National Historic Trails are right there. We didn't venture into the woods because the campground manager said there's a dead moose out there somewhere and the resident bear may be feeding on it. The resident bear in July 2018 is only about 250-300 pounds, and he had "brushed" against a tent the previous weekend. 

The campground manager came by the site to review the rules, but he doesn't stay there. He told us this campground is busy on the weekend and deserted during the week. We were there on Friday and Saturday night, and about 6 out of 20 or so sites were occupied.

For bikers: There's a long, gradual hill outside the park that would be a good challenge for road bikers. There was an event while we were there. A trail through the park gets mountain bike traffic.