Rainbow Point — Ross Lake National Recreation Area

Awesome views up and down lake. Great stumps in water to jump off of. Cool sand-bar to walk around and enjoy sunset. Clean bathrooms. Nice dock. Flattened sites. Peninsula means views of lake on either side. The only thing I could ask for would be sites closer to the water.

Dock can be a little hard to get to in a Kayak in rough water. Also, if you approach the site from the North, there is about ten million tree stumps to navigate before you can round the point to the dock. You can beach near the point if the water is crazy, just watch for that stump-minefield. Sites are in wonderful shape tho, new bathrooms and plenty of space. No water unless you can purify your own. Loved the site tho!

Thank God for friends with boats! You can only get here with a boat (at least 10-15 miles depending on route so not for the casual kayaker). The views are incredible and the campsites are pretty standard with outhouses, but no water. You need a permit to camp here but I forget the cost. Once at the campsite there are some moderate to difficult trails and of course the lake to enjoy.

This campground has many amenities since it is accessible by boat. There is a dock, pit toilet, picnic shelter, benches, bear lockers, fire pits, and tent pads. There was a large boys camp there when we got in and they were having a blast jumping from the dock. We had just come off a few days on the Devil's Dome Loop so we were not in the mood to stay at a large established camp around groups nor did our ultralight backpacking tents fare well on tent pads, so we went down to the namesake of rainbow point, the rainbow shaped sandbar that juts out from the lakeshore. While I do not think you can legally camp here, there were plenty of signs that people had. Beware of goose poo though! There were rangers on boats going by but we were never reprimanded for our campsite as there was a forest fire directly across the lake from us and I think we were the least of their worries. Remember if you do chose to camp on the lakeshore or the sandbar, Ross lake is a dammed lake, so the water level changes in certain circumstances.