Camped for two nights at sites 67 and 68. Site 68 was our favorite, with lots of shade and LOTS of room to spread out. 

Originally, we'd booked the adjoining campsite 99, but the morning we were leaving, a ranger called to tell us it had been double booked and that people were already in our second site and could we take site 67 across the way, instead? That was fine, though not ideal. 67 is very exposed for camping. Very little shade in that one, but great if you want to do star gazing.

Our initial experience entering the park was not a good one. The entrance has a sign that says if you have a reservation, then proceed to your site. So we started to do that, but then got chewed out by a ranger who clearly did not enjoy her job that we were supposed to check in with her first. We were like, "But the sign said…" She snapped at us that the sign was for after hours. Yet, the sign did not SAY this. 

When we finally got to the point to check in, we said we were the site who'd been called this morning because the park had double-booked the site. The ranger snapped back, "WE didn't overbook your site. The BOOKING SYSTEM did." Um, is the booking system that makes park reservations ON the park website not part of the park?? Why does this matter to this ranger? Was SHE the one bumped from her reserved site?

Her unprofessional attitude soured our first exposure to this park. (Seriously, if you don't want to work there, don't. But don't take it out on the campers.)

The ranger continued to give us a lecture on how we may not have more than 2 tents per site and went into a mathematical breakdown of this. "You may have two tents in 67 and one tent in 68 or two tents in 68 and one tent in 67, but you cannot have three tents in 67 or three tents in 68," as though we were complete morons.

After all of this, our observation is the sites have plenty of room for three tents. We had four solo people. I don't quite understand this two-tent-per site rule. Makes zero sense when there is room and you are well below the 6-person maximum per site.

Also, there are no swimming pools at the sites. She also told us this, in case you are planning on somehow bringing a pool camping.

Once we got to the sites, it was great. Lots of flat areas for pitching tents well away from the fire pit. Trees and bushes between sites for privacy. 68 had the area water spigots (one on each side of a fat post), so we did get to say hello to visitors getting water now and then. Parking is a few steps away from the sites.

67 and 68 are a bit of a slightly uphill trek to the bathrooms, where there are clean toilets and clean showers. It was $1.25 in quarters for 10 minutes of shower time. Only complaint from our group was you could not control the heat of the shower. I heard some people complaining about moths in the bathrooms at night, but to me, this is totally normal for a campground bathroom. There was no mirror at the sink though. (There was a power outlet by the bathroom sink, should you need to use a hair dryer after you shower. There was also a park bench right outside the showers.

Watch for snakes. We didn't see any, but fire officials came one night to remove an injured rattlesnake, so they are around. (Walk with heavy feet and most of the time, they'll just move out of your way if you do spot one and watch if you step into the bushes to let someone by on the hiking trails. Also watch for poison oak on trails.)

Thursday night was nice and quiet. Friday night, not so much, but MOST people piped down by around 11pm or 11:30pm.

A couple of trail loops start at the campground. The one toward the end of the campground has a few options, including a shorter and flatter nature trail. We took the steeper, longer loop from that same spot up to Glens Lookout, where on a clear day, you can see from the Salton Sea over to Escondido along the coast. The trail was a bit rocky, but fine if you are used to hiking. Another trail series started from closer to the checkin kiosk. We did find a mountain lion print on our hike, which was kind of cool.

There are horseshoe pits in the campground, if you want to bring horseshoes. Julian is an easy 10 minutes or less away, if you have a hankering for shops or pie. All of us, with different cell phone carriers, had decent reception at the campground.

I'd read a review that said to steer clear from camping near the trash bins. I'd second this because people do tend to slam the lids on those, which could be jarring if you are camped right by them.

Overall, this is a great campground, minus a star for some of the staff. (Other staff members were lovely and gave a completely different experience.)

I snagged a last-minute cancelation in Pinnacles during peak time in May. We were in site 82 of Loop D, which is the RV area. The campground recently renumbered its sites, so that can be confusing if you're researching sites.

Very open and flat. We pitched out tent where you'd normally park and just put the car slightly to the side. Plenty of room. You can buy wood from the camp host, who then delivers it to your site.

We brought a pop up, which was useful over our table during the day, when it got into the 80s. You can watch condors and turkey vultures circle over the hillside nearby. (Learn to tell the difference! Both have red heads, but condors are much larger, have a different white striping underneath and don't flap their wings. If it's big and smooth flying, it's probably a condor.)

Our biggest issue was our neighbor in their shiny silver trailer, who ran their heater/ac all night, which cycled loudly on and off next to our tent. Had it not been for that, it would have been a more pleasant stay. On the plus side, we used a converter to plug into the power box at our site and were able to set up a little cell phone charging station. (The regular power outlet like the kind you see in your house seemed to be blocked, as I've seen it at other campgrounds, as well.)

Not much shade though. We had one tree by our site. Bathrooms were a bit of a walk, but were fine. Water spigot was literally AT our site, next to our fire pit. So we got to say hello to lots of folks. We grabbed an ice cream from the market by the tiny visitor's center at the entrance to the campground. We didn't use the swimming pool or showers.

Tent sites near the water across the way seemed more private, but also more prone to mosquitoes. It was nice listening to the frogs in that area, but that could annoy some people.

Main hiking trail parking lot filled by 8am or 8:30am on weekends during peak times, so we got up there early. They close the road out in front of the campground when those lots fill. So if you see that, you can wait until a car comes down or you can tack on some extra mileage and hike up from the back side of the campground.

Stayed in Site 78 in the upper part of Lodgepole, which was perfect. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no one was in the site next to us. (That one, site 74, seemed really cramped. Someone had moved the picnic table to the tent pad, but there wasn't really much space to move it anywhere else. If someone had been in that site, we'd have had neighbors pretty close to us.) On the other side of this site is a hillside, so the neighbors on that side are further up. The river helps to drown out the other campground noise, but we lucked out with all good neighbors, even on the weekend.

Site 78 is NOT listed as a "walk in" site, but you do have to walk your stuff down a little hill to get to the site, which has a lovely, flat tent pad. (Only issue was on one part of the pad, Lodgepole chipmunks had made holes. We were able to put our 4-person tent so it wasn't over those holes. I'd be concerned about the chipmunks chewing through the tent if you put it over their two holes.)

Nice fire pit, with views of the river and of the bridge through the campground. We could watch people coming and going on the Tokopah Falls Trail across the river. Our picnic table was SLIGHTLY slanted, but not a big deal. Our site was just across from the bathrooms. (Bring a light for that. Bathrooms have no lights here, but there are flushing toilets and sinks.) It's uphill to the bathrooms, but not too bad. The water spigot was right by our site, too. And we were within easy walking distance of both the Tokopah Falls trailhead and the shuttle bus stop at the campground to other parts of the park. (In June of 2021, the shuttles were running regularly along routes 1 and 4, with 2 and 3 not running because of the pandemic.)

The showers were listed as "closed for the season," which also appeared to be pandemic related. This was a bit disappointing because we were hoping to shower at some point during our 4-night stay. So beware of that, if you really want a shower. The Lodgepole visitor's center was also closed because of the pandemic, but the market was open, where you could buy souvenirs, typical items in a camp market (wood, marshmallows, drinks, ice cream, etc…)

Rangers were friendly. (Look for Ranger Alex and say hello!) Put your food and scented items in bear boxes. We were told that a bear had been in the campground in the previous week. We also saw one up the Tokopah Falls trail, in the meadow upstream from the campground. There is a kitchen sink at the bathrooms. The trash and recycle bins were across from the bathrooms. There were also extra bear boxes here and there, in case your stuff doesn't fit in one box.

You're welcome to scavenge for kindling and small pieces of wood here or else just buy wood from the market. (It was about $11 per box.)

Overall, we enjoyed our stay. We loved some of the other sites along the river, as well, also in Upper Lodgepole. Lower Lodgepole was more open, with what looked to be more party types and larger groups, plus more RV's. Across the bridge was another area, which seemed to be a mix of RV's and tents, but my group agreed we'd stick with Upper Lodgepole as tenters.

Also, as noted on various websites, there's no cell phone service here. If you need to pop in to check a quick work email, there's slow wifi at the lodge about a 10 minute drive up the road. You can grab a wifi signal in the lobby there or grab a bite at their grill, but it's not fast wifi. Good enough for quick email answers though.

I was able to snag a spot at Canyon Campground for few days at the height of busy season. (I kept the campground reservation page open on my computer and would refresh every hour. I had one campground per tab. Finally got a cancelation at Canyon, so took it. But it can be done!!)

Our spot was pretty small and right by a water spigot that everyone used, so that was a bit annoying. Lots of small pine trees make it feel more spaced out. Luckily, there was no one camped behind us (no spaces there), so that was nice. We were situated near a screaming kid, so that was not so nice. Not the campground's fault though. It is what it is.

Big bear box to hold everything, but we were told it is also fine to lock stuff in your car. (The bears here allegedly don't break into cars like they do at Yosemite.) Nice picnic table and fire pit. Bathrooms have flushing toilets and a nice room for dishwashing. 

During COVID, the showers down at the shower room by where  you check in are closed. So no showers for us. (If this is important to you, check the Yellowstone NPS site to see if and when they reopen. Showers at all the campgrounds in the park were closed.) They did kick back a couple bucks per night for the lack of showers.

We were able to find a flat enough area for two 2+ tents, but there's no official tent pad.

My favorite part of this campground? You can hear the thundering Yosemite Falls in the distance. Best white noise ever!

Least favorite part of the campground? The bathroom lights are always on, so if you are in a site near the bathrooms, you always have light shining into your site from that building.

There's ice, firewood and a camp store down by the checkin. There's a place to drop off trash and recycling out front, as well.

From our loop (E), the village was a long walk or short drive. I have Verizon and got an okay signal (one to two bars) in camp and a much better signal in the parking lot of the village. (As a professor, I did go down to the village parking lot a couple of evenings and used my phone to create a hot spot so I could do some grading for an online summer class.) 

In the village, the cafeteria seemed to be open until about 10pm. One night, I took a little drive around to Yosemite Falls (no crowds late in the day!) and came across a black bear by the road into the falls, which was cool.

Note that all of this was during COVID times, so it wasn't a "normal" Yellowstone experience. At the time, only a handful of the park lodges were open and only 4 of the park's 12 campgrounds were open.

Beautiful campground amid the trees, with a lovely stream flowing through. 

Our site was a great spot for two 2+ tents. It had a picnic table and fire pit. We were right near the pit toilets, but not so close that we got the smell.

No bear issue here. Lock your stuff in your car and it'll be fine. Bigger issue is with little critters who try to steal food. After dark, in flip flops, I actually had a tiny mouse run over my foot. (Sorry for screaming, fellow campers!) The mice are tiny and quick. They're only about an inch long. So keep your food stored if you're not around it.

Our site was just a few steps down a trail from a stream. It was nice to hear that stream… until the wind kicked up. This is no fault of the campground, but my camping buddy and I didn't get much sleep, with 22 mph sustained winds with 40 mph gusts. We thought the trees around our site and how it was situated a little down a hill from where we were parked would add some protection. No such luck. But again, not the campground's fault. It's a lovely campground.

The camp hosts were also super nice. If you have questions, they are set up in the first site you come to when you come into the campground.

For the amount of people in this campground, it was quiet and pleasant. This tends to be the Grand Teton campground that fills up last, so my friend and I opted to stop here first, since we were coming in early afternoon. Good call because we snagged one of the last remaining sites! (This was on a Wednesday in July.)

We spotted a moose by the river a ways out of the campground, but no wildlife sightings in the campground itself.

Plenty of room for two 2+ tents. Picnic table and fire pit. Good sized bear box. (We were told it's okay to lock things in your car, as well. The bears here apparently don't break into cars like they do in Yosemite. Interestingly enough, we were also told by a ranger that the bears here are not scared by bear bells and in fact, are curious about them and have approached people with them because of that curiosity. So we went with carrying bear spray on hikes instead.)

Bathrooms are clean and well stocked. During COVID times, there's a sign limiting the bathrooms to one person or one family group at a time, but many people ignored this sign and would come in anyway. (Being from a COVID hot spot, I found this annoying and disrespectful, but I can't hold this against the campground.)

Supposedly there are showers for campers in the park, but during COVID times, these are closed. So no showers for now.

There are central bear proof trashcans and recycling bins. You can buy ice and firewood at the camp office.

Bring allergy medication if you're allergic to cottonwoods!

Even in July, it got chilly at night, so I was glad to have hand warmers with me to throw in my sleeping bag. (It was maybe in the upper 30s?)

Overall, a nice site. We noticed that the bathrooms tended to be less crowded in the loops that had both tents and RV's because it seemed RV's were using their own bathrooms. So if you're a tenter, this is a good little tidbit to know.

Nice and quiet campground in an interesting state park. We went for site #4, which was in the interior part of the single-loop campground. The bathrooms were a short walk over a hill shortcut or you could walk the campground loop road to them.

Bathrooms are clean with a single shower. I had no problem with hot water, but the campground was not busy on the Monday after Fourth of July and it was hot out. It was nice to be able to get off the dust!

We had checked out another site on the outside part of the loop (#12, if I remember correctly) and it had a nice tent space, but ours could easily fit two small tents and possibly up to three if you did not have a fire.

There was an electrical hookup box, but the regular plug-ins were blocked, so we were unable to use it to charge our phones. (There was like a plastic insert blocking the plugs.) I didn't have an RV-style plug to try.

People were good about turning off their generators at 10pm.

There are a few trails that go off from the campground to explore the local area and its slot canyons. A nice afternoon excursion if you have the time. Pretty flat trails, though the one we took had been washed out in places. Just follow the trail posts up the dry stream beds in those parts and you'll be fine.

Beware of flash flooding in this region. I know the campground was caught in a flash flood in July of 2018 because of video online, so just be aware of that. From the news coverage, this does not seem to be a common event.

I would definitely come back to this campground.

Stopped here overnight on a mid-weekday on the way from Great Basin National Park to Grand Teton National Park. Nice, forested campground. There's a camp host up front that has firewood for sale. (We didn't need any, so didn't interact with them.)

My photos are from campsite #8. Many campsites were reserved for Thursday through Sunday, but no problem mid weekday to get a first come, first serve site in early July.

Our site had enough flat areas for two 2+ dome dents. There was a little path to the bathrooms. Each bathroom had two stalls, but for COVID-19 times, one stall was closed off and there was a sign on the door saying that one person was allowed in the bathroom at a time. No showers.

Water was across from our campsite. Each campsite has a table and fire pit. Some sites had little paths that went between them, so if you had multiple sites together, you could walk between them without going to the little road through the campground.

Lots of four-wheelers around, but nothing too crazy. I believe this is a trailhead for winter sports (snowmobiling?). There was a little dirt road that went off from the campground that we didn't have time to explore. Not sure about hiking trails from the campground.

The campers here were quiet and respectful, but there is road noise from the highway that runs sort of above the campground. Trucks use the highway and it's on a little bit of a grade, so you could definitely hear them. I wore earplugs and (even as a light sleeper) slept just fine. That's why I knocked a star off.

No bear boxes, but bears didn't seem to be an issue. We just kept our food in the car. There were chipmunks around who could try to steal food if you left it out, just like with any campground. 

Lots of summer flowers! Also lots of summer mosquitos, but that's expected.

The Tuolumne Meadows Lodge isn't the kind of lodge you think of when you think of a lodge.  It consists of a main building where there is a small store and an assigned-by-time food service, plus a bunch of platform tent cabins, each with its own stove for heat.  (Nights get cold up here, even in the summer!)

The large parking lot is lined on one side with bear boxes where you can store food, if you prefer to bring some cereal for breakfast and sandwich fixings for lunch.  (There are not many food options up this way. You have the lodge, plus a grill down the way, but that's about it.)

Free firewood is provided for guests, along with a communal campfire in the evenings.  The tents have cot beds and bedding.  Towels are also provided.  (There are bear boxes by the showers to hold your showering stuff.)

If you can get a cell signal, you are lucky.  I'm told that if you walk to the top of the nearby waterfall/river that runs by camp, there sometimes is service there.  I was able to make a phone call out, but no data available.

Lots of great hiking around.  This place reminded me of summer camp, but a bit more pricey!

Sick of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of the Yosemite Valley at peak times? Head to the high country and stay at Tuolumne Meadows Campground. I lucked out and snagged a walk-up spot in early summer, when it was still showing closed for reservations online, but was actually open.  Quiet, full of trees, bear boxes at every site, bathrooms with flushing toilets, water, lots of nice hiking trails nearby, and not nearly the crowds of the valley floor.

Borrego Palm Canyon in Anza Borrego Desert State Park is good for those who want to be near town because it's right on the edge of the small desert town of Borrego Springs, where there are restaurants, a couple of small convenience stores and services.  (Run out of ice? No problem!)

Some sites here have ramadas for shade, a couple of them dating back to the conservation corps time with built-in fire pits.  Each site has a picnic table.  There are bathrooms with flushing toilets and showers.  The Palm Canyon trailhead is at the end of the campground.

Not much shade if you are tenting, but if you luck out, you could get some endangered bighorn sheep coming through the campground.

Sites are paved and great for RV's.  There are also sites good for tenting.  (Again, no shade.  Summer is brutally hot.  Spring and fall are the most pleasant.)

I stayed at Arroyo Salado one year during a super bloom at Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  The campground is very, very basic.  You pull up and find a spot and camp.  There are no designated campsites.  And it's free.  There are pit toilets, which are clean and don't really smell.

We had the pleasure, as I said, of coming during the super bloom, when all of the sites closer to town were booked.  This is in the "badlands" part of the park, leaving Borrego Springs and heading toward Salton City, which happens to be the cheapest place to get gas in these parts.

There's room to pitch a tent.  You basically set up camp wherever there is room. We were among blooming desert lilies and had to be careful not to damage any, but plenty of fairly flat sandy soil to pitch a tent.  You can bring your own barbecue if you want a fire, but fires must be self contained and you have to pack out what you bring in, so don't leave behind your ashes or coals.  Want to be lazy?  Grab dinner from one of the restaurants in town.

This part of the park (the badlands) tends to be slightly warmer than other areas of the park.  (Because of elevation and topography? I'm not sure why.)  This is a dry camp.  There is no water, so you have to bring your own. But Borrego Springs is maybe 15-20 minutes away if you need a supply run.

During the blooms and when it's not super hot, it's lovely, but it's ungodly hot in the summer here (110-115 degrees), not cooling much at night.  There are off-road roads in this area.  We watched a lovely moonrise amid some night-blooming flowers.  So time it right and it's lovely.

I stayed in the group camp part of this campground, which was right by a clean pit toilet and a short, slightly uphill walk to the bathrooms that had running water.  This is on the outer part of Yosemite National Park, so it's not as crowded as Yosemite Valley.  There are hiking trails around.  When I was there, there were warnings about a mountain lion being spotted in the campground, so just be aware.

This campground is on the way to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the Inyo National Forest.  (While the elevation is high compared to the valley, it can still be quite warm in the summer.  And bear in mind that the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest itself doesn't open for the season until the snow melts.)  While these are the White Mountains, it's more desert-y chaparral and brush than what you think of with a pine forest.

Sites here are mostly pretty private, with some shade and separation from the brushy vegetation.  This is a dry camp, so you have to haul in all of your water.  There are pit toilets.  It's about a 45-minute to one-hour drive to Big Pine, the closest town for supplies.

To get to Black Rock Campground in Joshua Tree, you have to take a separate road into it from Yucca Valley. So if you are planning on spending a lot of time in the park and don't want to drive back and forth, this probably isn't a good choice for you. There's running water and flushing toilets in the bathroom. Views overlook the valley below, which is nice at night. Not a lot of shade. After all, this is a desert campground, with desert plants. Picnic tables and a fire pit. Flat places to lay a tent. Some trails go off from the campground. We chose to drive into the park. This was a good place to introduce my friend to his first camping experience. We ended up going into town (pretty close) for dinner. (Cheaters, I know!) The other plus about this campground is it's one of few that take reservations in Joshua Tree. So if you don't like knowing whether you have a site or not, you can be certain you'll have one when you arrive here if you make a reservation.

I lucked out and nabbed a site that someone had canceled at the last-minute, so I was able to stay among the majestic redwoods at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. My site was lovely, just a short walk from the bathrooms. In the evening, you could hear kids playing, a nearby group strumming on a guitar — all of the sounds you expect from a camping experience. Then my neighbors put up a giant big screen and proceeded to watch, while blaring the audio, "Finding Nemo" until late at night. After 10pm, I had to hike in the pitch black to find the camp host to get these people to stop. It seriously became my most awful camping experience — not because of the awesome campground, but because of the awful people. When I finally found the camp host (many host spots were empty and the hosts who were there ended up on the far side of the campground, which is very, very large), they opened their door and said "Camp site xx?" and said my camp site number. "We knew you were coming. We saw them setting that up earlier today." So the host drove me back to my site and dropped me near the bathroom so the neighbors would think the host was just cruising around checking on things. (That was nice of the host, really. It had taken a 20 minutes of walking to find him.) The people did finally shut down their movie operation. The next morning, they headed out on the hiking trails with their boom box blaring music.

So I'd definitely stay here again and hope for a better neighbor experience. I also hope the park is able to get more hosts to take on that volunteer role.

When I stayed at San Simeon State Park, the campground loop closer to the road (San Simeon Creek Loop) was full, so I ended up in the more primitive Washburn Loop. I switched spots from my initial camping spot for one along the back. It was by the pit toilets, which actually weren't bad. It had a nice fire pit and my site overlooked the mountains to the east. I could get to hiking trails from my site, which was nice. Campsites are with short grass. No showers. (I believe there are showers in the developed loop closer to the ocean.) Still, this was pretty quiet, despite the lack of privacy.

After a wildfire forced the closure of Highway 395, I ended up at Lower Lee Vining Campground for a night. Pleasant campground with clean pit toilets and a river toward the back side. Pay and put the envelope in the box. I got in late, but had lovely neighbors who invited me to sit by their campfire. They came up every year for the past couple of decades and said since the installation of bear boxes (which everyone uses), they had not seen any bears in camp. (The infamous "Yosemite bears" used to come down into camp apparently.) Cheap, nice, quiet and shady. I'd stay here again.

During busy seasons, you need to get here early in the morning to find people leaving so you can nab their spot. We came here on a Thursday, not realizing it was spring break. No spaces in the entire park. So we stayed the night at a hotel in town and came back early the next morning.

Pros: Flat sites, fire pit, picnic table, easy access to hiking trails, pit toilets decent, pretty area.

Cons: Neighbors packed their site with too many people and put their tents in our site so they would have more room to party on theirs. They then stayed up until the wee hours of the morning being noisy as they got drunk and high. No camp host to stop this. No cell reception to be able to call a ranger. They really need to add a camp host here during peak seasons. Also, usually the weather is great, but watch out for wind storms that bring giant dust clouds. They kick up here in the desert now and then. (Usually the weather forecast will have a warning.) We got here the morning after a wind storm and people's tents were flattened and broken and many retreated to their cars. (We were glad we weren't able to find a site the night before!)