Need info on nice campsite along Hwy. 108

Summer trip planning....

Might be camping along 108 early summer. We're looking for a nice
campground along the pass as there are too many too choose from.

Would like little RV traffic and the noise they bring.

Maybe a paved road as well to a tent site.

Tia.

B~

 

Which pass? There are several. I hear the Donner pass has a nice buffet,
if you're not vegetarian...

--
Barb
Chaplain, ARSCC (wdne)

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to
have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous,
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can
produce."

--Molly Ivins

 

Which pass? There are several. I hear the Donner pass has a nice buffet,

Hwy. 108 or Sonora Pass.

There's one called Badger on the Kennedy Meadows turnoff. Another called
Eureka I think??

B~

 

There are California State Parks system campgrounds on Hwy 88 and Hwy
4, but none on Hwy 108.

I recommend that you google up the Toloumne county website and look
for little known county parks instead of KOA's and places that cater
to the large RV's.

The county parks won't have an attendant, you just self-deposit your
campground fees in the honor vault.

I would also suggest looking at the US Army Corps of Engineers
campgrounds. But, wherever a boater can haul a boat into, there will
be big RV's there too.

Also, google for "state forest" and "campgrounds".

There are little known California state forests in the Sierras near
where I live, and camping are totally FREE. But the area is so little
known, I won't even post the name of my private forest on Usenet.

Sonora Pass was a high speed road until we get to the top, then it
turned into a narrow windy 2-laner descending to the desert. There was
a private campground called Strawberry Hill or something like that
going up, but the guys I was riding with wanted to go 120 MPH every
chance they got, so we didn't stop.

I finally said, "Screw this. I am going to stop and take my boots off
and go soak my feet in the mountain stream."

They noticed I wasn't with them anymore, so one guy turned around and
came back. I offered him a Peking Duck Taco, but all he wanted to do
was smoke a cigarette and hammer on his motorcycle some more.

Gawd, what a burnout he was. Speed and smoke, speed and smoke, for
four days until he finally took off on his own to go to a bordello on
the Nevada border.

He didn't want any witnesses to his sins, so he sent us off on a loop
through Westgard Pass into Nevada and back across Death Valley to the
Panamint range.

A few months later, the burnout told me he was interested in getting a
ride together to go back to the Sierras, and I told him that I would
have to check my calendar for availabilty...

The guy I was stuck with on the ride through Death Valley was just as
crazy. He wanted to ride back across Walker Pass and take Hwy 166 over
to Santa Maria and return to Los Angeles via Cachuma Pass and Hwy 101,
but he didn't want to *stop* anywhere for longer than it took to gas
up or smoke a cigarette...

 

Check out Beardley Reservoir:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus/visitor/beardsley.shtml

Longest vehicle length allowed is 22', so there won't be any large
RVs in there. My sister and family used to camp there every summer
and they loved it. According to the info on the webpage, the road is
paved.

There are also the Brightman campgrounds a little higher up; check
them out here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus/summit/camping/brightman.shtml

There are probably more in the area, but I can't remember any others
off the top of my head, other than, as you mentioned, Kennedy
Meadows.

There's a long list of campgrounds in the Stanislaus Forest here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus/visitor/developed.shtml

I'm just not sure which ones are along 108.

I ride 108 over Sonora Pass many times each summer (I live nearby),
and can say the area is beautiful.

-Keith

 

On the west side of Sonora pass, before you get to Dardenelles is a walk-in
campground called Pigeon Flat:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus/summit/camping/pigeon.shtml

Only 7 sites, but if you get there early on a Friday evening you may get
one. Parking is just a few hundred feet from the sites.

There are a number of pullouts on both the west and east sides of the pass
that people camp in and as far as I know it's all free. You'll see RVs in
some of these spots, as they are accessible.

On the eastern side of the pass is a small campground whose name I don't
remember. It's a few mils west of the Mountain Warefare Trainging Center
at Pickel Meadow and a few miles east of Leavitt Meadow. I haven't camed
there, but it looks like the sites can accomodate smaller RV's & tents.

ab

 

The phrase "walk-in campground" can be confusing. It can mean that
(a), there is no parking immediately adjacent to the individual
campsite, or it can mean that (b), the campsites are not reservable
and you have to pay the campground host or deposit money in the honor
vault when you arrive.

Pigeon Flat appears to have no parking adjacent to the individual
campsite and the sites aren't reservable.

But it is not inconceivable that a "walk-in" campground would have RV
parking that couldn't be reserved, so the prospective tent camper who
wants to be as far as possible away from the clan that arrived in
seven Winnebagos and wants to play soccer in the campground should do
some careful research.

 

In this case, it means both.

ab

 

Yes, "walk-in" can mean two different things, and the would-be camper
should be aware of the possibility that the situation might not be as
expected, but he/she needs to make the best of whatever that situation
may turn out to be.

People trying to enjoy the great outdoors need to be flexible and
tolerant. Their favorite campground might be closed this season, for
any possible reason you can imagine.

Weather is beyond the control of campground operators, there are fires
and floods and dam operators may even drain a boater's favorite lake
below the level it reached the previous season.

I advised irate campers and boaters that they wouldn't get any refund,
no matter what happened. The quality of their camping or boating
experience was entirely up to them, they wouldn't get their money back
if the wild animals ate all their food or their boat caught fire and
sank or whatever...

 

You seem to live up to your handle. While there are some misfortunes
that even a five-star hotelier can't remedy, helping your potential
guests form reasonable expectations as to the accommodations you offer
should not lie outside your job description. Campers come in a wide
range of physical capacities, wilderness skills, and tastes for roughing
it, and it is only sound business practice to make sure that as many of
your clients as possible are getting the camping experience they are
prepared for.

OTOH, maybe you want to run your campground as a tax loss....

 

Did you ever hear the story about how a compassionate woman found a
frozen snake and held it to her breast until it thawed out?

When the snake woke up and bit her, she complained, "Why did you bite
me, I was only trying to help."

The snake replied. "You knew what I was when you picked me up, bitch."

I personally enjoy helping nice people and I go to great lengths to
help them. But about 5% of all the campers are nasty and they are the
ones I remember.

Operators of campgrounds get burned out and cynical right after
Memorial Day weekend, and all they have to look forward to is more of
the same on 4th of July and Labor Day weekends. This season wasn't too
bad, only three people drowned at the lake where I worked, and one guy
wanted the cops to help him commit suicide. I advised one volunteer to
move on and avoid dying from heat stroke.

It is a tax loss. The US government regularly loses your tax
donations...