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Conflicted is a mild description for how I am feeling about this campground. I waited too long to make any plans for the Labor Day week-end but was able to find a site here. It sounded great based on the reservation web-site. ''The campground is situated on the banks of the South Yuba River in a scenic forest of mature cedar and pine trees, which offer ample shade. The elevation is 5,600 feet.'. There are only 35 sites, close to off-road and hiking trails. Plus...a popular swimming hole right next to the freeway...I mean campground. OK. So the sites are large and not too close to each other. Most of them are in the shade so a sun canopy isn't necessary. On the other hand, there is so much sap dripping from the trees you need a canopy to keep the sap out of your food and cocktails. We laid in our tent at night listening to this drips and drops. Well. That is when the freeway noise doesn't drown out every sound including your snoring tent mate. You can see the freeway and the cars passing. If you want to hitch a ride home...wade across the water, climb a short embankment, and stick your thumb out because you are on the road again. Speaking of the freeway. You will know what is is like to live in a homeless encampment off 99 in Fresno. It NEVER stops. Cars, motorcycles, huge semi-tractor trailers with thundering Jake Brakes. All night. All day. There is never any surcease. Of course the wonderful train tracks with trains running every hour? Two hours? Why are they blowing their beautiful horns so much? The train does not cross the highway so are they scaring animals off the tracks? Animals? Nope..not unless you count the purported rattlesnakes which we saw none of. We saw two Ravens and two tiny golden mantled squirrels. All other wildlife consisted of terriers, pit bulls, gsd's and the two legged variety. There are plenty of bathrooms...Pit Toilets. Water spigots are spread throughout the campground. No bear boxes...probably the Jake Brakes scared them down to the valley somewhere. There are only two garbage cans in the entire campground and NO recycle bins. But the toilets are clean. If you want a last minute campsite, close to high elevation trails, lakes, and rivers with amazing swimming holes with an added bonus of sap, snakes, loud ambient noise that is probably harmful to your hearing, then this is your campground. Me...I won't be back unless I need to pull over and sleep in my car. With Earplugs. And the windows rolled up tight. BTW...We threw the tent away. It was un- salvageable. This should be named 'Sap Falls On I-80' campground.
Probably the noisiest campground you can imagine (road noise). No idea why this would be put so close to 80, 80 is incredibly loud, all night, you need to wear earplugs. There is a pretty cool swimming hole near the campground, unfortunately they allow day use visitors so it gets crowded. The bathrooms are really bad with flies, they are just built in port-a-potties. The overall campground was pretty clean other than that. I wish there was a ranger there or a head of the camp, we had a neighbor camp make a bonfire in frickin' August, over 7ft tall, so we were fairly worried about the whole forest burning down. I guess I now know why this place was one of the few that had availability. read more
7 years ago
It was a beautiful location: right next to the creek. Lovely hiking trails near by. Restroom was clean (no lights though). Had water and restrooms spaced out throughout camp. The Fire pit could of needed some repair. A sort drive away from home. Campsite was clean, pretty and well shaded. I would of loved it here, but the BIG - COULD NOT IGNORE negative was it was just too close to the freeway. I could look up and see cars go by. Sleeping was impossible. Woke up at 1:00am when a semi honked his horn for a delay honk (after a restless night from the noise) and just packed up and left at 2:00am. The noise was just that bad - loud restless, and not peaceful. It couldn't of been loader if I was standing on the side of the highway. Even though a very lovely setting (and I was at the site looking up at the freeway (07) - I would not go back, you could hear the freeway even further back. Camping should be peaceful and relaxing. That was torture. read more
4 years ago
This postings map takes you to a different spot than what the reviewers are talking about-FYI. Besides the freeway and train noise this campground doubles as a day use for the swimming hole (in itself is awesome) which had lots of food trash left near the river. Campsites were fine, but do not include bear boxes or signage indicating how to properly store your food items and lots of people either don't care or don't know any better; coolers and food were left out. Not great in bear country. Also, there are bear proof dumpsters that have faulty locking mechanisms and remain unlocked most of the time (again, without signage or reinforcement, people make simple mistakes that could lead to issues with bear later).The USFS drove through several times and had a strong presence but I feel they are mismanaging this area that could have some potential bear-human conflict in the future. read more
7 years ago
We stayed in a lower number site, close to the freeway. I read reviews before so all of us brought ear plugs - they are definitely a must! The freeway noise was loud, as is a train that goes by blowing its whistle both at night and in the daytime. The upside to being so close to the freeway is it's easy to jump on and go wherever you want in the surrounding area. Our campsite was HUGE - could have fit four 4-person tents if we wanted to. Nice campfire ring and picnic table. One benefit to being up against the freeway was our campsite also backed up to the water. Nice spot to go down and read by if you're an early riser, and a great spot to go splash water on your face to refresh after a hike. The facilities were pretty clean for vault toilets. No showers on site. They had just changed a pipe over so the water wasn't potable. Luckily there is a gas station 1 exit away where we grabbed more water. Really nice swimming hole, but heavily trafficked. Features a pretty waterfall and a jumping rock. We were there on Labor Day weekend so I assume it was heavier traffic in general than normal. We saw lots of squirrels and birds, not too bad of mosquitos. Meat bees were a tad aggressive, but there weren't a ton of them. TLDR: Bring ear plugs, close to good hiking, big campsites, clean-ish facilities, nice/busy swimming hole. read more
12 years ago
Conflicted is a mild description for how I am feeling about this campground. I waited too long to make any plans for the Labor Day week-end but was able to find a site here. It sounded great based on the reservation web-site. ''The campground is situated on the banks of the South Yuba River in a scenic forest of mature cedar and pine trees, which offer ample shade. The elevation is 5,600 feet.'. There are only 35 sites, close to off-road and hiking trails. Plus...a popular swimming hole right next to the freeway...I mean campground. OK. So the sites are large and not too close to each other. Most of them are in the shade so a sun canopy isn't necessary. On the other hand, there is so much sap dripping from the trees you need a canopy to keep the sap out of your food and cocktails. We laid in our tent at night listening to this drips and drops. Well. That is when the freeway noise doesn't drown out every sound including your snoring tent mate. You can see the freeway and the cars passing. If you want to hitch a ride home...wade across the water, climb a short embankment, and stick your thumb out because you are on the road again. Speaking of the freeway. You will know what is is like to live in a homeless encampment off 99 in Fresno. It NEVER stops. Cars, motorcycles, huge semi-tractor trailers with thundering Jake Brakes. All night. All day. There is never any surcease. Of course the wonderful train tracks with trains running every hour? Two hours? Why are they blowing their beautiful horns so much? The train does not cross the highway so are they scaring animals off the tracks? Animals? Nope..not unless you count the purported rattlesnakes which we saw none of. We saw two Ravens and two tiny golden mantled squirrels. All other wildlife consisted of terriers, pit bulls, gsd's and the two legged variety. There are plenty of bathrooms...Pit Toilets. Water spigots are spread throughout the campground. No bear boxes...probably the Jake Brakes scared them down to the valley somewhere. There are only two garbage cans in the entire campground and NO recycle bins. But the toilets are clean. If you want a last minute campsite, close to high elevation trails, lakes, and rivers with amazing swimming holes with an added bonus of sap, snakes, loud ambient noise that is probably harmful to your hearing, then this is your campground. Me...I won't be back unless I need to pull over and sleep in my car. With Earplugs. And the windows rolled up tight. BTW...We threw the tent away. It was un- salvageable. This should be named 'Sap Falls On I-80' campground. read more
8 years ago
I just got back from camping on 4th of July weekend. So far there's no bugs and mosquitoes problem, site was pretty small, didn't get a chance to hiking because the host doesn't know around him he doesn't even know where he is that's the sad part. The water is really cold, close to the swimming hole. You can still here the freeway and esp the train is really loud. I wouldn't recommend site 23 due to no shade unless the sun moves. read more
10 years ago
Ok, so I read some reviews first before picking my site. I knew to stay away from the lower numbers as they were close to the freeway. So I picked camp sites 23 and 25. They were large, shaded and clean. Close to water spickets on both sites and the restrooms. The sites each had a fire pit and a picnic table. The restrooms were drop toilets with no sinks, but they were clean and stocked with toilet paper. The camp host was visible and was running around on her golf cart checking on campers often. She was not intrusive, just keeping an eye on things. This to me was a delight. I am sick and tired of jerk off I considerate campers ruining others trips. She kept them in check. Yay. The camp sites I was happy with. Like I said, I chose the ones furthest from the road noise. I could hear it, but it did not keep me up. Now that damn train...why oh why was it blowing its horn???? The squirrels are not gonna wreck you! That was annoying, no need for the whistle! The parking spots are large enough for two cars. You get one car with the site fee and it's $5 per day for an additional vehicle. Not bad at all. The water hole area was very very nice...at first. It has shallow parts, deeper ends and a jumping rock with probably a 20 ft drop into deep water. There is a natural waterfall a little ways down. Water was nice. Lovely area. The kids loved it. Climbed down and found a rock to sit on to watch kids play. It was the best part...Until the jerk off inconsiderate campers or daily show ups came. Putting themselves and all of their crap right in front of the entrance to the water...really??? Just put your 5 coolers, easy up and tons of junk right in the way!!!! No, leave your crap at your site...come on now. Have some common sense. There are a lot of people going camping, have some common courtesy. This area is for everyone. Don't move your cAmp there in the way! How rude! Then there were the people smoking cigarettes throwing their butts in the water. Really? Yes, you lady floating with your infant with no life vest and a cigarette in hand...flicking her ash into the water and blowing smoke in the poor kid! Grrrrr!!!! I cannot stand some smokers for this very reason. If you smoke, pick up your trash and dispose of it...do not throw it in the water people are swimming in. Then they started smoking weed. Right there in front of people's children! Hey, do what you are gonna do but I absolutely didn't appreciate the cigarette and pot smoke all over my family. Sadly, this area the camp host cannot control. Trash is trash and these people on the 4th of July were garbage. We left the water due to their behavior. I understand you want to party, but understand others pay to be here and this is not your personal home...respect others and behave like it is a shared area as it is. Park Rangers really should regulate this area. All in all, I honestly liked the camp ground. The noise I got passed. It was a honestly decent place. If It hadn't been for the jerks at the water I would have done 4 stars. Would I go back again, maybe. Like I said...sites were large, clean, camp host available and visible. Lots of trees/shade. Noise...not too too bad if you get sites in the 20's. Maybe. We will see. read more
8 years ago
Went up with a few friends this past weekend. Overall we had a great experience. We had read about the freeway noise beforehand and so we were expecting that and weren't bothered. The sites were nice with a picnic table and a fire ring. We had reserved a walk in site online but couldn't find any type of signage indicating what site was which at the actual walk in sites. We made our best guess and set up. We also had another car coming up to join us, but were unable to find the campground host to ask about where that car should park. The next morning she found us and asked us to move the second car to a different location, which was fine. We loved exploring the river, the swimming hole, and the little waterfall nearby. Totally beautiful. Facilities were nice. Pit toilets were clean and well stocked. There are spigets for water throughout the campground, but they were labeled as non-potable, except for the one near the walk-in sites. At that point we looked for the campground host again to ask, and couldn't find her. We elected to drive a few miles up the highway and pick up some water at a gas station instead since we assumed that all the water was non-potable at that point. We are all experienced campers and would have been fine with filtering water, but the website had indicated that there was potable water at the campground, so we hadn't brought our filter. We would have appreciated more signage at the campground in general so we could have more easily found the sites, the campground host, the water situation could have been clearer, etc, but overall this is a great location and if you don't mind freeway noise you are in for a beautiful riverside experience! read more
More info about Indian Springs Campground
Emigrant Gap, CA 95715
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(530) 389-2236
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http://www.recreation.gov/camping/indian-springs/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=75486
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