- $15 per site per night. $5 for additional vehicles. Cash or Check deposited in an enveloped and dropped off in a bin at the entrance to the campground. - Sites include: Picnic table, Bear Box and Fire Ring. - Camp Fires: As of July 20, 2020. Fires are permitted only in the fire ring. Plenty of wood around to collect and burn. *** Camp Fires are not allowed if you are dispersed camping. *** - Bathrooms: 4 portable bathrooms next to spot 1 in the front and a vault bathroom with 2 stalls by spot 9 &10. When we arrived on Friday, they were cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. By Sunday, they were a stinky mess. The Carr lake campground was great. Spot vary in size. Some of the spots in the front had lake access. The spots in the back have a lake view. You can still access the lake from the spots in the back, but its a pretty steep decent. The spots in the middle do not have lake access but some are pretty private and have lots of shade. Spot 8 has the most privacy and a good amount of distance from the neighbors. Spot 8 is also by a creek. This drowned out the noise other campers made in the evening. Carr Lake was very pretty. However, the main event is Feely lake. Access to Feely lake is between Spot 8 and 9. It's a larger lake with stunning views. A lot of backpackers were heading to Island Lake which is about a mile from the Carr Lake Campground. Due to the Covid related closures around the state, more people than usual are heading to the outdoors. This meant that this usually secluded area was not packed with day hikers and backpackers. The parking lot was at capacity by mid day Friday and people had to park on the side of the road as far as a half a mile away. I recommend that you stake your claim as early as Thursday or very early Friday. read more

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Lake Carr Campground is a true gem for those adventurous enough to brave the road up there. Quick Campsite Stats: Number of Sites: 11 Cost: $15 per day, honor system by envelope (cash or check only) Amenities: - Pit Toilets, but generously stocked with toilet paper. - Metal fire rings with a grill - Picnic table at each site Does not include: - Water (unless you purify the lake water, plenty of that around) - Trash cans (you must pack in what you pack out) Pets Allowed? Yes! Elevation: 6,663 ft Reservations Required?: No. All first come, first served as far as I could tell. Owned and operated by PG&E Getting There (the hard part): It's a good 30-40 minute drive north of Hwy 20 up Bowman Lake Road (Forest Road 18) to where it splits off to Forest Road 17. From there you will see a giant log with "CARR" spray painted in white with an arrow to the right (pretty awesome, I know). Now you're in for three miles of rocky dirt road... and I mean rough. A road full of rocks ranging from the size of grapefruits to dodge balls... so take is slow and steady. I will warn all sedans or low-clearance vehicles to be extremely careful. I saw many cars bottoming out (a mini cooper and prius among them). Towards the top of the road, you'll need to navigate around some big boulder-like rocks embedded in the road. Here is where most low-clearance vehicles gave up, pulled to the side and decided to walk the rest of the way. I have a two-wheel drive Honda CRV. I decided to give it a whirl and made it up to the parking lot by some miracle. Entry to the Campground: Surprisingly the parking lot was already packed at 4:30pm on a Friday! Who are all these people brave enough to make it up that road? I was impressed. I wasn't quite sure what to expect campsite wise considering it was 4th of July weekend and I was hoping to snag one of the first come, first served sites. I wasn't too optimistic, but I threw on my backpack and decided to take a look around. You want to head to the top of the trail (i.e. the road barricade). There you will see a wood bulletin board of sorts with the campsite rules and a place to leave your nightly fee ($15). You put your cash/check in an envelope and tear off the receipt at the bottom. Put the envelope in the slot on the green post and take the receipt to your campsite of choice. Clip it under your campsite number and voila! Note: The PG&E people are checking to make sure you've done this word to wise, but I have no idea if and how they would "cite" you if you didn't pay. It's kind of the honor system. Surveying the Campsites Right after you walk past the bulletin board there are a number of campsites up off to the right. Some of them were already taken by the time I got there, so I walked on down the road, but I heard from some other seasoned campers that one of the first campsites was one of the best out of the eleven. I continued down the road and saw some absolutely stunning ones! I was thrilled to see a few were empty and available. On 4th of July weekend!! I couldn't believe my luck! After I checked out all the real estate I decided on my beauty, campsite number 8... I think? Can't remember exactly. Also recommended is the very last campsite past the bathrooms (farthest from the parking lot). Totally spectacular lake view. I was jealous. Most of the campsites do not have lake access. You're behind some seriously thick brush with no paths to the lake, but I believe the campsites at the very beginning and the very end do have lake access. Something to keep in mind. Not a deal breaker at all though considering Feeley Lake is just a hop skip and jump up the road and even MORE beautiful! :) The bathrooms are clean, although to get there you have to cross part of a river... a stream really, but might be hard to do in the middle of the night unless you have one of the campsites nearest to the bathrooms. Think hopping from stone to stone or just wading through up to your ankles. The campsites grew fairly crowded as the day went on but I observed there were still two or three out of the eleven campsites that were unoccupied throughout the weekend (I was there Fri-Sun). The crowd level was just enough to feel safe and not too much so that you felt it was cramping your solitude time. If you do end up campsite-less for some unfortunate reason, disperse camping is allowed and I saw a ton of people do it along the Round Lake Trail and Crooked Lakes Trail. This is something I will do next time for sure, as the scenery gets even more spectacular the father down the trail you go, espectially up towards Penner Lake. I will definitely be back here as it is one of my new favorite spots in the Tahoe National Forest. I hope this is helpful! :) read more

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