Customer Reviews

Camping! Northern California: The Complete Guide to Public Campgrounds for RVs and Tents

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This guide rates and reviews hundreds of campgrounds including county parks which are often overlooked by other guides. It is illustrated with black and white photographs and contains a helpful index by rating. Campgrounds are rated from 1 to 5. 5 means it is a perfect, not to be missed site; 1 means it is acceptable only when desperate.
Reviews are one paragraph to a page or more in length and include reservation information, number of sites, facilities, maps and driving directions, as well as nearby recreational activities. Reviews give the reader a clear idea of what to expect from each campground. Look for key words and phrases that tell all: secluded, private, remote, too darn crowded, hordes of day visitors, or too much asphalt. This is a detailed, well-organized guide. Don't leave home without it!.

I have been researching camping in Yosemite using this book as a guide. From what I've found, this book is a terrible reference. The index gives the wrong page numbers for specific campgrounds, and the information given has turned out to be wrong for most of the campgrounds I have looked at. In trying to make my reservations I found errors ranging from whether or not the site required a reservation to whether or not RVs are allowed in the campground to whether or not there was running water at the site.

Other guides that my husband and I have used are filled with cold and sterile facts about each campground. This book, however, provides easy to read, heart-felt narratives, with accurate opinions as to what to expect at each campground. It is extremely helpful for us to know that a campground has no privacy, is very crowded, or is nothing more than an "asphalt parking lot." This book is more than a simple listing of the number of sites, how to get there, and other innocuous facts. A truly great guide for all campers!

This book is nowhere near the complete guide, as it states. I assume from that that it would contain most, if not all, of the public campgrounds. It doesn't. It lists mostly prominent sites that could be referenced though other sources, including AAA.

Looking at one of the areas with which I am familiar the location of several sites on the area map was WRONG. Reading the description of the campground will give you accurate directions but if you put your finger on the map and say "let's head for there to stop tonight", you'd be nowhere near the campground. I didn't check to see if the publisher had merely mis- numbered the locations on the map.

The only advantage of this book is its scenic ranking, but I have not checked sites to see if I agree with his assessments.

As somone who used to date Dennis, I found his writings more entertaining then his actual personality.
This book doesnt tell much that I couldn't find out from any other book.
Good try though.