trijntje

This is a very small campground miles up a moderately well-maintained dirt road. Unfortunately, I'd misread our map and my husband (who has back trouble) wasn't prepared for so many miles of dirt roads, but this trip just showed us that a lot of West Virginia is dirt roads.

The campground has 12 sites in a loop, very large and well separated from each other with most of them having quite a bit of visual screening between them. The site we chose had a large puddle in it from rains two full days before - this whole Dolly Sods area doesn't have very good drainage, which is why it is what it is. We pulled the picnic table over to fend us away from the puddle and that worked fairly well.

The CG had two separate vault toilets which were clean enough. THERE IS NO RUNNING WATER IN THIS CAMPGROUND. Despite what the Forest Service says, it appears to be common knowledge that the pump has been broken for years. There is a stream, so if we'd not had enough water I would have used that but treated it well. Because...

Despite feeling like you are very isolated, there are a lot of people around. On that long dirt road we passed many hunter's trucks full of dogs with radio transmitters, and we probably passed at least a half dozen individual dogs by themselves wandering on the road as well, complete with little radio antennas coming off their backs. No sign of owners. They didn't bother us, but that evening at the campsite there was quite a bit of hound-dog howling, which made for an interesting experience.

The folks at the campground were... interesting, but everyone kept to themselves. The fella next to us rather annoyingly retired to his car quite early (sleeping in cars is pretty common around here, it seems) and he turned on his radio loud enough that it was distracting to us in the site next to him - talk radio, so all we heard was the low rumbling of a radio in a car. He didn't turn it off until well after "quiet" hours. But since there was no sign of any ranger patrolling this area, there was nothing to do but take it.

All that said, this CG is near a couple of trail heads and an unofficial beautiful view looking toward Virginia (on the side of the road by the parking area for Blackbird Knob trailhead). Take the rock scramble up the hill on the right (to the south) and you get a lovely view of a typical Dolly Sods alpine meadow. We also hiked the Blackbird know trail and I think only saw one other hiker, a lone woman backpacker.

The drive here is very pretty and could be done in a sedan, just don't plan on going too fast because it is a dirt road, after all, and has pits and washerboards and just isn't fast travelling. Cell coverage nonexistent.

We stayed in this extended campground twice on our trip: once on our "outbound" leg, for two nights, and one night as we passed back through on our "return" leg.

The campground is physically large but doesn't have a huge number of sites. That's because the sites are large, and well-wooded, which is a good thing. The A and B loops are standard tent loops with no hookups, nice tent pads and decent bathrooms. The bathrooms had only one sink (not so great when there is only one bathroom per loop: two people show up to wash their faces or brush their teeth and its... awkward. But there was hot water and single shower stalls. The showers are the type where you push the button to get a short period of water and the women's on loop B must have been broken because every push gave you all of 3-5 seconds of water (my husband said the men's was more like other showers of this type). Still, any shower while camping that's included in the price of admission is welcome.

The A and B loops are heavily wooded and on a slight hill, so while you can see into your neighbor's site below you, we hardly noticed the one above us, except for the barking dog. We were here mid-October during the week and it was peaceful and quiet, but it looked like all sites were reserved for the following weekend. I didn't go into the C loop (RV hookups), but it looked similar.

On our way back through at the end of our trip, we dove in here late on a Friday, somewhat stuck because there are so few campgrounds in this part of West Virginia... we were extremely lucky to get one of the pads in the tent area for one night (we got the last one, and it was only available for a single night). The tent area was... very different. It's a large grassy area with the pads very close to each other (maybe 30 feet?), with nothing in between - absolutely nothing. Now, many of the sites were being used by groups of young folks for whom that closeness probably felt like a big slumber party, but for us (used to camping in NPS campgrounds) it was a little uncomfortable. We had a hard time having a fireside conversation after dinner because it was impossible to not basically just follow along the somewhat loud conversation of the two motorcycle dudes right next to us. I know that makes me sound like a fuddy-duddy, but it just isn't the experience I was used to when camping. Also, one of the tent groups further down was flying a drone around, too, checking out everyone, which was very distracting. The tent area was very open and exposed and I would think would be danged hot in the summer - but I'm sure this is mecca for the rock climbers who come to Seneca Rocks, which was beautiful and in plain sight of the tent area. That's really what this area felt like, a climber's camp.

We had a helluva time finding the path to the village, but we did (it's on the right, toward the Rocks) and it passes a rather cool old graveyard that's worth a look.

The hosts were friendly but a bit harried. Firewood available for a fee. There were no envelopes to add the extra night we wanted to, so I just wrote a check and clipped it to the post. That worked.

So, all that said, I would indeed return to this campground, but I'd probably work pretty hard to make sure I got a reserved site in the A or B loops (as a tent) or the C loop if I was an RV that needed hookups. There is NO cell coverage.

We tented here on what turned out to be a couple of rainy-ish and cold days in October. We pulled in and while the RV (hookup) area was about half full, the tent area (which allowed RVs, just doesn't have hookups) only had two other sites taken. I think the entire time we were there the peak was three campers. Firewood is available.

We set up our camp, hiked the falls, which is a pleasant enough mosey from the campground, and had a lovely and quiet dinner and fire in the nearly-empty campground. The next day was rainy, which turned out not to be a problem because of the lodge! We headed over for breakfast (the buffet was acceptable, but not great) and spent the morning in the large common area full of couches and chairs... and very slow WiFi (but better than none!). By lunchtime we decided to try a hike in the rain and had a fine walk on the trails in and around some of the cabins near the lodge. Trails were well blazed. We passed No. People.

Temps fell well below freezing overnight (the rain drops froze on the tent) but we had no problems and it was very quiet and pleasant. The bathroom was large, heated, had a power outlet I took over, and had at least 4-5 hot showers which were free to campers! A whisper of a cell signal available near the check-in cabin: enough to send a standard (short) text, but not enough for a long one that turns into an MMS message (those failed, but the short ones did get out).

I think the experience might be totally different on a crowded summer weekend, but at this time, with the leaves turning, it was beautiful and quiet and we had a very nice visit.

We stayed here during a two-week "airplane camping" trip. That means we are Westerners currently living in the East, so at least once a year we pack four huge duffle bags of gear, fly west, make a big Walmart run, and head to the hills (or desert, or whatever). Frequently our trips surround Labor Day and we have to stay put over the long weekend to make sure we have a place to stay. Because of that, we stayed quite a while at Colonial Creek, and saw it nearly empty when we got there to totally full over the weekend.

As reviewed before, there are two loops on either side of the highway, and take note that although there are signs and plenty of warning for drivers, there is NO crosswalk on the road and cars do come barreling down the hill from the west side.

When we stayed, Labor Day 2018, the south loop was completely reservable and had the nicer campsites (both drive-up and walk-in); the north loop was entirely first-come, first-served and had completely acceptable campsites. We stayed in the north loop #33.

NPS and the forest service is starting to play around with keeping some of these CGs open slightly later in the season (thanks, I guess, to global warming), so this loop was scheduled to close the Tuesday after Labor day, with the south loop switching to first-come at that time and staying open a week or so longer.

The north sites are big enough: what we've come to expect from an NPS CG, rather than the FS CGs that can be a bit... intimate. The CG in general wasn't the nicest NPS one we've stayed in by far, but the toilets flushed, there was running water and the lights in the bathrooms worked. Water was available at enough sites through the CG. The host was there, but functionally non-existent, which was a problem: there was a complete campfire ban in place and the site two down from us kept starting campfires. In truth, the local conditions weren't dangerous for fires and they had a lot of kids with them and I know kids love the campfire, so we didn't say anything to them directly, but it kind of burned me up (so to speak) that everyone else in both loops was obeying the ban but no one official was patrolling (EVER) to say anything to them.

Lake Diablo is lovely and there are plenty of hikes within driving distance to keep you busy. Because some of the hikes were SO nutso crowded because of Labor Day (or frighteningly, maybe all weekends here are like that), we were ready to head out by day 5. If we'd had a boat to play in the lake (which was already quite cold) we might have felt differently.

As stated before, no Verizon cell service at all: you have to go to Newhalem for that. The store at Newhalem feels like a "company" store for the power plant workers, and has less available than most supply stores in camping areas, but you'll be able to get basic essentials.