Stanley Lake Lagoon Dispersed Camping

Lots and lots of places to camp along these forest roads just shy of Stanley Lake. Some go pretty deep into the trees, while others are out in the open. All area heavily used during peak season, but 80% empty come mid September

No cell signal

Have visited the lake many times, first time we camped near here. In early June it was not too crowded, but I'd not try it in peak season because it's packed. Several sites, some very large and level with super easy access even for the largest rigs. Some have great views and most have shade.

I stayed here 5 nights in mid-July. There are several turn-outs for dispersed camping along the road to Stanley Lake. Some are in forest, some are in open areas. I stayed in the last dispersed area on the left, right before the campground, Forest Road 640, which forks; there are maybe a dozen or so sites along each fork. The road is dirt, not gravel. The left fork ends at an old dam on the Stanley Lake outlet. It's suitable for putting in a kayak or SUP. The right fork ends in a small loop, which was quite congested with campers through the weekend. In mid-week quite a few sites were vacant but the area completely filled up by Friday afternoon, as did all the other dispersed sites along Stanley Lake road. That made it very crowded and noisy in the areas where camp sites are close together. There was a lot of traffic through this dispersed area, with people heading out to the lake, etc. I observed very little trash, so thank you to folks who pack it out!

I was pulling a 20 ft travel trailer. I think more than 30ft might be difficult; many trees along this road have been scraped by trailers. The road is somewhat bumpy in spots, but going slow works. The area is mostly in forest, but has some openings with sun. There is ample down deadwood for a camp fire -- please drown your fire when you're done! Many sites have partial view of Mt McGown through the trees. Some of the sites are very close together (too close for my liking) but there are a few that are 30-60 yds from other sites. My closest neighbor was 60 yds. A few of the sites are large enough to accommodate multiple vehicles/RVs, while some are just tent sized. I had a nice site with a little shade near the turnoff from the main road. I had a partial view of mtns through trees. It was about 1/2 mile walk to the lake overlook, 1 mile to the day use area and trailhead.

Overall, I enjoyed staying here and would consider staying again, if I'm in the area.

Lovely spot, especially if you drive in beyond the first 200 yards, where there are fewer people.
The challenge is that the ATV folks tend to come in droves on the weekend and it gets loud.

Stay to the right on to FR-638 (signed) when entering this area if you have a larger rig. The forest road straight ahead (FR-630 Dry Creek) gets really small, really fast.

This area has excellent wide open spaces for both solar and Starlink. We weren't able to get any cell service in this area on any provider.

We were there early in the season and there were two other rigs however, because of easy access, this is probably one of the first areas of all the forest roads in the Stanley Lake area to fill up during the busy season.

There is a loop to turn around at the end of the big rig accessible area. It is just before a large pile of brush, burned logs and pallets. I wouldn't recommend going past this point with a larger rig as the road becomes pretty narrow and rough with low hanging branches. A van or pop up truck camper may be able to go back a bit further.

We arrive close to sundown. The disbursed camping is on a dirt road of course, but is pretty easily navigated. We did get enough signal with our WeBoost to surf the web and very choppy video. (Verizon is our carrier.)

Such a beautiful area. We found many big enough for us. We chose our spot in the open so the trees wouldn't block our view.