Doctor Creek Campground

Doctor Creek campground is located in an Alpine setting overlooking Fish lake. In late June, early July the daily high temps were in the mid 70's and nightly lows were in the mid 40's. This place was as quiet as you can get. Hiking and fishing are the major things to do.

“Whoa that lake looks just like a fish!” one of my boys says, looking at a body of water on a map, “I bet that’s why they call it Fish Lake!”

“Or maybe it’s called that because it’s full of fish!” another chimes in.

“No,” he thinks twice, “then all lakes would be called Fish Lake.”

I can’t disagree with any of that logic, nor can I disagree that sleeping in an aspen grove which sprung up from the very same roots that have consistently persisted to clone themselves for 60,000 or more years, making this the oldest and largest living thing on the planet, is in any way a bad thing. In fact, I’d say that even with all of Utah’s national parks, millennia-old bristlecones and beautiful geological absurdities, this ancient aspen grove by the name of Pando is absolutely the most wonderful thing about the state.

That it’s located on a pristine lake, has very little trash and enough cell service to look up info on our next destination and check some email, makes it all the better. My only complaint is with Amy, who claims she loves Jake and that their love is 4-evah. It’s not that I doubt Amy’s love and devotion to her young romance, but in all reality their youthful fling will never live as long as the aspen she chose to carve this inscription into, let alone the tens of thousands of years it took for this tree to get here in the first place.

So please, get a tattoo, pay a sky writer or send a scandalous selfie, but keep your love notes off the bark.

By the time I camped here in mid September, the campground was first come, first serve. Loved my time here with hiking and mountain biking trails from the campground. The cell service is a little sketchy but you can drive a mile back up the road to get 2-3 bars on Verizon and AT&T. Not an inconvenience for me, but for someone working remotely may not be the best situation. I paid $7.50 because a friend traveling with me has a Seniors pass but even at $15.00 I would recommend it. Has flush toilets but no showers. I think you can get showers at the other campground up the road, but in September it was closed.

Discovered this place by accident. Stayed over Memorial Day. Large clean sites, half reservable half FC. Water and clean rest rooms. Dump station $10 not included in stay. 3 other CG’s along the lake.
Stopped in Loa where there is a grocery store and forest ranger station. Picked up a map of the lake and all the trails.
Lots to do including multiple hikes around the entire lake. Others included Crater lake and The High Road. My biking, road biking, kayaking, fishing, 4 wheeling.
Two beaver dams on the lake one on each shore. Saw Osprey fishing and their nest on the second bench hike.
Got busy during Memorial Day but there were still sites available.
Lots of free camping at the end of the lake near this CG not on Campendium.
We had decent cell service with our booster until it got busy.

Originally reserved campsite 27, but switched to 21. Sites near the lake are smaller, have less flat area for tents, and very open with little shade. Site 21 was perfect for tent camping — large, good shade most of the day, nice flat pad for our tent (not all sites had that), close to drinking water spigot, trees for the hammock, and easy access to the lake trail. The only thing that wasn’t close was the toilet, but it was an easy walk. Fish Lake has lots of hiking and fishing opportunities. Also, it’s at a higher elevation so it’s cooler in hot summer months (water iced over in the dog bowl one night during our early June stay). Cell signal (T-Mobile) is good from the summit before you get to Fish Lake (pull over at the turnout for the road that starts with an “M” right after the summit when coming from Fish Lake). If you need anything, the grocery store in Loa is a good place to go. Be sure to check out the trout sanctuary at Twin Creek! Good trout fishing along Fremont River above Mill Meadow reservoir.

We had reserved #11, and before we arrived (after a TON of research and finding an obscure campground map) we found the map on recreation.gov is inaccurate. When we arrived, #11 was a total no-go for us - way too short! It wasn't even shown on the right side of the road!

Fortunately #9 was FCFS and open, so we took that one instead. The camp host took care of things for us and we spent 9 wonderful nights at this beautiful place. We are 68' long connected with our 45' fifth wheel toyhauler and Freightliner. We hung out the back of #9, but had a great view of the lake from our ramp/deck. We went hiking 5 times, and saw deer every day. You can access the Lakeshore trail from the campground and go north or south, both worthwhile. The Doctor Creek trail crosses the road and climbs - consistently - until you've gained over 1000' and find yourself in a meadow next to a dirt road. The Lakeshore trail to the Overlook is beautiful, but if you decide to take the road back instead of the steep trail, be aware it's over 9 miles! Maybe 3 miles back down the trail isn't such a bad idea.

As full-timers we have an arsenal of cellular providers, and our experience was the T-Mobile (data only) was workable but painfully slow, Verizon (cell + a little data) could get texts no problem and phone calls too, and I could look up the weather and use other apps if I stood in a certain place in the coach. AT&T (data only) pretty useless. That was UNTIL everyone started to arrive in the area for Labor Day weekend. Then we had nada, zilch, nothing! I even got up at 3 am a couple nights to take care of some critical stuff, and that worked, but still painfully slow. After everyone left, it was back to the previous mid-week experience. We don't get "bars" on our data service, but T-Mobile was running at -114 dBm at best, while AT&T was -122 dBm, basically unusable. Verizon at 2 bars if I stood in the right place was about -111 dBm.

We absolutely loved our time here. Even when the campground was full we didn't feel crowded. We hope to be able to return some day. You can get paper maps of the area and the campgrounds at the Lakeside Resort just up the road and across the street, an easy walk of about 1/2 mile.

Stunning views across the lake, hiked along the famed aspen grove. Although the camp was full the distance between sites provided a private feeling. Campfires ok, very quiet. Our spot backed in with a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Would stay here again.

We grabbed one of the first come, first served sites. Having never been to Fish Lake before, we didn't know what to expect when we arrived. The views are unreal. The campground is a loop in an aspen grove. A few tent campers, some shorter trailers and a few sites able to accommodate larger rigs - my trailer is 30', had plenty of room for the truck too. The camp hosts were friendly and helpful. I did not see any sites with hookups, but there is a dump station with fresh water - $10 fee, just outside of the campground. The sites are fairly spread out and other than the occasional pedestrian walking by and geese in the background, the campground was quiet. We really enjoyed our short stay here and already have plans to return to do some fishing.

I've seen worse when it comes to tight parks. The drive thru the campground is no challenge. There are a few sites that are at bad angles to the road or kind of dug into the hill and wouldn't accommodate much over 20 feet. Just as many would work for equipment our size. Higher numbered sites are on the top of the hill while lower numbered sites are at the base and probably best for large rigs and have less tree sprouts. Nothing is really lake front. Some are closer to what they've signed as the slough (marsh). My internet was workable and we got about 2 dozen TV channels with just the antenna.

As you approach the right turn lane for this campground you'll see the Lakeside Resort on your left. They have 24 sites that offer full hookups if you want to take it up a notch at twice the price.

We came in from Cedar City to the south. The route was I-15N to I-70E to 119 to 24 then 25. Our reservation indicated directions only from 24 to 25 so I chose to avoid 62 given the current price of diesel. Rte 119 for about 10 miles and less so rte 25 was the only hard work for the truck. If you're going rte 62 some great campsites and a dump at Otter Creek Campground and BLM free camping right around the corner from that off rte 62.

I knocked off one star for the fresh water misrepresentation. When you say fresh water is "available" at a few locations around the campground I naturally assume it's not going to be something I can attach a hose to and fill my tanks, and that was the case in the campground. You just have a few faucets. When you say fresh water is "available" at the dump location I naturally assume you mean I can pull up and attach a hose and fill my tanks. Not the case. I paid my $10, dumped, pulled forward to access the fresh water fill only to find a hose with no end hardware that would allow me to connect to my fresh water tank fill fixture. We had to use our country fill option and dump water into a cooler and then pump it out into my fresh water tank. A 40 minute delay. Had I picked up on this moronic claim of fresh water "available" at the dump before paying I would have only put $5 in the dump payment envelope and a very precise note about how and when the additional $5 would be made "available".