AZALEA CG, Kings Canyon NP, CA

Azalea CG, Kings Canyon NP  

RUN BY:   Nat’l Park Service

LOCATION:  36.740795  -118.96813

Last Visit: 4/9/2018

UTILITIES:  None

COST: $18

DISCOUNTS:  50% with Senior Pass

OUR RATING (1-5): Category I. Score 3+

NOTES:  A rather typical National Park campground in a beautiful setting. We did have a nice site. Kings Canyon is something to see and this is probably the most economic way to do it. Many of the roads were still closed due to snow.  We had one day there that we received 2-3” of snow and the night-time temperature dropped to 24. You’re at around 6,540 ft elevation, so it’s still winter in April.

Environment:  Beautiful mountains.  Around 6540 ft elevation.

Amenities:  None

Dump:  Yes

Public Water: Yes 

Toilets: Yes

Showers:  No

Laundry:  No (but available across the road at camp store, etc.)

Phone Service:  none

Nearest Propane: (sorry. No idea)

Location:  We entered the park on State Hwy 180 because that is supposed to be the best and easiest for pulling a trailer.  There was also snow at elevation.

Proximity to shopping:  There is a camp store nearby. For any more you are going to have to go down the mountain to either Squaw Valley on 180 or Three Rivers on State 198.

Camping Population:  Normal NPS population. From everywhere.

Sites:   Typical of NPS. They were nice but NPS campgrounds were not made for anything much bigger than us, and we’re only 20 ft.

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RATING KEY:    category - score 

Categories:  I - established campgrounds where one might spend a vacation or several days

                    II -  boondocking, dry camping where there are no designated sites and no amenities but

                               one might choose to stay for more than a night.

                    III - over-night areas 

You must remember that we are scoring 1 thru 5 according to things which are important to us: the environment, cost, amenities, location, safety, camping population, site, phone service 

* There are people who are not full-timers and van-dwellers by choice. We try hard not to be demeaning or assume that they are bad people but sadly, as you find in the poorer parts of a city, there seems to be more crime. Many call these people van-dwellers. That isn’t really accurate even though they do often live in vans. We know quite a few van-dwellers who have good incomes, are full-timers by choice and prefer a van to other types of vehicles. To try to show some respect for people who have a difficult lot in life, I’m calling them ‘residential campers’.  It is only when you get a high proportion of residential campers in an area that you find an increase in petty theft, etc.