Bear River Group Campground

Beautiful place in the summer. I totally want to go back in the winter when it's snowing and snowmobiling is in...

We had about 20 people at our campsite. Plenty of room. Tables and water spigots to rinse off dishes and feet and little kids too were provided at our site, very helpful.

We also had our own small amphitheatre/firepit with lots of benches to sit around it I would guess about 30 people would be comfortable sitting around it. Although no fires were allowed due to Californians most recent droughts and wildfires.

REMEMBER; Non potable water comes from the spigots. All drinking and cooking water must be brought in... Non potable means you can't drink it.

Vault toliets- That means= Outhouse! Bigger and nicer than most but it still doesn't flush!

Firepits are there, but in drought conditions we pretended they weren't there. We had fire rings for s'mores & such.

Each different campsites comes with an Attendant to report problems, they pick up garbage & replace TP in those vaults. Basically the manager at each campsite to reduce issues. Ours was a really cool guy named Steve.

The lake itself is gorgeous, fairly empty and looks a lot like Tahoe with the humungous boulders.

While we were there the boat launches were a nightmare due to the low water levels in the lake. Although the lake was still absolutely beautiful for swimming, snorkeling, paddleboarding, fishing and a million other activities you can think of.

Also the stargazing is amazing the night skies are beyond stunning the elevation is high enough and its dark enough to really enjoy that too!

It is a very beautiful and tranquil campground. It is called "group" because you are allowed more people but parking is limited at each campsite and nearby parking lots are fairly close.

You could walk around and still not see or hear other people at nearby sites... Very tranquil.

Beautiful beautiful place to spend a couple of days at in a tent. If you're looking to stay longer I would definitely recommend being a RV owner or renting one. As the campsite location that we stayed at only offered one outhouse. Which means non-flushable man hole and no sink for washing hands. Surfer looking for that true rugged tent camping lifestyle here's the place to be. From the campsite they were at we're probably about 15 minutes from the actual Bear Lake resort campground which offers a lot of amenities in their little neighboring area. In back of our camp site was a little creek that we walked down to and enjoyed the beautiful view for a couple of hours while panting for Gould. The weather was beautiful during the day it did drop down to low 50s in the night. Lots of beautiful wildlife we saw squirrels, two deer, and plenty of birds flying around the night view of the stars was just amazing. Going down to the lake was just an amazing view lots of people out enjoying the water their boats and other fun festivities over the Fourth of July weekend. For sure a grand time while we were there.

The Bear River Reservoir is a 5-10 min drive from the Bear River Group Campsite. The reservoir is a beautiful and pristine alpine lake setting with lots of boating, swimming, and fishing. Bring a shade structure and inter-tubes to hang out for the day on the lake. The water is cold but slightly warmer than Tahoe. The Group Campground has four campsites. We stayed in Smokey, a 25 person capacity site, which is the closest to the car parking. You can drive to the campsite and you have 15 minutes to unload (the 15 mins is not strictly enforced). Then you park your car at the parking lot near the entrance. We could easily walk to our car from the campsite. We had three families with young children, total of 13 people. We had plenty of room and the kids could safely run around and explore. The campsite had great infrastructure: a long tall table for cooking, 4 grills, a large campfire with benches around it (we still used our camp chairs which were more comfy and could get closer to the fire), and several picnic tables. Quiet hours are 10pm-8am, also not strictly enforced. The campground host is great and very friendly. We camped 8/4-8/7 2016.

We loved everything about the campsite except for two things:

1) There are only pit toilets. No showers or sinks. There are several water spigots with good drinking water, but expect to be dirty. Campsite is pretty dusty too.

2) Crazy amount of yellow jackets. I understand this is common for Eldorado National Forest. We heard that this is a particularly bad year for them. I don't know if they are seasonal or not. They love meat, but really anytime you brought out food of any kind you were swarmed. It was pretty rough. Two people in our group got stung. The good news is that they are completely gone after the sun goes down (but are back with first light - you will actually wake to their buzzing). If you plan on doing outside cooking, you really need some sort of easy up with netting all around it. We ended up cooking dinner around 8:30pm and just eating late. We would pack up lunch food and then eat near the lake where it was slightly better, but we would sometimes eat in our cars to avoid the yellow jackets. For breakfast, I would recommend cereal or dry goods. If you want bacon, make it the night before and heat quickly in the morning.

We spent most of our time swimming at the lake. One day we rented a small motor boat ($90 for 4 hours) from the Bear River Resort and took turns checking out the lake which was fun. The Bear River Resort also has a small general store and a restaurant (on weekends only). Besides that, there is a Chinese food place called Le's Chinese Food 30 minutes back down the hill on 88, which is very good, or a pizza place another 15 minutes past that. Otherwise, there are no places for eating out.

If yellow jackets are better (or gone) at other times of the year, we would go here again. If yellow jackets are ever present I would probably pass or camp in an RV.