I only camp in Wisconsin right now. There is one Forest I go to that has what I want nature wise and I feel comfortable there as a single camper. One spring before the trees and ground foliage leaved out, I walked around and took pictures of most of the campsites with the # in the pic so I could remember what things looked like. Sometimes I do the non-reservable thing and show up on Sunday to get a site, and sometimes I do the reserve thing and spend the $9 because the campground fills up on some weekends that might be the only time I can camp.

I have experienced the smelly bathroom thing(Smell it from my campsite), loud neighbors (there is also the 6th grade girl party camp out…oh lord!), too many lights next door, showers closed because not enough staff, and banging doors on pit toilets and the techno light display in the middle of the night! During my last trip the people in the next campsite didn’t show up at their campsite one night for some reason (rain!) and had left out a lot of food (in crinkly wrappers). The night critters had a feast that night (2am-ish) and ran around the area hollering to each other about their good fortune, dragging those crinkly wrappings through the underbrush.

Once, camping with family in Yellowstone, we reserved a site that turned out to be a cleared field, with a buffalo trail running through our campsite. We didn’t know that’s what it was and pitched our tent over it. Beside the tent was a big circular wallow type of thing… Come sundown, here comes the buffalo who manages to not rundown the tent, flops in his/her big wallow thing, rolls over on his/her back and rubs around like a cat in the garden. One of the kids slept in the Suburban that night. The rest of us(6) went for the tent. Did you know buffalos are pretty stinky? He/she was gone in the morning, but it was a little strange that Yellowstone would offer that spot as a campsite since they give you a paper as you come in about how dangerous the buffalos are. We were suppose to be there for 3 nights. We packed up and left the next morning and passed on the site fee. Wasn’t worth the hassle.

If I am going to camp in a campground I don’t know, I would consider where the roads are (don’t want to hear cars), and how close I am to the next site…probably my biggest concerns.