Flat Rocks Campground - Pike National Forest

We headed into the National Forest to camp this weekend. We knew not where we were going to stay but had a map with some campgrounds on it and were keeping an eye out for boon-dock locations. We tried one campground and a National Parks employee said they were full but 5 miles away we could go to Flat Rocks Campground which he had been at a half hour before and it was half empty. So we headed off. The road to get there was dirt and although flat had the bumps that sometimes develop in a dirt road from lots of travel. It was rough going so we went slow. But we ended up with our choice of beautiful well spaced campsites. As reported it was probably less than half full so there was no one around us. Even if it had been completely full the sites were very well spaced. Lots of room between most of them and quite a few were very isolated.

Our site.




The picnic table and fire ring were down the hill a bit. Below, I'm sitting on the picnic bench and taking a picture of the RV back up the hill.


We were surrounded by forest views. The next three pics are of the views from the picnic table.






On the way to the campground there were many boon-dock locations but they were already occupied. The area had tons of trails for off-road vehicles so is popular with the motorized crowd.

In the evening we went for a nice long hike as the moon was bright and full. This was my favorite part of the trip.

During the day we headed off on semi-paths through the forest. These weren't really paths, just drainage ditches so petered out after a while. The official trails were all for the off road vehicles so were deep sand and gravel which was very dusty. As beautiful as the forest was, I wouldn't return to this location. There weren't any non-motorized trails that we could find.

Funnily only two sites in the campground were occupied by the motorized set. The rest were just campers. I'm guessing it was mostly empty due to the large number of free boon-dock sites. The campground was $15.

Walking the campground road.




Max and Blossom exploring a valley/meadow in the forest.


Sunshine ready to head down the trail.