Barton Flats Camping

I was searching for any campsites that accepted reservations off and on for a couple weeks. There wasn't a single thing in Southern California that wasn't "first come first serve" - which we knew we'd have a low chance of getting because we were only going on Saturday and assume most campgrounds would be full.  Finally, on Thursday night, a single campsite was un-reserved and about a 2-hour drive away.

Up in the mountains at 6,300 feet? No Problem. Forecast to drop to 24 degrees at night? Fine, we'll have a roaring fire and sleeping bags. Frequented by bears often? Well, the truck shell seems safer than a nylon tent anyway. So we went for it.

We got there in the afternoon, hiked up to Jenk's lake, came back to start the fire and relaxed camping we were wanting. The temperatures dropped, neighbors got rowdy, the fire kept us warm, it was a mellow camping trip. I tried a used (new to me) lens for my film camera and had some thought-less mistakes with the light sensor for a few of the pictures here, which is why they're really dark. It's always fun to get to use my truck for activities like this and is fairly low setup/maintenance/cleanup when camping out of the shell. Mia's family let us borrow a fold-out table and 2-burner stove, too. We're almost self-sufficient except for the fire pit. Next I want to go into more drive-in deserted locations or a nice beach area.