Harbor Bay Camp

I tried to camp here but after an hour or so I saw too many suspicious cars driving around, possibly even a drug deal. The surrounding area is not very welcoming, it’s a rough town and I would not chance camping at the local hangout.

My husband and I work from the road and need good, strong internet in order to do our jobs, so a place without internet simply isn't going to work for us. Even with our booster on, we could barely manage to send a text. Without the booster on, there was no usable internet (1x extended) or any internet at all on any of our carriers (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint).

That aside, this wasn't a bad place. The road down into it is basically about the width of 1.5 vehicles, and it's also windy so you can't see around corners, and there's trees growing up and arching over so that further blocks your view. I said to my husband, "I really, really hope there's no Class A coming up this hill right now." It's not a very long stretch of road, but I will say it's scary because if you do meet someone, you better hope they're driving a Smart Car or you're not going to be able to pass each other.

The area itself is pretty; I also give high marks for having trash cans throughout to throw trash away, plus lots of walking paths you can take, plus vault toilets everywhere. There's also three boat launch spots. During the summertime when this place is really busy, I think the traffic must be a nightmare because the roads are so narrow; also, there are a few places that look like spots you're supposed to park (covered picnic tables and charcoal BBQ grills at each of them) but those sites aren't particularly level, sooooooo...I'm not sure what the planners were thinking there. Also, there aren't a whole lot of them (I saw three total).

We ended up staying at the far end of one of the parking lots so we could be sure to be out of the way and make it somewhat easy to be level. We saw deer walking through, and the brilliant red dirt and blue of the lake were pretty.

If you do decide to stay here, Fritch (the town) is only about five minutes away and there, Verizon bounces back and forth between 3G and LTE; AT&T has 4G-LTE. So town is an option. We like internet in our camper itself, plus parking on a parking lot when it wasn't clearly defined as being a place we could stay made us nervous. There are dirt roads down into the area in front of the lake where it looks like dispersed camping could happen, so you could conceivably pack a lot of people in there if you'd like.