Indian Well Campground

The campground is mostly for tents, but we were able to cram our 30' fifth wheel into site B7. The sites are parallel to the road.
That being said, go here!!
This is a gem of a park in Northeast California. Lava Beds National Monument is an amazing place. On the surface it's pretty desolate, not much to look at. But look deeper and there are the most amazing Lava tube caves! I will leave the history and geology for you to explore, but it's a pretty awesome place to visit.
We had a blast spelunking in the caves. Day one we did four amazing caves, Sentinel, Sunshine, Golden Dome, and Mushpot. The caves are refreshingly cold inside🥶. Turn off your flash light and it is beyond pitch black 😳😳 you can borrow flashlights at the visitor center for no charge. I highly recommend this since they are better than anything we had.

Yes much of the area was burned in recent wildfires but there is still beauty here. There were many unburned juniper trees in the campground itself. Stars were bright in a mostly dark sky. Bathrooms clean, but just a toilet and sink, no soap, no way to dry hands. This campground caters mostly to tent campers. I saw one or two larger sites where someone was a parking genius with their approximately 25-foot trailer. Many of the sites are such that you park parallel to the road. We had to turn around and face the wrong way in order to get our truck camper level (well yes we didn't have our chocks!). There were a few double sites and a large group site. Big ding for the group site being right next to the other sites so their noise echoes throughout the campground. The monument itself is a fascinating area of geological wonder and if you love caves this will be heaven. Don't miss Mammoth Crater. US Cellular had 1-2 bars, LTE for internet.

Nice quite campground. But as other have mentioned it is set up more for tent campers than RV's. We have a 27' trailer and pickup so it was a bit of a struggle finding a spot for our rig. We had to pay for two sites but being as we use our senior NP pass it was only $5 a day for each site. We were in B8 and B9 and it worked out well. And we had to come in the wrong way on the one way road to have our doors toward the campsite. The restrooms are spotless and have flush toilets and running water. No soap or paper towels. The area is quite as the mummy's tomb at nigh with amazing stars. As of late June 2022 campfires are allowed. For the mobility challenged the park service is redoing the handicap sites for easier access with raised tent pads and concrete walkways(?) all around the site for wheelchair campers. They are also close to the restrooms. We spent a day and a half caving and seeing the sites and enjoyed the activity. One word of caution. One of the caves deemed "easy" , the Painted cave is not. Long hike (by my standards) and steep not well marked decent into the cave. Honest if you fell the lave rock would tear you to pieces. The others we tried were very easy and accessible. Mush Pot. Skull and Valentine. We enjoyed or time there and would do it again. This is a great place for families but the caves are not wheel chair accessible and have steep stairs down into them. Beware.

This was an awesome campground for ten bucks. They have a self pay station at the front and two loops of campsites. All sites had a table and fire ring. This was perfect after spending more time than expected exploring the lava bed caves! The bathroom was clean and had running water. We arrived around 10:30pm on a weeknight and had no issues finding a spot. Beautiful night sky view for star gazing!

Lava Beds is a great national monument. Indian Well campground is on a hill but is the only campground in the monument. It is a nice campground. Just know 80,000 acres of this place burned in summer of 2020. Part of the campground also burned but not much. We camped on the little loop at the NW corner of B loop. there were 2 sites on this loop and you might get a 35 footer in these 2 sites but not larger. This is a mostly tent and smaller than 15 or 18 feet RV’s. We saw deer almost everyday in or near the campground. Get here during the week and you most likely will not have a problem finding a site. We actually enjoyed this place more than Yosemite because we hate crowds and loved the lava tubes and the other volcanic stuff at this park. The restrooms are very nice and the water fills are all through the camp. The water here is nice and cold. We could have stayed here and not been bored for a week or more. There is a lot to do and see. We even saw a Pika in a vent off a cave. The caves are at 55 F.

If you've got a big rig, this oddly proportioned campground is not for you. Tent campers in commuter cars will do well, or those with trailers under 23 feet. We joked that whoever laid this out had never set foot in a campground. Most sites come in pairs, with barely enough room for a Subaru. Those with trailers had better hit it on a sparsely populated day like we did as there are only a hand full of possibilities.

The roadway is freshly paved and each site has a suite (or two) of large bear-proof garbage and recycling receptacles which dominate the Juniper landscape. Seriously there must be a hundred of these deluxe models in this small campground. Maybe some one's cousin had a welding business?

The restrooms are newly remodeled, heated with running water which is greatly appreciated on this 32 degree day in late September.

Road access was fine and smooth as we entered from the north along Hill rd. There are several days worth of trails and caves to explore.

We had great internet service at this site and never needed the booster.