Moon Lake Recreation Area

If you want to have a gigantic campsite to yourself with little noise from your neighbors, stay at site 1. The campground is mostly set up in a loop of sites with bathrooms in the middle, but if you go down the road to the marina site 1 is to your right. It has large, flat ground with slightly rocky soil so good luck staking down a tent (even on the tent pad). There was little to no outside noise besides the vehicles driving past to get to the marina, and even they stopped as soon as the sun went down. Only downside is that the campground does not have any water spigots or trash disposal, but that's what you get for camping for free. There is plenty of service (a surprising amount for how tucked away the campsite is!) and it was not hard at all to find. A permit is needed, but submitting a request online is not hard and I got my permit within the same day I submitted the request. Overall this is a great campground and I would absolutely stay here again!

Stay for 3 nights in Mid August. Plenty of portapotties, which were cleaned each day by staff. Sites have a picnic table, fire pit with grill top, and a wood chipped area to set our tent up. Moon lake had quite a few visitors while we were there, both camping and fishing at the lake. It was just a short 15-20 minute drive to Ricketts Glenn as well, so we went there one day to hike the waterfalls and hang out at the beach there.

We couldn't believe how wonderful this dry camping site was. Large, flat, and with fire ring and picnic table. We couldn't see or hear any other sites in the area (other sites are closer, but still well dispersed). The entire Moon Lake Recreation Area is well kept. Roads to the sites were in good condition and easy for a large RV / camper to navigate. Lots of tree cover / shade. Good Verizon 4G cell coverage. Nearby lake provides fishing opportunity. A short 20 minute drive from the Rickets Glenn falls hiking trail (no day use fee).

The permit to camp here was very easy to obtain. This place does fill up however and is very active. Forest rangers patrol here regularly and make multiple passes throughout the day. Site 12 was very well kept and had plenty of space.

The sites are a bit close together however, and there is no real privacy but everyone here at the time was respectful of the quiet time hours. There is a fair bit of traffic passing through here during the day though.

The porta-poties were very clean which was surprising, the rangers take very good care of this place.

Im generally not a fan of getting permits to camp places but this site was totally worth it, just make sure you book it a week or so in advance.

The only downside is that if your here when it rains the site is downhill so water will probably run into the site.

I saw some people listing T-Mobile service as non existent but for this particular site it was perfect, no noticeable drop in quality at all.

Had an amazing time. The site was so clean and the portapotties were really well maintained. Each site had a picnic table, tent pad, fire ring, and some had chipped wood available. Wildfire services drove around regularly (maybe because it was Labor Day weekend).

Parking at this site in particular was not even close to level though. Only real downside was sporadic gunshots from (I assume) hunting.

This place at first I thought what the heck did I get into..haha. Because my GPS took me the shortest way. And that way was through a rocky and washed out dirt road. From the last week's rain storm we had in the beginning of September. But when I got through it. Well that is a different story.. nice spots with plenty of distance between camping spots. Overall a nice a peaceful stay... Will definitely stay here again. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

This was a gem of a site! Very large rock/gravel site that also has a tent pad. Includes a fire pit and a picnic table. Our rig is a 33 foot travel trailer with a Ford 250. We fit with plenty of room to spare. We found the easiest way to get in is to continue up the hill, turn around, come back down and back into the site. A smaller rig would probably be able to turn around in the actual site.

There is an access road that leads from the site to the lake, less than 1/4 mile walk. There are plenty of hiking/mountain biking trails. The lake is stocked with trout. We enjoyed paddle boarding on the lake. It was very peaceful!

Note: While free, you do need to register and obtain a permit. If camping on the weekend, get your request in before Thursday. When registering, they will send a link that shows availability, as well as a link to fill out the form.

We were pleasantly surprised by the large sites and distance between them. Our RV is 30’ , we had plenty of space. There is a picnic table, fire ring , tent pad, and plenty of trees to hang our hammock. We were close to the small lake, but the trees blocked any view of it. There are no hookups, but we were able to run our generator. Quiet time is 10pm to 8 am , and all campers were respectful of that. Camp rangers were present and made several rounds through the campsites. There were many mountain bike trails, which we hiked . The lake is perfect for kayaking and fishing. It was pet friendly. There were Port-o-potties scattered throughout as well.