Stanley Lake Dispersed Camping

I stayed here 5 nights in mid-July. There are several turn-outs for dispersed camping along the road to Stanley Lake. Some are in forest, some are in open areas. I stayed in the last dispersed area on the left, right before the campground, Forest Road 640, which forks; there are maybe a dozen or so sites along each fork. The road is dirt, not gravel. The left fork ends at an old dam on the Stanley Lake outlet. It's suitable for putting in a kayak or SUP. The right fork ends in a small loop, which was quite congested with campers through the weekend. In mid-week quite a few sites were vacant but the area completely filled up by Friday afternoon, as did all the other dispersed sites along Stanley Lake road. That made it very crowded and noisy in the areas where camp sites are close together. There was a lot of traffic through this dispersed area, with people heading out to the lake, etc. I observed very little trash, so thank you to folks who pack it out!

I was pulling a 20 ft travel trailer. I think more than 30ft might be difficult; many trees along this road have been scraped by trailers. The road is somewhat bumpy in spots, but going slow works. The area is mostly in forest, but has some openings with sun. There is ample down deadwood for a camp fire -- please drown your fire when you're done! Many sites have partial view of Mt McGown through the trees. Some of the sites are very close together (too close for my liking) but there are a few that are 30-60 yds from other sites. My closest neighbor was 60 yds. A few of the sites are large enough to accommodate multiple vehicles/RVs, while some are just tent sized. I had a nice site with a little shade near the turnoff from the main road. I had a partial view of mtns through trees. It was about 1/2 mile walk to the lake overlook, 1 mile to the day use area and trailhead.

Overall, I enjoyed staying here and would consider staying again, if I'm in the area.