West Magnolia Designated Dispersed Campsites

This spot is Gorgeous, no doubt about it, absolutely beautiful!
However, getting to it our breaks were smoking getting down the mountain. I mean literally smoking, we had to wait a while with no signal to look up if that’s a dire emergency or not. That was the first no no. Second was getting up the hills to get there was rough with our camper. Our truck was struggling, our breaks struggling and we were all tense. The third thing was the bumps. Once you get near the spot it turns into gravel road and then there are large bumps to drive over. Seemed ok at first but we scraped our hitch and bent one of our stabilizer on the camper. And FINAL thing is there were 0 spots. Every spot was taken and once we found that out, we realized we’d have to go down the mountain again with smoking breaks.

However, if you are tent camping, or have a very small camper, this might work if you happen to find an open spot. This site was absolutely stunning! The pictures here don’t do it justice.

CR 132 was being grated and worked on when we drove through a couple times, so it's in good condition. Driving around to find a campsite, some roads are better than others - we had to turn around in one spot, and back up quite a distance with the trailer in another (not fun). But, we saw a moose! Some regular campers, and some that look like they've spent more than two weeks there. Campsites are spread far apart, some in open sun and some shade, lots of wildflowers. Easy access to Nederland and lots of hikes close by. We would have stayed if a spot opened up.

I stayed here from 9/11-9/22. I arrived on a Thursday and it was difficult to find a spot. The road in is bumpy, but super easy with 4x4. Site 6 is not a pull through. I learned the hard way. After dodging a bunch of tree stumps, I was finally able to get my girl "Gloria" backed in there. I took one star off because, though I don't mind it much, there's A LOT of motorcycle traffic. So the noise level wasn't as peaceful as I would prefer. I could definitely hear people talking, fighting, and playing, music at the other sites. Due to the terrain, everything echoes. I can't tell if there are still transients living there, but the Ranger went by several times so I assume they're legit. There were times that people drove through (after 8pm-1am), where they would linger and slow down or stop to check out my site. I would simply hit my car lock, or throw on my exterior light to let any possible perps know that I was there and awake. It is a high bear activity area. However, I didn't see any evidence of that. I, of course, still took the proper precautions. Dogs are welcome there. All the ones that passed by us off leash were all very well behaved and friendly. There are LOTS of squirrels for dogs to chase. I didn't hike much due to my disabilities, but there are tons of trails there. The ones I DID walk, were well kept and clear. Albeit the smoke 3 days in, that lasted for about a week, I watched some incredible sunsets and Site 6 is perfect for it. You will need sunshade if you're not able to get further back into the tree cover. Looking at the Site, if you stay to the left and go up the small hill, there's an epic tent camping spot, perfect for night photography. I was able to see the Milky Way.
It didn't seem like the folks who camped there before me, took Leave No Trace into consideration. I picked up a lot of cigarette butts, glass, a key, bottle tops, and a huge pile of giant dog shit. Oh and a pillow (?). Don't worry I DO follow LNT guidelines, so I dumped it when I got back to town. It was beautiful weather, besides the day I got there where it was cold, rainy and hella windy. Otherwise it was easily in the low 80's during the day, considering cloud cover, and chilly at night in the low 50's. Once the sun goes down the noise does too. It was so quiet at times that I could hear the wind going through the crows wings as they flew to go roost for the night. There is a fire ban, however there's plenty of wood to gather. Lots of down trees, and branches on the ground. By the time I left on the 22nd, the aspens were just starting to turn color. Beautiful drive out.

This campground has the highest land area to campsite ratio I've seen. ~15 sites.
The roads that thread through the campground is wide enough for one vehicle and gets bumpy. I kept my forester in 1st gear 95% of time. A standard, factory forester. There are enough turn offs to pass one another, but sometimes someone just has to back up.
Nederland is a nice place and close enough to make a trip there and back not a big deal.
I shopped the grocery deli for my food. A BBQ sandwich with potatoes was $17.

Absolutely beautiful location close to town - managed alright in a Sprinter 2500 170wb on the roads but would not do anything larger.

It unfortunately looks like most people here are permanent residents in large RVs. Tried over several days (only 15 available) to find a legal spot here but couldn’t.

It’s very clean and didn’t get a sketchy vibe from it - looks like they’ve done a good job maintaining it.

Would probably try again if we were here in the future - worth a look if you need a place to stay.

Gorgeous area and one of the only with reception. HUGE homeless and trash problem. When i got to my site i FILLED a large trash bag with garbage left from the last homeless encampment. Trash EVERYWHERE; mattresses, flattened tents, clothing, cans, bottles, batteries, anything you could imagine. Its obvious that homeless people setup here for the summer and just walk away when it gets cold leaving their entire camp to rot. This was confirmed by a forest service woman that stopped by to clean a bit. I think they are working on the issue as rangers and forest service drive through daily, but they were very nice and great for safety enforcement.
The natural area is beautiful and there is a ton of wildlife. Theres a moose family living the area which walked through my camp daily, also saw some elk on the road. Great views and trails around.
Would absolutely stay here again despite the trash. I hope they keep cleaning up the area, and i hope the homeless arent disturbing in the summer months.