Coldbrook Campground

It’s a beautiful campground. Very small, and first come, first serve, so get there early. The brook is freezing, but clean and fresh.

Also, BEARS. We went on Labor Day weekend and saw bears both nights. We left our ice chest for about 15 mins to go for a walk at dusk, and came back to a very large bear going through it. He wasn’t aggressive, but also wasn’t scared of us at all. Our site butted against the mountain and he slowly made his way up and hung out for a bit. Our neighbors had a gun to try and scare him away, but he didn’t flinch. Eventually he got sick of us bothering him and he went on his way. Even tho we packed our stuff away very tight, he still came back through our site in the middle of the night and caused some damage.

On night 2 We heard sites around us trying to scare another one off. Lots of yelling, flashing lights, or honking horns. Again, these bears did not seem aggressive—they really only wanted food. BUT they were not scared of people at all, so just be prepared to see them. Bring bear spray. And be smart with putting all food away at night. Like locked in an ice chest, in a car away. They still may come to your site, especially if you cooked, but if they can’t find anything, they’ll be on their way.

Oh and we briefly saw the host, but they never warned anyone about bear sightings or checked in after it was clear multiple sites were trying to scare them off. Not sure if that’s their job, but it would have been a nice gesture. I’m sure these bears frequent this area.

Oh and bugs. Be very prepared with bug spray, and a place to escape at night. There were lots of them. We brought an easy up/bug net but the bear broke it the first night trying to get to our kitchen.

Also be prepared for cold/wet. The elevation is somewhat high and you’re in a mountain so often times it’ll just starts drizzling or everything gets wet because you’re in a cloud.

Dang I love this place. What makes this place so special is that there a all year round flowing creek shaded with Elms and so much foliage and special plants. The campgrounds however are very close to each other, so yes, no privacy or immune to not so quiet campers. It’s a small number of campgrounds with 3 loops. And the other down side is that during the nights, you will hear cars racing up and down. But, if you go the very back loop, it certainly helps with the noise.

It is first come first serve, so definitely plan when no holidays or during the summer for sure.

Here is my dilemma though. Sadly most people who come here much like other areas that have water, there is so much trash everywhere including in the creeks. Which means, it’s a constant place for Bear encounters which I personally experienced having one bear actually walking up in my sleep and pull at my hair. I’m not one to panico but clearly the bears here are so used to humans leaving foods out and NOT secure. I DO NOT leave any of my foods out and are secured in my vehicle. Which means this bear was Way to darn curious as to why I sleep on the ground in the open. Oh, a tent won’t stop a bear if you leave foods out exposed near you or in your tents.