Beautiful campsite and lake. We really enjoyed camping here. Our campsite was huge! We were able to tie up our two dogs and they had plenty of room to wander around. We also tied up two hammocks and there was plenty of shade which was amazing in the afternoon.

There are some things I wish I knew before we went. We had site 69 and it was quite far from any restrooms. The restrooms were probably the worst at any campground I’ve been to that costs as much as Crystal Mountain Rec. There is no running water to wash your hands either. We were quite far from the lake so one person would do drop off and drive the car back to the campsite and walk. This was fine but just good to know.

There is no potable water, just a hand pump for water that you can boil for cooking and for washing dishes. Thankfully the store does sell drinking water.

Also, there were four huge dumpsters that were stuffed full with trash. One of them had a little bit of room and it was hard to open because of how full it was.

You must wear life jackets on the lake, which is fine but an important detail!

The road to Bailey is long and very, very bumpy. Best to plan ahead and make sure you have everything so you don’t have to make any extra trips.

One of the rangers was a recent transplant from Minnesota and we were struck by how sweet and helpful she was!

We hope to return again soon!