Cold Springs Campground (CA)

Cold Springs was wonderful. The sky's stars were so bright and the air by the spring was quite cool. There were several great hiking options in the area, and the camp's Superintendent Jason, and Ranger Mary were both wonderful to me. I'm grateful to have had a great time at Cold Springs!

Great campground, well situated for the Mineral King trail heads.

Beautiful. Very challenging ride up. No cell service. Awesome.

Difficult drive but worth it.

1. The road condition around Mineral King Station (the last 10-15 miles) was not great. There were lots of potholes and bumps.
2. The path that goes in and around the campground needs a major improvement. If you don't have an SUV vehicle, it gets hard to move.
3. No problem with our designated camping site.

The campground is secluded, well maintained, and close to plenty of trails and wilderness. The sites are decent size, but they are also very close to each other. Even in the midst of a dry summer, the creek was running with cool water.

Site #12 (where I stayed) should be marked as a "walk UP" site. It is literally up a steep hillside from where you park. Everything needs to be hauled up this hill. It's not a trivial annoyance. The bear box for your food storage and the picnic table are not near each other. The picnic table sits higher up the hillside on another level. Any time you need something from the bear box, you need to trudge down and then back up again. If the site had just marked appropriately on this reservation site, I'd have at least known what I was getting into. Sites #12 & #13 are smaller than average, as well.

We used Cold Springs as a jumping off point for a 6 day clockwise loop trip from Mineral King over Timber Gap and returning over Sawtooth Pass. This review is really for the rangers at the Mineral King station who were exceedingly helpful in making necessary adjustments to our wilderness permit, providing useful info in the weeks before the trip regarding the route (water levels and Marmot activity) and even providing jumper cables when we returned and one of our cars would not start. Five stars for the rangers!

.

This campsite is right next to the creek. Lovely sounds to fall asleep to!

This is a BEAUTIFUL campground. It’s extremely lush, has great tree-cover, and running water through it. It’s also conveniently located right next to the MK ranger station for anyone that has to pick up wilderness permits. The only thing I wish I’d known about beforehand was the 21-mile winding, single-lane road to get here. Somehow missed that it wasn’t off of the main park road. Regardless, this campsite was great and was a great place to stay before hiking down to Hockett Meadow for a couple nights.