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Larry Langley’s Happy Camping: Soda Springs

Hello, let me introduce myself: Larry Langley, living in the great little town of North Fork. My wife Sue and I love living in the Sierra Foothills along with our long haired Corgi named Maggie May. I should warn you that Maggie might appear in a lot of our photos. 1. She’s cute. 2. She’s my pal.

My posts will take place in the surrounding area, with North Fork probably the center.

We love to take off and camp up in the high country in our 22-foot motorhome, as well as roaming around on the great back roads. We also have a 2003 Jeep Wrangler 4-wheel drive for some back dirt roads and such. We’re not what you call “hard-core 4-wheelers,” we enjoy what we call jeep roads and two trackers.

Sue and I both love to take pictures and, honestly, Sue is the better photographer, but now and then I manage to take a pretty good pic.

We both enjoy the water so you’ll usually find us camping near a lake, stream or even the ocean. We plan a wide variety of subjects and hope you enjoy them.

Oh yeah, food! I don’t know why food tastes better while camping, but it does.

If you have a great camping food recipe please send it to me! And if you have any suggestions, pro or con, or want to suggest a great place to visit, don’t hesitate to contact me via email at larry.mediaguy@gmail.com.

Soda Springs Campground (USFS)

  • Located off of Mammoth Pool Road 38.5 miles from North Fork in the Sierra National Forest
  • Easy to get to for all vehicles
  • Elevation: 4,700 feet.
  • On the way up you get a view of the devastating French Fire in the summer of 2014. It wiped out thousands of trees but Soda Springs didn’t get damaged.

We camped here last winter before the snow came, which we like to do, and there was only one other unit camping. We set up at the other end of the campground so we wouldn’t disturb each other.

The West Fork of the Chiquito Creek runs through the campground and we love the sound of the water flowing when we snuggle down for the night.

  • Soda Springs offers 16 semi-primitive sites with nice spacing in between
  • Parking is on dirt but it’s fairly level
  • Pit toilets, no flushing
  • No water or electrical hookups
  • Lots of shade with both pine and oaks trees
  • Fire rings
  • Not sure if there is fishing but Mammoth Pool lake is just a short drive away as well as Rock Creek which is stocked

We unhooked the Jeep and began to explore the area. Found a neat waterfall just off the Mammoth Pool Rd that you can’t see from the road. Loved the back dirt roads. Spent a few hours exploring and then headed back to camp to fix dinner.

Daily fees are $26.22 according to the website. The campsite is temporarily closed for hazard tree removal. Sound familiar? If you have the Federal Senior Pass or disabled pass, it will cut the fee in half.

There are a number of other USFS campgrounds in the area and we’ll explore them all.  It’s our hope that you will also visit any or all of these sites. They’re in your backyard, load up and get going!

Until next time, happy camping.

    

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