Silver Lake Campground

Site #42
Nice Forrest Service Campground with about 30 walk-​up sites for those of us who aren’t great at planning.
Campground
Google Maps make it look sparse, but there’s way more room between sites than at nearby Oh Ridge or Reversed Creek. Southern loop is a lot more overgrown, Northern loop is more open.
You’re in a valley so you lose sunlight both morning and evening. It gets cold earlier and stays cold later in the morning. The wind can be really crazy. Bring layers!
Bathrooms were clean, potable water spigots placed every few sites were convenient (the water tastes great). ²⁄₄ showers were out of order and the others had a lot of mold staining. End of season, maybe it needed a deep clean.
Super windy ¾ days we were there and that helped with any noise. But there was a site to our right that had 10 to 12 people (limit is supposed to 6) staying and they partied until 1 or 2 am each night, leaving red cups and litter strewn about in the morning. Very surprised they were allowed to carry on as much as they did.
You’re close to some good hikes with the trail head to Ansel Adams right across the street. Hike up to Gem Lake for beautiful views all the way to Mono lake.
p. s. Some reviewers comment on a café and horseback riding — that’s the private RV parking lot across the street, not this campground.
Site #42
This is tucked in at the end of the Northern loop. The creek is to one side, lots of green to the other. Feels nice and private with a couple of sheltered areas for tents. The ground is VERY uneven, so tent camping without a decent air mattress would have been uncomfortable.
It’s also right next to the creek. After four dry years, the creek is way down and the site is just fine. Earlier in the season or after we get another wet winter, I suspect the site could be muddy/​swampy. Lots of people fishing in the creek, but they were all respectful and never walked through our site to get to it.

Great place to relax, fish, horseback ride, hike. Awesome food at the café. Beautiful scenery.

As far as campground amenities go, this place makes the grade. There are plentiful bathrooms with running water and flush toilets and power outlets, a boat launch adjacent, water stations, shower facility on the north end of the campground (pay with coin, they have a change machine), camp hosts (north and south), they take reservations as well as open spaces, double spaces if you need that, bear boxes, picnic tables, fire rings with grates in each campsite, and I had cellular service here.
And then there is the lake and the mountains, which is why you came there in the first place. Spectacular. Yummy trout!~ Ate trout we caught here most days & brought some home.
I’d rather be near the lake (south) side personally, but many folks seemed to like the north side which is near Rush Creek and more desert-​y. I’d come back here in a heartbeat.

I booked (and payed) 3 nights here and never made it!!! The reason? Very bad indicated… there are 3 campgrounds with the same name in CA, even a couple of them by the actual Silver Lake.
They have to fix this mislead

This was an awesome campground for a weekend getaway from LA and so close to Mammoth!
Tips:
–There is potable running water, toilets, and [paid] showers — just be sure to bring your own drinking water or filters.
–The wind got pretty crazy in the valley so remember to stake your tent otherwise it will collapse on you, hopefully not when you’re sound asleep! Also, it gets FREEZING COLD even in the middle of July. We had people wearing scarfs, thermals, and mittens during the night and into the early morning.
–The June Lake swimming area/​beach is a quick drive away and is pretty clean. I didn’t end up showering or using wipes after a quick dunk. Just be aware that the water is COLD (like I had a mild headache and brain freeze after running out).
–Not a lot of mosquitoes. I heard they can’t take the elevation?
–The weeds and grass around the campsite can cause some wicked allergies if you stay around long enough so bring tissues and medicine if you need it. I was sniffling by the second night and all the way back home.
–Store all your fragrant stuff in the provided bear lockers. We didn’t see any bears but better safe than sorry. Thank god none of them came after the Sour Patch Kids that were stashed in my backpack near my tent!
–The view of the surrounding mountains is amazing especially during sunrise and sunset. You’re also going to get a kick-​ass view of the night sky when the stars come out!

This is a really nice place to camp. Its probably a good idea to have a reservation especially on weekends. There are some hiking trails nearby and the whole area is really beautiful. The campground is right near Silver Lake. Its really quiet here and peaceful. There can be bears here so its good to use the bear boxes for your food and drinks. Also you should put your toiletries in there because bears like toothpaste and anything with a scent. It wasn’t too buggy when I was here but it still might be good to bring mosquito repellant. There are bears in this area. If you do see a bear, make a bunch of noise with pots and pans or something like that. The bears tend to scare off easily if you make noise. I did have a bear come into my campsite here so just be aware that can happen. What I did was bang a flashlight on the table to scare it off and that worked. I had already put my pots and pans away. In retrospect, it seems like it would be a good idea to leave items you can make noise with out. I was scared by the bear. I will admit that. It was pretty close and I’d say it was about 10 feet away from me. Interesting experience but not one I want to repeat. Overall I really liked camping here though and want to go back. I also felt that the camp hosts were nice and helped to make the stay a bit better. They do seem to choose nice people to be camp hosts. They were friendly and pleasant.

I have to start or be saying how quiet it is here. Our first night here there was only one group being loud at about 9:30p but with the brush and breeze the sound quickly cross off. The wind blows and gives a good background noise, the camping sites are nice and come with large bear boxes for holding your food. Camp host came to visit in the morning and she was very friendly. We stayed three days (Fri-​Sun) and the bathrooms were kept clean, the tables are in great shape, and the water is good and plentiful. This place is not an official RV site but it fits them well if you back in and it has one water spigot specifically for RV fill-​ups (no other amenities though, it’s dry camping with no dump station).
There is easy access to the lake and tails to and from the water but something I really liked is how there are lots of little water spots separated by the foliage. You an sit at the waters edge in one area while people are fishing, or relaxing, just a 10 – 15 feet over to ether side but you feel like you have the place to yourself. Sharing one side of the camp is a day parking area with a small boat ramp but it’s not a placing for speeding, just a few miles down the road is a much lager lake where folks go to water ski so you don’t have that noise here.
What would have made this pace a 5? A map of the site, even one nailed to the entrance wallboard, would have been helpful. We drove almost the full loop the night we got there to find out space. A map of the surrounding area would also have been nice; are their trails near by? other things to see? (I saw a small waterfall across the road and up the hill but couldn’t figure out how to get to it).