Tuttle Creek Campground
Camp Review:
I camped at this campground in my car.
There’s many camping spots, and each is well featured with a picnic table, garbage bag stand, fire pit, and a flat area for ground tents. There is no privacy among camping spots as there are only small bushes between spots.
On the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend, the campground was full.
Because of the creek water white noise, it’s difficult to hear other campers, which is a huge plus.
The views of the Sierra mountains are gorgeous from any/every camp spot.
There were plenty of clean, well stocked bathrooms. But the ones that I used didn’t lock.
There was potable water—some faucets were locked off, but there was no traffic jam at the faucets.
It got pretty windy when we were here, but it wasn’t too bad in the car. On the second day, when we got back from Alabama Hills, Jerry’s tent was on its side though.
Verizon and AT&T had solid service (3-4 bars LTE).
There is a 2 cars per campsite limit that wasn’t enforced.
There were lots of bugs at sunrise and sunset; but no mosquitos—just day flies.
They didn’t sell any firewood at the campsite, so on the second day—while we stopped in town for ice cream—we picked up firewood at the town market.
What I Learned
I cooked Korean vegetable pancakes as dinner for the first time and it worked really well. I had a dry mix of flour, potato starch, salt, and pepper that I added water and an egg to, then put in onions and pepper. I cooked this on my frying pan and it was delicious! I ended up cooking other vegetable stir fries for other meals as well.
The climbing group was so generous in sharing food that for my second dinner, I skipped making the curry I had planned and filled up on fruit and snacks that we were sharing as if at a potluck. I shared spicy peanuts and shrimp chips which were a novelty for most and it was fun seeing their reactions to them.
I cooked random stuff, wrapped it in tortilla, and called it lunch. It worked out pretty well. But for climbing, it worked out better when I had three tortillas full of food instead of two.
Friends
I camped here as a part of the group climb at Alabama Hills, which meant great company during the night chat. I shared a camp spot with Marina, Jerry, Sarah, and Shari. We were across from the rest of our climbing group, which had Kimberly, Sydney, Mariah, Mike, and Louie.
On the first night, we hung out at site 45, next to the expansive open land. On the second night, we hung out at site 44, next to the roaring creek.
What Happened?
As a part of the guided climbing trip with Coalition Crag to Alabama Hills, we stayed at Tuttle Creek Campground. The guides got the site early in the day, and the rest of us trickled in throughout the day. The camp sites were great, but if I were coming here by myself, I would have just stayed in Alabama Hills. Good to know that they have running water though!
The two nights we spent here were pretty nice, though mostly due to the people. Oh and on the second night, I got to see a trail of Starlink satellites, which Marina pointed out.