Coldwater Creek Campground

Woohoo, Coldwater Creek Campground has it all, from secluded sites, friendly camp hosts, trail and lake access, to flush toilets. Make a reservation here for your next trip to Mammoth Lakes in the warm months.
I came out without reservations during the week after labor day and found this campground would do for the night. After a couple loops I selected a site on the hillside next to the main creek that had a flat spot for tents. I unloaded and filled out my payment envelope when the very friendly campground host moseyed on over to say hi. She took my payment so I didn’t have to go back to the entrance area. Vehicle access wasn’t an issue, but road was pretty bad in spots.
Some very exposed sites here, but then many others are next to the two creeks that are amazing. Several toilets and bathroom facilities make it easy to use the facilities without a hike in the dark. Fire rings with BBQ grills and a picnic table at each site provide all your standard campsite amenities. Lots of trees and history in the area, and a short hike up the hill leads to amazing views of Mammoth Mountain. The gurgling creek nearby is great to fall to sleep and wake to. Great base-​camp for a longer stay in the area, with the beautiful lakes, mountain activities and devil’s postpile nearby. Really couldn’t be much better or ask for more.
If you like camping, but not backpacking, or have an RV, go out to the Coldwater Creek area of mammoth lakes, you won’t be disappointed (unless you take one of the crappy exposed sites).

Spent 2 days hiking to duck lakes and emerald lake and this campground was perfectly located with walk up access to the trailheads. The restrooms were also impressively clean. The campsites are spaced closer together than other places I have visited, but our main issue was that our site wasn’t level at all (site 78) and it was really hard to pitch even our 2 person backpacking tent. Most of the other sites I saw were better off, so need to do some research beforehand.

Love staying at this campground while in Mammoth. It is right on Lake Mary. There are showers down at the marina and flush toilets and water nearby all campsites. We usually reserve a nice spot not close to other campsites but once we came just crossing our fingers there was an available spot and there was but it was right in the middle of everything. Unfortunately our neighbors were loud and the campground hosts didn’t do anything about it. So I’d suggest reserving a site far in advance to be able to get a nice quiet spot.
There are some awesome hikes right off the campground. There is also a little mining town just a ten minute walk from your campsite! Really cool to check out. Also fishing and boat rentals right down the road at the marina. Everyone that works there is very friendly.
Love this place and will most likely always return when I’m in the area!

This campground is great! There are bathrooms, showers, bear lockers, and taps spread throughout. And the absolute best part? Multiple trailheads around. I took one trail to the top towards Lake Mary and it was of easy to moderate difficulty. I have tendinitis and with a trekking pole and a couple breaks, I was fine.
Back to the campground. No trash in site, courteous hikers and campers around, and no crowds while I was there. The maps were clear so that you could easily figure out where everything was. Great place! and I wouldn’t mind camping here too instead of just a hike next time.

This place was OK to camp depending on which site you picked. Last year we picked site 50 & it was perfect because we had a lot of space to set everything. It had some shade. This year I picked site 23 and it was horrible. Too rocky! Before you go camping here, research more about it! Overall I wouldn’t mind camping here again.

I really liked this campground. My family does a lot of camping in AZ, and it is hard to find a campground that reaches this quality. All of the restrooms had flush toilets and were well maintained.
The bear lockers were new to us. Usually in AZ, when a bear makes a presence at a campground, the site is shut down. You don’t see a lot of places with bear lockers. So, we were interested to experience a place that handled it so casually. The host made it clear that bears came through camp every night. He wanted to make sure that everything that could serve as an attractant was secured. This included food, lotions, etc. There was plenty of room in the bear lockers for everything that needed to be stored.
As is usually the case, the hosts were very nice. They offered advice, and remembered us as we came back through camp a few days later.
My wife took advantage of the running path, to get in a few miles to Twin Lakes. It was nice to have showers and other facilities down there. And the waterfall at the lake was a pleasant surprise.
But be prepared: it can get cold. We were tent camping during the height of the summer, and were very happy to have some extra blankets.