Double Eagle Guides to Western Public Campgrounds. - book reviews

Sunset, Oct, 1989

Looking for a fall camping getaway? Two new guidebook series may help. Both offer information on specific sites, along with detailed personal observations. And unlike some guides, these don't carry advertising.

The books are compact-singly, they fit in a glove compartment. Directions to the campgrounds augment their maps. Discovery Publishing, Billings, Montana, in its Double Eagle Guides to Western Public Campgrounds, offers a more selective list of campgrounds, geared more to car and RV campers.

Including only public campgrounds, the guides ($8.95 each) give a comprehensive, easy-to-read assessment of each facility, with notes on natural features and other attractions fishing, boating, nature walks. Each campground gets a full page of information (no individual park telephone numbers, but reservation telephone numbers are included). Publisher Tom Preston says every single campground listed was checked out by his staff.

Each of the six volumes runs 300 to 350 pages and lists about 300 campgrounds. All are within 10 miles of a highway (no backpack spots, no remote parks). Large fold-out maps show towns and clusters of campgrounds, but no roads or parks. Subtitles of the Double Eagle guides are Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, Washington), Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Montana, Wyoming), Far West (California, Nevada), Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah), Northern Great Plains (Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota), and Southern Great Plains (Oklahoma, Texas).