[Hide Comment] 2wd ok but make sure you have clearance and don't mind scratching the shit out of your vehicle. Road is narrow and to get up the hill to the "main" campsite you have to navigate some terrain similar to the road up to high eagle. I cleared 4 fallen trees out there two weeks ago, I must have been the first of the season. At the base of the last hill, where you can make a left to head down to a separate campsite, if you head straight through the trees towards the creek you'll hit the swimming hole wall. The better swimming is upstream and below the upper camp sites, but there's a decent watering hole right at the base of the swimming hole wall. Jun 6, 2016

[Hide Comment] GPS coordinates for parking: 37.420711, -119.446552

We barely made it out here in my subaru outback. high clearance is necessary. Oct 2, 2017

[Hide Comment] Sharing a bit about the conditions since the fire:

The road is generally decent until you hit the branch to go to the upper campground or the lower campground. For the road to the branch point you'd probably want something with the clearance of a Subaru, but 4wd isn't necessary. The road to the lower campground could probably be managed with something like a Subaru. The road to the upper campground you need something more like a 4runner. The roads are narrow and you will absolutely scratch your car on all sorts of spiky plants and branches on the way in to any of the campgrounds. In early September I cleared a log out of the road on the way in; it doesn't seem like this road gets much traffic.

The fire hit this area hard, albeit not quite as hard as High Eagle. The upper campground is quite safe with no standing burnt trees that may fall in that area, but also no real shade either. The lower campground has good shade, but a few questionable dead trees that could fall. The guidebook shows two campgrounds on the upper branch, but there only seems to be one these days located at the GPS coordinates Andrew shared above.

The approach to Lost Eagle is through a heavily burned area which makes it easier to navigate when it comes to manzanitas, but harder with loose dirt and fallen logs. I've shared the tracks for our approach - only parts of the path seem cairned these days. The closest parking for the approach is in a turn off just before the upper campground. Sep 2, 2025