Hanna Flat Campground — Hotel in Big Bear Lake

Since the fires in northern California closed our Sequoia camping trip we had to find another one at the last minute. We came across Hanna flats in the San Bernardino national Forest and book ourself two days at camp site 83. We left the Riverside area early and headed up to big bear lake. Fawnskin is a small town on the north side of big Bear lake and is where you will have to turn off to get to Hanna flats camp ground. Approximately 2 miles down the road we hit a smooth dirt road. We traveled another two miles before the road became rough and had large piddles and rain ruts. ( I drive a Ford cmax hybrid and was very cautious and travel slow on the dirt road). We past the YMCA campground and drove for another 1/2 miles before entering Hanna flats camp ground. We arrived around 1000 o'clock in the morning and checked in with Dee and her husband Dave who were the camp ground hosts. Unfortunately the day before they had experienced several thunderstorms and heavy rain. The camp ground was still wet and muddy and debris still covered some of the paved roads within the park, but over the next two days, Dave and Dee succeeded in clean everything up. Dave and his wife made sure we we're prepared for more thunderstorms that may develop later in the day. Setting up our tents and camping area was relatively straight forward. Each camp ground comes with a large picknick table, a in ground fire pit and a paved private parking spot that can hold two cars. The restrooms were pit style and we're very clean and well maintained. Large bear proof food storage lockers are also provided to safe guard your food from local animal life. I was able to put three medium sized coolers in it. Between each camp site we found potible water faucets. The water was cold and clean but had a earthy taste to it. We brought several gallons of water just in case but we used the camps water to cook with. Never tasted a difference. Lucky for use our camp site came with several big blue jay birds and many chipmunks and ground squ Our first day we went down to big Bear lake and discovered a paved bicycle/walking path the ran around the north side of the lake. It's a very flat trail and is wide enough to accommodate bicycles, strollers and hikers. In the evening we lite a camp fire and enjoyed the open air and the scent of pine trees. We went fishing at big Bear lake the next morning and caught two large rainbow trout at the north west end of the lake by the dam. Later that afternoon we discovered a hidden gem near camp site 51. A small sign post indicated the start of a trail. I later discovered it was called the Hanna flats trail and ran from the camp ground back to big Bear lake by fawnskin. The trail started a by going up hill for less then a quarter of a mile then turns into more of a flat trail with slight altitude gains. It was a comfortable hike and we set off at a slower pace than normal because we know nothing of the trail. It was cloudy at the time but we enjoyed the cool afternoon. We completed a 6 mile round trip hike in just a few hours. Our last night we spent enjoying the great cool weather and a camp site fire. During our stay Dee and Dave stopped by to make sure we we're doing ok and answered our questions which amde our stay more comfortable. The only downside to our entire stay was a lack of shower facilities, but all I'm all we enjoyed a quiet out of the way beautiful camp ground. A hidden gem in the San Bernardino...

First the good. Then the not so good but manageable. Then the bad (bad enough to cut our trip short - we went home early). The area is beautiful, the campsites are nice and even though they are fairly close together you don't feel as though you're right on top of your neighbors. We got there on a Thursday and had the place basically to ourselves Thursday night. We even encountered five deer an hour after setting up camp. Hosts were friendly but could have done a better job enforcing quiet time.

The not so good but manageable: to get to the campground you have to take a dirt road that is not well maintained in some areas. Huge dips and bumps so if you're hauling in a trailer, be advised. Looks like the dirt "road" has washed out in several areas. The toilets are well toilets (do not flush) however, they actually seem very well maintained. The host seems to be doing a fine job keeping them clean. No sinks/mirrors/countertop. Thats ok, just be advised. There was one site that literally played loud music ALL.DAY.LONG. very loud. Fortunately we were camped far enough away that we couldn't hear it from our site but it could be heard from most of the campground. It's shocking to me that some go out to the wilderness to disturb the peace. I felt bad for the many campers that were within earshot of that site.

Now for the bad. The word seems to be out that this is a good place to party. We had the unfortunate luck to have "campers" arrive on Friday, directly across from us (our closest neighbors) and they were there to party (shrooms and whiskey). Their group reserved two spots. There seemed to be 10-15 people total. They did turn their music off between 10-11pm however, they were extremely loud talking, laughing and the worst part: opening/closing their car doors repeatedly all effing night. One of them had a lifted truck that was parked directly facing our tent. Each time the door opened (approx 10 times between hours 11p-2am) their very bright headlights shone directly into our tent! Obnoxious, self centered behavior in a campground. That was only one of five cars they had parked between 2 sites...it sounded like they opened/closed doors on all 5 cars all effing night. Then, one of their group arrived at like 12am and proceeded to do a five point turn trying to maneuver into the site driveway. Again, lighting up our tent like a damn Christmas tree. Took them a good 30-40 minutes to figure it out.

In addition to this obnoxious, self-centered group, there were multiple sites on our stretch where loads of people were talking loudly, displaying Christmas lights and other decorative lights (rent a motel if you want to party in lights and not enjoy the stars). Car doors/trunks/horns were clanging repeatedly throughout the night. I finally fell asleep around 2am after walking around in the freezing cold to find a cell signal so I could download a sleep soundtrack just to try and get some sleep before the sun came up.

I fell asleep after 2am and was awoken by someone locking their car at 5:30am (horn honked). I was so sleep deprived and couldn't imagine another night so we decided to just pack it up and go home.

So, to sum it up, people always ruin a good thing. It's unfortunate that so many are completely...

I have been camping 30+ years and sadly this was the worst camping experience ever. Where do I start? First the campground host acted differently around us since we were just a group of women. He felt like he had to read me every rule on the list even though I told him it wasn't my first time. Then after I heard the lecture I gathered wood and didn't even make it back to my site before he stopped me as I drove past to make sure I didn't have a chain saw and to make sure the wood didn't stick out over the fire ring. Sir......I just heard you go over the rules for 10min and I haven't even done anything wrong. What the heck!!! When I told him I had a hand saw he looked at me as if I was an idiot and asked , it's not a chain saw right? Sir....I just told you I had a hand saw. I know what a chain saw is. What, you think a woman can't use a hand saw???

Later on, another site was running a generator well past 11pm and was never told anything. Then a site next to us arrived late and stayed up drinking and were VERY loud until 3am, we had a hard time sleeping. They werent told anything either and they had a 3rd car parked in the driveway that stuck out onto the road. The 2nd night another group arrived, had 8 tents on 1 site and at least 15 people all on 1 site! They played music and were up until 2am keeping us up for another sleepless night! They also had 3 cars parked there with 1 car parked in the dirt not the site. Nothing was said to them. The last straw was when this large neighboring site with 3 cars had the nerve to park in our driveway since we only had 1 car. HELLO, I paid for this site, did you ask me??? No! Then when I asked her to move her car so I could get out, she just stared at me as if how dare me. I had to ask her a 2nd time to move her car. I will never go back to this awful campground again. What a sad day for us regular campers who go out to enjoy nature and abide by the rules. As for the actual campground, it was pretty and I would've enjoyed it so much more if the host would've treated each site the same and enforced the rules to each and every site. I listened to him go over the rules even though i couldve verbally told him the camping rules without even looking at the paper cause I know that's his job. Yet, he didn't enforce the rules with every site. He literally drove past many of times when 3 cars were parked on these sites along with the number of tents and people in 1 site. He also needs to drive around at midnight to make sure there isn't any loud noise. Yes, some people nowadays feel entitled and will give push back when they are told to be quiet but that's what the host is there for. To enforce the rules of the forestry sevice. Just needs to do it fairly. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong and got the book thrown at me and I took it nicely yet he didn't tell the noisy and overpopulated sites the rules. Unacceptable. I noticed another comment on here about the loud noise around the same time I was there so no, it's just not me being...