Barnes Lake Recreation Site

Overnight stay on the way to Farwell Canyon. Camp host, Mike was very kind, & shared lots of helpful info about the area. Amazingly clean pit toilets. A really great start to our adventure.

Nice lake, great out houses. I will have to try fishing here some time

It gets a bit noisy at times (trimac trucks and shift change from the mine close by) but otherwise its peaceful and not very busy. Some sites have a lake view and there are a couple of boat ramps.

Great ice racing in winter. Would also be great for Nordic skiing. Lots of firepits and sites are fairly far from one another, off a small road serving a very small community so not much traffic if you do decide to stay overnight. It's a decent little lake.

Good place to stop overnight. Toilets were super clean

The sounds of birds and krickets are plenty! Clean camp sites, clean restrooms!

Lovely place for an end of season bonfire and party.

Great fishing spot and quiet

Great location to camp

Amazing spot

It's very quiet, but you will have to clear the weeds. There is access to to water but lots of weeds. Plenty of wildlife

Nice for an overnight stay on your way somewhere but too small of a lake and not enough services to be a destination. Not even a garbage bin. The park host is overbearing and his enforcement of minor details when we were the ONLY campers there during our 16 -hour stay bordered on harassment. He creeped us out... Spoke to us three separate times and drove past us, stopped and stared even more than that in one evening. Snooped around our stuff when we were out on the water.

It's beautiful, and it's also a local gathering place for the 50+ population. It's well maintained and the rec guy is very nice. Overall, your mileage will depend on your interest in the general environmental factors that come with it. As a local gathering place, especially on weekends, you'll find that there's a general frequency of cars rolling in and the occasional daytime BBQ. There's no sign of teenagers, so this isn't a real loud party place, but the regular activity can break the quiet. The wind is also ferocious when it decides to be. While there can be calm days, there are also times when your RV is rocking with a pretty intense force and it just... keeps... going...

Also be aware that cell service is marginal. I typically got around 100kb/s to 500kb/s depending, and at times the signal would drop entirely for 10 or 15 minutes. This is better than no internet, but it is going to require a bit of patience.

The location CAN be totally serene, with the sounds of loons on the lake. You could probably go days here without hearing a human sound. I just think it is best to bear in mind that your luck may vary depending on when you are here. The spaces are tight, so if it's full, it'll be as tight as the spaces. If it's not, well then it's glorious ... unless you get blown into the sky by intense wind storms. I would also think the potential for bugs on the lake is huge at certain times of the year.

This is a strong 4-stars, but there are some factors to bear in mind that keep it from being just an obvious 5 for everyone at any time.

Went for fishing and no luck at all

Quite