• Where is it? — Lost River Valley Campground is in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, in the western part of the beautiful White Mountain National Forest.

• Getting There — We came up from the seacoast NH area, so we picked up I-93 North in Concord and got off at Exit 32 in North Woodstock. From there, we headed west on Route 112. Before it crosses Route 3, Route 112 is the famous (at least around here) Kancamagus Highway that takes you east through the town of Lincoln and then on through the White Mountains all the way to the Conway, NH area. To the west of Route 3, Route 112 is Lost River Road. Following Lost River Road west for another three or four miles brought us to Lost River Valley Campground with its entrance on the left.

• Nearby Attractions — The campground is not far from several of the White Mountains’ awesome natural attractions like Lost River Gorge and The Flume. Then there’s Clark’s Trading Post with its famous trained-bear show, White Mountain Central Railroad rides, and more. For skiers, the Cannon Mountain and Loon Mountain ski areas are close by.

We were in the area to attend the three day NH Highland Games that takes place every year at the Loon Mountain Ski Area. This campground is one of the closest to the event venue.

• The Sites — Clearly, this is not an “RV park,” although they do have eight full hookup sites, and seven of them are pull-throughs. It is a campground catering primarily to tent campers – Deb and I and our kids did that for years – and to those with pop-ups and smaller RVs. We were there in a 31 foot travel trailer with two slides and our site was none too big. We had to use leveling ramps on one side and the tongue jack took care of front-to-back leveling. Our site had apparently not been “policed-up” for a while – lots of sticks and leaves

I’d have to refer to the campground as “rustic,” but in a beautiful, wooded location nestled between Lost River and Walker Brook. Many of the sites are right on the water and while our site was not, we were lulled to sleep at night by the soft gurgling sounds of the nearby running streams.

• Amenities — You’ll find many of the usual amenities at Lost River Valley Campground. There’s no pool, but there is a small pond with a sandy beach across the road from the entrance and office area. There is also a playground over there for the kids, and a tennis court and a volleyball court.

There’s a small camp store in the office building, a game room with a pool table and some video games, and an open-sided “Ping-pong Pavilion.” There is a laundry room and three separate bathroom/shower facilities. You can buy firewood, ice, and propane on site. Wi-Fi is available, as advertised, but to use it, you need to be in the immediate vicinity of the office/store. There are also several rental cabins that appear to be well cared for.

• The Rates — The 2013 rate for a full hookup site was $40/night. Other sites ranged from $28 to $38/night with the cabins renting for $59 or $69/night.

• The People —  The staff that we dealt with were all very friendly and helpful.

• The Pros — So, what did we like best about Lost River Valley Campground? First of all, it was very handy to the NH Highland Games. It is obviously a campground that has existed for many years, and it’s in a beautiful spot between two NH mountain streams, nestled under pine and hardwood trees. Most of the sites are pretty sizable and not jammed together, as they are in some older campgrounds.

We stayed for five nights, from Thursday through Monday, and found the place to be pretty busy and full over the weekend. This was due, in part, to the Highland Games, but also just because it’s a pretty place and lots of people visit the White Mountains in the fall. Even so, the campground was quiet and restful and we enjoyed that when we weren’t at the Games.

Even though we used our own bathroom and didn’t use the laundry while we were there, we checked out the facilities. They were clean and well maintained. We certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use the bathrooms, showers, or the laundry if we needed to.

 • The Cons — I hate to be negative, but nothing is perfect! Probably least important, to us at least, was the lack of TV. No cable. No reception using the antenna, either. Yeah, I know, campers don’t need TV! Right, except that it would have been nice to watch the Sprint Cup race on Sunday. Oh well…

I do some business things online, so wi-fi is important. The campground has wi-fi, but only immediately around the office area. No signal at all at our site. I needed to send an email, so I had to bring my laptop up to the office and sit at a table on the porch.

The camp roads are quite narrow and some were a bit hard to maneuver with a 30’+ rig behind a full-size pickup. The site we were given ? no other full-hookup sites available over the weekend ? was a back-in site that was located right at the bottom of a VERY steep and partially washed-out section of camp road. It is so steep that there is a “NO BICYCLES” sign at the top of the hill and a “ONE WAY – DO NOT ENTER” sign at the bottom. We might have been able to approach from the other direction, but backing into the site that way looked as though it would be a real battle. The other seven full hookup sites are all pull-throughs, so no problems there.

 • Our rating — Overall, a very pretty, if somewhat rustic campground in a beautiful area of New Hampshire. This is clearly a “campground” and not an RV park, but they don’t pretend to be a big rig site. Friendly people, clean, if somewhat limited facilities, handy to White Mountains recreation areas and other attractions.

Will we stay here again? Maybe, but we’ll probably at least try one of the other area campgrounds if we attend the NH Highland Games again next year ? and we almost certainly will.

If I had to give it a numeric rating, it would be a 3½ out of 5. But remember, that’s based on the things that are important to us. You might very well give Lost River Valley Campground a 5+ rating!