Back in the day my parents would take us camping to a couple of places, one being Golden Ears, the other being a smaller campground called Rolly Lake.
Now as a kid Golden Ears was generally prefered because it was a a larger campground and lake and tended to have more kids roaming around to hang with. However now it’s been over 20 years since the last time I camped there and while we would normally gone someplace else this time around there was some room at Rolley Lake, so why not.
Funny thing is that the things that turned me off of the park as a kid kind of make it appealing as an adult, it’s quiet, there’s not a lot of people running around, and while the hike around the lake is kind of short it’s something you could do do multiple laps of if you wanted something longer.
And this time around the weather cooperated and we wound up with clear skies and warm weather for the entire trip.
Rolly Lake – June 15, 2026
There was one thing that was a bit of a disappointment – and that was the bridge across Rolley Falls. Now to be clear Rolley falls isn’t a huge waterfall, it’s around a 6ft drop in a local stream, but it’s still nice to have something to hike over to and have a look at. This time around however the bridge that crosses over the stream was not passable. I’m not specifically squeamish about sketchy trails, but this bridge had enough holes in it that I wasn’t willing to risk it.
Normally it wouldn’t be a huge issue but not having the ability to get on the bridge really limited my ability to get photos of the falls. It’s a good thing I suppose that the Falls aren’t the whole reason that I was there. There were some notes up indicating that repairs where being looked into but I have no idea how long that’s been the case.
Either way, given that most of my camping involves sitting in a hammock reading and just enjoying being disconnected from the world this place definitely fit the bill.