I just got back from a lovely carcamping trip in Joshua Tree, my first time there. Such nice scenery! But holy moley, what atrociously rude, noisy, inconsiderate neighbors in the campground! It was nice during the week, when the crowd was mostly older and quieter, and the campground was half full, but come Friday night, ugh! And sure, you might want to blame the problem on the two scout troops that arrived at 9 PM, but, no, they were not actually the worst of the lot.
Really, it's my own fault, this is a lesson I should have remembered: always head for the backcountry, even if it means hauling 50 lbs of water on your back

Of all the states we've camped in, Ca. has been the worst as far as rude inconsiderate party animals. I even had a gun pulled on me when I complained about a gigantic fire and noise at 3 am. !!!
I generally avoid campgrounds now, with the exception of the backpacking campgrounds provided at some of the trailheads in the Sierra. Even there, we've had to put up with late night giggling and clouds of smoke. We've only backpacked in Joshua Tree, thanks to our numerous bad experiences where access is easy. Many states prohibit alcohol in campgrounds (not on primitive USFS and BLM lands) and have strict noise curfews. Ca. seems to have a general free-for-all atmosphere no matter where you go and under what jurisdiction. It seems car camping is an excuse to let all hell break loose. If you want to avoid a specific week, don't think about car camping during Spring break! Well, maybe if you brought some acid and cheap booze to join in the revelry.
Not always, and some places remain pleasant. but we've had some BAD incidents and proceed with our plans accordingly.

Indiana does a good job of controlling the Yahoos. I arrived one Saturday morning at Shades park, to meet a friend. For whatever reason (I think it was because it was too early in the season for the backpack camp to be open), we were camping at the car camp that weekend.

About 10 minutes after I got there, two young men kind of sidled up to my camp, and began to apologize for getting so loud and obnoxious the night before. I explained that I wasn't there, but thanked them for the apology anyhow. I then watched them stop at the other 5 campsites in my section.

About 15 minutes after that, I noticed a ranger stopping at each campsite. When he got to mine, he asked if a couple kids had apologized for creating a disturbance last night. I said they had, and that they sounded fairly sincere (not the "Sor-ree" that every parent is familiar with.) Then he apologized, in a second-hand sort of way, for not shutting them down more quickly. (The rangers patrol, but aren't in the campground all night.) Again I explained I had been there, but that I appreciated it anyhow. Seems he offered them the choice of apologizing to everyone in the campground, or explaining to the local judge, after a night in the steel-barred "tent," why they thought it was all right to get drunk and keep everyone awake. They chose wisely.

That night, we had no problems whatsoever, from those two boys or anyone else.

Car camping is much more of a gamble than backpacking when it comes to one's neighbors. I follow a couple of rules that seem to help. I do not car camp in free campgrounds if they are within 10 miles of a paved road or within 15 miles of a town where you can buy beer. I either choose a campground with a camp host and a fee, or I camp at a site so remote that only the most determined campers would ever go there. It helps a lot if there's nothing much to do when you camp there except hike, or possibly fish. I find that a site near a river or a creek is usually better than by a lake.

None of this guarantees considerate neighbors, but it certainly improves the odds.

Last time I went car camping last April at Tsali campground in Western Carolina, the entire campground was full of mountain bikers getting ready for 12 hour bike race at Tsali that weekend. Needless to say everyone was all relax ready to ride bikes! By the next night (night after the race) everyone was sound asleep. LOL. I did a car camping trip on 4th July weekend at Ocoee River one year (the site of the 1996 Olympic Kayaking events) and everyone was quiet at night. I was expecting some rudely neighbors, but to my surprise everyone was peaceful. Maybe I haven't car camped enough! I only car camp on mountain biking trips.

My worst carcamping experiences are always within a close drive of an urban area. On the other hand, even backpacking can have unfortunate results: once, across the lake from my secluded little lakeside campsite, back in "the wilderness", I was serenaded by some dude playing Black Sabbath on his boombox. Now mind you, I do like a little Sabbath now and again, but...

One of the worst nights was alongside a lake where you pretty much need a 4x4 to get down to most of the campsites (legal mind you). There are only two spots that can be parked at with normal cars. Naturally once we got settled into our favorite spot a pair of RV's pulled up...and proceeded to run their unmuffled generators until around 4am... I was really ready to go and do something one shouldn't do just to shut them down but with my luck...

On the other hand there was a much more remote (as in you have to drive through the river to get to the camp sites) location when I lived out in Seattle. We set up camp and not too much later two pickup loads of teenagers came up with a good bit of drink etc. It was too late to just pack up so we figured maybe they'd get plastered fast and call it a night. Strangely enough, a bit of booze to keep the chill in the air away, they invited us over to hang with them, brought out a few guitars and a light drum and it was a hell of a lot of fun. I've never figured out how you could mix pop, rock, country and such into one song but between the 10 of us we managed it. Too bad they were up from Oregon. I'd have been happy to camp with them again.

Another good one was at a public campground on Chesapeake Bay when I was a kid of around 10-12 years old. This being a regular campground with ranger, etc. The family setting up next to us had two boys my age so that gave us the bicycles and such to explore on, but what I remember the most was crabbing with the sister as a few others fished and then the buffet spread that they put on with what we caught. Turns out he was a 5-star chef out of NY city on vacation for a week. One of the best weeks of food and fun I can ever remember. At least 8 camp sites ended up pitching in by the 3rd day and between the food and his culinary skills, the kids our age, etc. It was just an absolute blast! (At least until I went to scare my sister in the middle of the night with an old piece of rope under the open-toilet bottoms... (there had been lots of snake warnings) I had no idea I picked the wrong one until a very large lady ran out sans pants screaming for the world to hear... I felt guilty..very very guilty...Kind of...)

LOL!

That's been my approach for as long as I could drive. I like car camping, but I have a somewhat different take on the party animals. Personally, I think people need a place to go blow off steam. Some of them will get stupid, but for the most part they take care of each other.

I think there should be places where you can car camp without being invaded by party animals too though.

I'm sure there are places like this elsewhere, but here, people have opened up private parks on some pretty big tracks of land where you can go whoop it up all you want pretty much. They've got 4Wheeler paths and hiking paths and car paths and you can drink and drive and crash all you want. They've got some rules, and security, but from what I've heard you can get pretty stupid for about $35 a night.

Before I left Illinois they had some hard rules at their State Park Campgrounds. It was "Lights out and go to bed" at 10:00pm and they mean it. They'll put your butt in jail if you don't follow the rules. And don't even bring in any beer or wine, much less anything harder. Not even a single beer with lunch. And don't try and sneak it in either, they're watching you. It was pretty miserable.

There are lots of places in the Ozarks where people go blow off steam. For the most part they have their spots and I've learned when not to go there, but there are a lot of great car camping spots here you can have all to yourself a lot of times.

It's been a really long time, but as I recall Joshua Tree has always been a hang out for hard core partiers. I vaguely remember going there once or twice when I was teen years and years ago...

I like a huge range of music, including a little bit of metal. But, when I'm camping, I'm usually not in the mood for music, and I'm sure not going to subject someone else to it. That's just inconsiderate.

I like being around people sometimes. I'm actually not that sociable, but having others around is comforting I guess, plus my ten year old absolutely has a blast playing with the other kids. I definitely don't go in for the loud obnoxious smoking and drinking types though (usually always sunburned and tattooed too for some reason - not that I take issue with that, it just seems to go hand in hand). I don't want to hear you cussing out your kids, and I can smell your hot skunky beer from 30 yards. Unfortunately, some of the best car camping spots seem to attract this type, especially near water.

Hit the campground jackpot a few years ago when we and another family--three grade-school kids in sum--camped on the coast. Got to know a nearby mom and son--similar in age to our kids--which was great in itself but as it turned out she's the winemaker at a small, boutique winery and has wine to share. Like, a case of wine.

Yes, please.

That was a great trip. We actually knew it was time to leave on our last morning, not because the wine ran out but because the restroom power was out, which meant not even running water.

Dang and a half! Oops, I tried to quote a bit out of what you said, Bill, and messed it all up. Not sure how to quote from text.
Anyway, you said "There are a lot of places in the Ozarks for people to go blow off steam". Sounds like you must have been in the vicinity of me and my 5 siblings! I've been outed: although I am a very peaceful, quiet, sober, considerate camper in my normal life, I must admit that when me and the sibs get together once every year or two for our family camping trips, well... `it's kind of embarrassing what a lot of love and alcohol will do. Eeek! Probably my last experience in Joshua Tree was just karma biting me on the butt.

Bobito, I'm afraid without pics we can't reference exactly what you think was so embarrassing?

We stayed at Black Rock Campground last time we were in Joshua Tree. It is a little out of the way, but we didn't have any neighbors close by. Maybe i shouldn't let the secret out here! Jim

Jim,
Actually, Black Rock is where we stayed and it was totally packed our last night there (a Friday), but all the mid-week days it was maybe half or 2/3 full.

I like car camping itself, but I don't like the fact that every established car camping site seems to be littered with trash, especially fire pits. Not to mention the surrounding woodline is just one big latrine. Car campers in general seem to be loud, beer guzzling lazy slobs.

One of the reasons I love to backpack is for the quiet solitude. And I admit I'm a bit anti-social.

Yep, the garbage around the sides, the myriad of old plastic buckets turned into toilets and left to stink the place, the sheer volume of people that think a campfire is an incinerator... It does get old and it gets old fast.

Worse are the ones who party for a week then decide at the last day to trash the place as much as possible just to make sure no one else an use it for a while.

Then there are the jerks that like to put up a cheap couple tents at some of the best spots and leave them during the week so they have those spots again next weekend. Nice way to reserve and deprive others of that sweet cove with the million dollar view...