It's been a while. But when I did. When I was single I even went camping alone in a regular campsite that with a capacity of 6. When I was going to Lake Tahoe, it was cheaper than staying at a motel. Then I went backpacking, which I consider camping. Nothing quite like being alone out in the middle of nowhere. I mean - literally nobody else who I could see from where I was camping. However, I was in the same area and the night before there were dozens.
I've done more camping after getting married, although my wife wasn't always that keen about camping. We did one long trip to the PNW where we did a bunch of camping, but mixed in with a visit to relatives, hotels, and a KOA cabin. Some of the national park camping was interesting though. At Crater Lake we missed our first night, but they (the park concessionaire handled reservations) didn't automatically cancel our reservation. Kalaloch Campground at Olympic National Park was very nice with extremely well defined sites. We had a really nice site at Cougar Rock Campground at Mt Rainier. It was cheap too, but I understand the rate was low because it's considered a hazard area in case of volcanic activity.
Part of the fun at national park campgrounds is ranger talks - often at a campfire. Sometimes I was staying elsewhere but went to the campground talks. I think at Mt Rainier the talk was about water, and I brought something for show and tell. My understanding at the time is that it was no longer made with local water, but made somewhere else.
I've hard good experiences with Forest Service campgrounds. But that was often just a trip to a national park surrounded by national forest land. Certainly at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the Forest Service land kind of just blends together. There are a ton of Forest Service campgrounds in the Lake Tahoe area. I've stayed at Fallen Leaf Campground near Fallen Leaf Lake. But the huge one in the area is Camp Richardson, which is federally owned but operated by a concessionaire. I think to this day they only make reservations by phone or in person. Apparently the family that runs the place insists on it and won't do reservations through recreation.gov. OK - had another look and it seems that they've caved in and use an online reservation system now.
More recently I've done group camping with school/youth groups a few times. That can be fun, especially if the food and activities are already taken care of. And my kid really enjoys camping - especially s'mores.
