[B_and_D]

If I had a solution to your quandry we would be much happier campers. We've actually tended toward going to full hookup campgrounds with older campers lately; no contractor-style generators, no blaring music. But there is always the exception. There may be the guy next to us who is hard of hearing and has his TV turned up so loud that we can hear every word, or people with diesel trucks who want to get up at 5AM to go somewhere and insist on warming up their motors for 5 - 10 minutes right next to our trailer. Or the guy who is working on something on his trailer and has power tools going all day long.

We've had quiet times in dry camping sites too....but have had to listen to Led Zeppelin blasting at 2AM in those kinds of sites too. Last summer in a dry camping site we had to ask the campground host to call the sheriff at 1AM because the people across from us just wouldn't shut up. Other summers we've had no problem.

I think a lot of it depends on the management of the park. Some are way less tolerant of noise than others, and some do nothing. We know a couple who used to do a lot of campground hosting and they told us that the Southern CA beach campgrounds were absolutely the worst for them. When it got really out of control, they had to call the sheriff.

We try to find sites in the back of the campground, next to families who have young children (if you don't want to sleep in, lol), an older solo couple in an RV, or just a young solo couple in a tent. The further away you are from the road or your neighbors, generally the quieter the site will be. I would imagine that if you could camp next to the campground host that it would also be pretty quiet.

Big Sur is a pretty mellow, quiet campground. Some campgrounds just attract a different kind of camper.

We enjoy going to Sam's Family Spa in Desert Hot Springs, we always sleep really well there; it's just too bad that it's an all day trip for us and we hate to spend 3-4 days traveling when we only have a week off in the winter. Pismo Sands RV Park is also really quiet too, even though you're really close to your neighbors (except for this last time we went there and had to move our trailer to a different spot because the people next to us were in a tent trailer and were awake until 1 - 2 am every night talking loudly right next to us). Once we moved it was really quiet and we enjoyed the rest of our stay there.

It just depends on who you run into, I guess.