Last year I stayed at a campground and I can't for the life of me
remember it's name or find it on a map.

Here's what I remember for sure: It's somewhere between carson city
and mammoth on the 395, if I had to guess I'd say it's between
Bridgeport and Topaz?   The campground is on the East side of the
395, perhaps no more than 100 yards from 395.  It has perhaps 20
spots, and parallels a river/creek that you can scramble down to.
Very pretty setting.  It's a government campground (state? federal?
forest service? blm?) with self-registration.   This was on Labor day
weekend and I was happy to find any spots at all, and it turned out
to be a really pretty campsite and extremely convenient as a stop-
over point for travels along 395.

Here's what I'm a little fuzzy on:  I was heading south on 395
looking for a place to stay as it was getting dark.   There was a
sign for a "rest area" which I followed that took me off 395 onto
residential streets and basically ended up in the parking lot of a
school.  Weird.  This didn't look very comfy for overnight stay, so I
kept heading south and found this other campground within an hour or so.

This strike a bell with anyone?