Really nice place, quiet and well maintained and a beautiful situation, on the side of a high hill overlooking a huge, arid valley. Wildlife refuges right down the hill.
On the McCloud River, within hiking distance of the three waterfalls. Apparently heavily used in the swimming months, but pleasantly uncrowded tonight. The hike to Lower Falls is less than a mile and very scenic. Hike to Middle/Upper Falls is a little more than a mile. You can walk the paved road back to make it a loop if you wish.
huge-ass campground on ever-diminishing Eagle Lake. Full of giant RVs with hookups and run by a concessionaire, so it is much more bureaucratic and rule-bound that most. Site 159 is pretty sweet, unobstructed lake view (150 yds away), open, but the tall pine behind (south of) me give it pretty good afternoon shade.
A washboardy, dusty couple of miles off 395. I clocked it at 2.7 miles. Very cool little spot once you get here ... in a lonely, boring kind of way.
quiet, road nearby but it's not busy, in a young redwood forest, at the edge of the National Forest. First good place to stop east of Red Bluff.
Small but very handy campground 50 mile north of Susanville. Very near the road, but the road is not heavily traveled. The stream is very small but pretty
hyper-busy tonight, first night of the season, Memorial Day weekend. It would be restful and pleasant next to the happy little creek most nights I think. As a campground, this is nicer than Sardine up the hill. I walked up to Sardine Lake, which was a very pleasant hike, with some excellent sunset views ... if you don't mind walking along the highway. They raised the price again this year here too.
Three miles north of Old Station. There is a perfectly idyllic picnic area on the east side of the road and a campground on the west. The campground has no water so it's a little cheaper than Cave and Hat Creek. Even better, the big RVs don't come here, so it's more mellow - a win-win for me!
ring-necked pheasant many, many red tailed hawks, most intimate ever for me a coyote a noble 10-12 point mule deer buck, then later a whole herd of lesser mule deer northern harrier Northern Spoonbill, (I think) buffleheads and redheads Sandhill crane (couldn’t stop to get a good look ):
Camping is just the edge of the forest behind the lodge. Next to a very pretty cow pasture at the edge of the huge Sierra Valley. Nice lodge to hang out in, wifi and kitchen, free to campers. The Hot Springs has also taken over the hotel in town. There is also a breakfast place and aMexican restaurant in town, both pricy but good!
My campsite karma failed tonight, and I am 40 feet away from overweight theater troupe, who act as if they've never been out of the city before and are being very, very loud very late into the evening. Elevation 5900', so it's pleasantly cool here, even while Redding, 50 miles west and 5500' lower is hitting 101.
Never actually done the hike, but I hear it's awesome.
About 6 miles from Fowler's Camp. I've not stayed here, but I did a drive-thru and it looks very nice. Big, level shaded sites. It lacks the cool factor of being on the river near multiple waterfalls but there is a "swimming hole" a couple of miles away,
very pretty, next campground has wifi, level enough to bike around
Here three days, for a Labor Day party with friends. Sites 7 and 9 are the PERFECT sites, roomy and shaded, and adjoining the lake. Everybody else has to walk around the edges of us to get to the lake. Pretty excellent place to hang out for the three day weekend. The only drag for me is that $25 is pretty steep for little ole me to hang out in the van. For me and six of my friends, whole different story!
A mile or so north of Cave Campground is a gravel road (called Wander Lane on the Google map) and a bridge over Hat Creek. If you follow that road you will see a couple of good campsites.
In the Lakes District between Graeagle and Bassett. The other campgrounds on this road are $20-24, but this one is $10. It has no water, and is pretty rough around the edges, but it's on the lake and pretty sweet. The boat launch area is in the campground. There are a few select campsites right on the lake, but they are close together and crowded with big rigs, so I elect to go down the road a bit. By rule all sites are on the away from the lake side of the road; but the lake is still very close. I did not check it out, but I think there is a trail all the way to the Gold Lake Highway, and maybe even all the way around the lake.
Lovely spot at 7,000'-ish on the north side of a little alpine lake. On the south side is Summit Lake South Campground. This one is $2 more, but well worth it, a much nicer campground. B Loop is reservable, A Loop is first come first served. There's a lake to swim in or just admire and you're in an awesome place!
Nice little spot, 1/2 mile off of 70, on the North Fork of the Feather River, near where it joins the main river. It is not well marked that the campground is at this turnoff so it's easy to drive right past. Once you make the turnoff it's well signed. $25 seems like quite a high price, but the concessionaire needs to make a profit I guess. $12.50 ain't so bad!