Kelsey Creek Campground — Clear Lake State Park

This is the perfect time of year to visit Clear Lake. There’s just a few boats on the lake. The campground is less than half full. The bathrooms are clean, and our site is paved and fairly level. There’s tons of different types of birds. We’ve been watching an osprey fishing.

Affordable and beautiful spot! No hookups, but dump site and bathrooms available. Beautiful views of the lake!

Came back a year later on a whim and still found it to be a nice place, in spite of the heat. Had a nice spot that was semi-shaded in the afternoon, next to a lovely couple who I was able to share some beers with. 

The place was at capacity, but many people leave during the day. In the evening it did get a little loud at times, but nothing obnoxious.

Decent cell coverage - enough that I was able to stream college football.

The upper campgrounds were closed. Not sure how long this has been the case, but it made for a nice quite walk. 

Restrooms remain very useable, in spite of the volume of use.

Site was perfect. Close to the water am very accessible for an RV.

Great camping, hiking, boating. Lots of nature trails. Super friendly staff

Pros: If you are a person who likes to either stay all day at your campsite or are a water sport/water toy type person this campground is for you. Cons: Bathroom near our campsite wasn’t working. Campsites were overgrown with foxtails, not good for my dogs. Trash in our fire pit. A few campsites away from ours had a huge poison oak plant at the back where you park your rig. A walkway near the campground popular for fishing had a tree fall on it, instead of clearing the tree, the park rangers closed it off. Not much hiking in the park, and if you decide to walk the couple short hikes, don’t bring your dogs, NO DOGS ALLOWED. For the number of workers this park employs you would think these things would be dealt with, but no. I guess this is typical of State Parks in California, so much potential but sadly California parks slowly deteriorate.

Wasn't very private, but is good for tent camping in a safe family environment.

okay, let me start this off by saying: DO not take CA-175 here. by the time i got to camp i was so nauseous i thought i was going to die!

campground is beautiful, we rolled up in off season and there is probably 20ish cars here.

it's cold, but so pretty! nice bathrooms, token operated showers. short drive to lakeport with some cute downtown areas to get breakfast if you are like me and woke up too cold to set up the camp stove!

all in all, pretty good campground, but i could see it being super packed during season. we paid 30$ for one night camp.

Decent facilities. Bring cash and insect repellent. Shower tokens can be purchased at the boat launch facilities. Bathrooms stocked with toilet paper and seat covers. Rangers clean the bathrooms around 8 am.

The camp manager was very helpful and very friendly and the people staying here are polite and quiet. It does seem like many of them are full-time residents. The creek that is adjacent to the campground looks polluted and ugly but the campsites were adequate with lots of tree cover. Not great if you’re trying to do a satellite TV but we only stayed one night. Wi-Fi is very slow as in 1 Meg speed.

General: There are four campgrounds in Clear Lake State Park: Upper Bayview, Lower Bayview(both of which were closed when we were there in April), Cole Creek, and Kelsey Creek. This review focuses on Kelsey Creek. 

Site Quality: The sites all appeared to be level with paved pads. No hookups throughout the park. Not a lot of privacy between the sites but decent separation. 

Bathhouse: Clean but as we have found in other California state parks, no soap! Showers take tokens which must be purchased on-site 

Activities: Limited hiking on a short nature path. In season, there is boating, swimming, and fishing. It was very quiet when we were there in April but I imagine there would be quite a different vibe come summer when the campground would be full (which is why we like camping in the off-season!)

Was a very nice experience with a lot of easy spots for us to back our camper in. We choice a site away from everyone and it was so nice and quiet. I literally felt like we were the only ones there plus turkeys and quail.

Very nice ranger. Clean, chill campground right on the lake.

As someone else said, it was great for a mid-week stay. Beautiful campground, good space between sites. Staff was great. We're in the Kelsey Creek Campground (it's the only one open this time of year) and there's hardly anyone here. Very peaceful, good birdwatching, and abundant deer life. We would come back.

Nice place to camp. Very pretty. Not sure why we( and only us) weren't allowed to us the plug in for our RV. Very rude staff who work there.

Excellent park for a mid week stay. There were lots of vacant spaces and weather was fabulous. We stayed in site 59 and will definitely return. View of the lake was great and watching the bass tournament was fun. Dry camping only but lots of fresh water hydrants, clean bathrooms and coin operated showers.

Why do people in state parks think everyone in the campground wants to hear their music. This is the second day of this! And they are old farts! I am done with best of the 80’s. I don’t know if I can wait til 10pm for rangers to enforce quiet time.

Great time to come here except for the mosquitoes. We’re listening to the bullfrogs singing and wondering why they don’t eat all of the mosquitoes. We’re here for 2 nights (drycamping) and then continue our journey to Alaska 100 miles at a time. (or less)

Nice clean campgrounds large lake is nice boating is good fishing is good beach is great

Large campground with many great options for activities. This park has lake access from a large sandy beach. Extensive nature trail system throughout the park. There is also a visitors center with many displays of the animals that are found within the park as well the cultural history.