Gurnsey Creek

Why we booked: Came to see Lassen NP. Manzanita Lake Campground canceled on us, and we needed a spot with plenty of FCFS availability.

Campground: Basic USFS campground. Heavily wooded with pine and sequoias, sites relatively spacious, vault toilets and threaded water spigots throughout. We were able to fill our tank by connecting a couple of hoses. Some spots for okay solar—we were getting 200W of a possible 400 after picking a sunny campsite in the summer. Being on a 55mph road, you do get road noise that dies down at night. Probably makes this a better campground for RVs than tent camping. Combining Verizon and T-Mobile with our router and booster let my wife and I work on video calls with few problems.

Quirks: Huge stacks of free firewood due to work done since a huge fire swept through the area a couple of years ago.

Site: Ours was one of a handful that can fit bigger rigs. Most folks should be able to get in here just fine—but if you're bigger, be good at backing.

Nearby: The southwest Lassen NP entrance is about 20 minutes away. The town of Chester is 20 minutes the other way, with propane and diesel and some decent food.

Value: Perfect!

This is a first-come, first-serve campground within the Lassen National Forest, about 14 miles from the southern entry gate of Lassen Volcanic National Park. My family and I arrived on a Thursday afternoon in June and there were plenty of campsites available. There were more people arriving on Friday and Saturday but still a handful of sites were available and it never got very crowded. The campground is near a highway but it stayed relatively quiet the whole time, since there's not much traffic on the road. The campground loop roads are not used much and make for a safe area for kids to ride bikes or scooters nearby the campsites. The only complaint I had about the campground is the large amount of cut wood logs that were stacked around the camp sites. It made the view a little less scenic but provided for a large amount of firewood. If you enjoy a quiet and serene camping experience near a National Park, I would definitely recommend this campground! It's also near the town of Chester, which has gas stations, restaurants, and a grocery store, as well as Lake Almanor, which has boating, swimming, and hiking trails.