Best Tent Camping near Black Butte Lake, CA

The good. Managers are there daily. Dumping trash and cleaning the pit toilet.

The bad. Managers are there daily being passive aggressive in reminding you they can kick you out, walking around looking in the same vehicles (even yours as you stand there) and writing down plate numbers. They like to remind you of the 14 day in 365 day limit for the region, not just here. They like to talk about their database and what will happen if you try to camp somewhere else and they love complaining about tent campers outside the parking lot. Also, no fires, ever.

That being said. Blm law enforcement they claim to have in their pocket reminds everyone that tent camping is allowed outside the parking lot.

It is clean though, the rivers is blah and turkey hunters might fire off next to you but walk the road. Plenty of trails, beautiful meadows, horseback riders seen regularly. Quiet at night usually to. If not tell the managers, they’ll get right on that lol.

I won’t go again but that’s not because of the CG.

Details: Law Enforcement does visit, they are nice Locals are a problem Be prepared for management complaints, not camper complaints Town is 20 minutes away Free stay with a weird 14 day regional rule, inquire with management

Super cool place to camp in Sequoia National Park. I drove in from the south and passed quite a few full campgrounds before I finally made it to Sunset and scored a spot that I thought was great- up high and dry, no neighbors, a nearby source of downed wood. It looks like the Park Service stays busy downing dead/dying trees, however there were lots of trees providing cover. The closest neighbors were even able to hammock (though I was not due to lack of trees). When noisy neighbors moved in at the adjoining site, I was able to move to a primo site the next day. The new site (52, I think) was right on the edge of the granite slope with an amazing view of the sunset (hence the name of the campground). All sites had the usual amenities of picnic table and fire ring (and the mandatory must use bear boxes), but you need to take a look around for a site that is level and has adequate space between the fire pit and the tent site (mine did not, so no fire for me).  There is a visitor center across the road at Grant Grove Village with ranger station, grocery, post office, restaurant, gas station, and cabins. This is a good place to set up camp if you want to see big trees; the big sequoia tree General Grant is in a sequoia grove just up the road (you could easily hike there from the campground).

Pitched 2 tents on asphalt. 3 other cars here. Picnic tables and an outhouse. Saw/heard great horned owl, fox, then cows in the morning.

Wonderful spot. Sites were kinda small, but we we able to fit 2. -6 person tents and a 4 person in a row. Wasn’t windy when we got there in the morning, but that night the wind started and almost blew everything away. STAKE down, no matter the weather. Water was super warm, but gets icky in the summer, so definitely need to go early in the season.

This was a short one night stop on a camping roadtrip but it was nice. The park was beautiful and on the way in we passed a bison conservation area nearby which was cool. Falling asleep to the shrieks of distant coyotes was cool too. Heard lots of critters in the night, owls, deer, rabbits. In the morning was woken up by woodpeckers. Site 22 was huge and had plenty of space for our two tents and more. Our loop was full of RVs full of people having a great time. Weather was perfect and couldn’t ask for a better night in the middle of nowhere.

I’ve been camping cross country for the last month with my husband. We’re from New York, and like to think we’re not easily rattled or intimidated. This was the first time on our trip that we were both scared.

The forest service website says this campground is not open for camping, just dirt bike and horse riding, so I had found a campground further into the National Forest to camp at. When we drove by Middle Creek, we could see the sites from the road and a few of them had tents and we could see some folks, the campground was pretty clearly operating to some extent. We just wanted somewhere to stay overnight on our way into SF so we doubled back and found a site, paid the $8 and had a snack. We explored our corner of the campground a little- pretty clean, a fine campground. No visible host.

Lots of wasps and flies, like standing right next to a dumpster. There was a woman who seemed to be experiencing homelessness and/or mental illness occupying multiple sites. She pretty clearly was stealing from sites people weren’t present at, right in front of us. She also had a dog that didn’t seem to be hers.

The man at the campsite next to us didn’t have a tent or anything, just paid then sat in his truck screaming and cackling and breaking stuff loudly and pounding beers.

We left without spending the night. The police need to go take a look out there.

This is a great reservoir to camp, boat, jet ski, fish, etc. It is a pretty good size that has plenty of space for small parties or large party campsites. It is not too far out from the town of Stonyford but still has enough privacy. Not too many people are familiar with East Park Reservoir which is nice in the sense that it usually isn't over crowded on holiday weekends and especially not during regular seasons. The pricing is pretty inexpensive but the only downfall is that here isn't a whole of tree coverage for shade(hence why I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5) so make sure to bring a pop up tent/canopy for shade. Otherwise, this is an overall great reservoir to camp at and a friendly one.

Open all year is the draw for Buckhorn. Camp sites were plentiful in November. Took the canoe out every day.

Not much to the site. It was very hot and a distance to the lake. Not to mention the rangers were very grumpy.

The campsite/campground were well maintained the restrooms were decent. The price wasn’t bad at all for dry camping. Only downfall it was really hot!

This is a beautiful, quiet campground! A lot of the sites have fabulous views of the lake. The surrounding area is beautiful to see as well. Great trail system for exploring the park. Boat ramp, old bathrooms. I was the only person in the park in mid December, so peaceful and beautiful. Great day use areas! Nice playground area for kids. The swimming looks good as well.

We just spent one night in sight 6 with our 24’ camper and we had a good experience. Didn’t really have neighbors too close and had a great view of the lake. It only took a couple minutes to get down to the water, however, there aren’t a lot of places to sit and relax for the day (i.e. not many beach spots) close by. The site itself was mostly level side to side but our back stabilizers were nearly fully extended (with blocks) and the front ones we barely had to put out. The water spigot is close-by but in an awkward spot where other folks were skirting the boundary of our campsite to get to. It’s close to the bathrooms/showers which we didn’t use much, they were mostly clean but were inundated with insects. Note: there were LOTS of bugs everywhere when in late May and early June.

This is a nice, basic COE campground with hiking trails, lake access, and a boat ramp. Volunteer host on site.

No hookups at sites, but there are random water spigots throughout the campground, as well as a dump station and water flush on the way out. There was a water spigot with no handle at the dump station as well, and we used pliers to open the water and fill our tanks.

Each camp site at this campground has a completely unique configuration, in terms of flatness, layout, privacy, closeness to neighbor, etc. For this reason we'd recommend waiting until you arrive to pick your site, rather than reserve in advance, if possible, because a few of the sites would not have worked for us. All reservations must be made online at Reservations.gov. There is no reservation fee, and the site comes to $20/night. There is cell reception at the campground.

Day use fee is $5 and is payable at a kiosk at the campground.

There are flush toilets and free showers, but the showers were among the grossest we've seen and we did not use them.

There are several trash dumpsters and one recycling bin for CRV glass, aluminum, and plastic.

Heh, well, there's only one other review for this place, and it's from me from 2 years ago. So I won't repeat it all, because basically everything is the same except:

• The showers were fine this time, not gross
• There was no host on site
• The water fill station at the dump station was functional and we filled our tanks no problem

We arrived mid week with no reservations and the place was practically empty. It filled up on the weekend with loud partiers but overall it was a quiet and pleasant experience.

Great place to camp! Read my last review for more details!