Best Tent Camping near Capay, CA

I tent camped and loved it. Very quiet and beautiful scenery. A water faucet and picnic table at every campsite .

This campground is just south of Lassen Volcanic National Park.  It has two main sections, one for RVs and the other for tents.  There are a small number of RV sites with full hookups and then a larger number of tent sites.  The RV sites are fairly small, but felt separated enough to have some privacy.  The tent sites are a bit more rustic.

The other slightly odd part is that most of the RV sites were filled with people who came and stayed for the entire summer, year after year.  We were the only not long-term camper in the RV section.  

Pros:

* Close to a lot of amazing scenery with Lassen

* Well kept, clean, quiet campground

* Camp store/restaurant is great

* Laundry on site

* Access to a nice little creek w/swimming hole

Cons:

* Camp store is open limited days

* Tent sites only have pit toilets which are not the best maintained

OK:

* No fires in the RV sites

* Showers were not always very clean

There are 4 tent sites and 20+ RV sites.

9 miles away from the Lassen Volcanic NP southwestern entrance.

They have restrooms and showers (one stall and one shower for men and one and one for women).

There are are two fire pits for the “community” but we were the only tent campers for two nights in the middle of June. Each site has a picnic table and charcoal only bbq also.

Perfect RV and tent campground just outside of Lassen National Park. The RV sites are somewhat close to each other but there are plenty of trees around so you really have a forest feeling. There is a good restaurant and general store next door where you register. We would definitely stay here again.

This campground was very close to Lassen NP, which is convenient. Check-In is simply looking at your name on the board and finding your campsite, which is not clear from the confirmation email. It would've been nice to speak to a host to get the lay of the land. The vault toilets in the tent area are very dark even during the day, and are not well maintained. The showers were also very dirty with dead bugs everywhere. The trail down to Mill Creek while short, is incredibly steep and narrow. The creek itself is beautiful and you can hear it while you fall asleep which is nice. The tent sites in the upper numbers are well spaced out. And there are deer in the area that come right by your site :) Mosquitoes were not bad at all even right next to the creek. I would maybe try another campground that came recommend from a fellow tent camper while at this one. Also, I couldn't get a cell signal for Verizon the whole time I was at the campground.

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

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!

We stayed here after a long day of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). The trail goes right through the "resort" town. The place is very eclectic, full of antique, unusual and thrift store kinds of stuff. You can stay at the motel, cabins, RV or tent sites. There's a restaurant, bar, and country store. The prices at the store are exorbitant, ($5 for 4 ramen packs). The bathrooms were dirty and so was the shower. The laundry machines outside the bathrooms were broken. The waitresses we had for dinner and breakfast were rude. We spent a lot of money at the store, restaurant and bar and as soon as bikers and locals showed up we stopped getting any kind of service. You can ask the staff for password for the wifi but the wifi is extremely slow and cell service is almost nil. Camping was weird. We had to ask three people before we got directed to where to camp at. One person suggested if we paid the bartender $20 we could get a campsite. Another one told us the campground was full with a family reunion. We were finally directed to free camp sites behind the school house. It wasn't a reunion, unless Grandma is really hip and likes rave music. But the baby there did not like it and cried all night. We were next to the "festival". The rave music played until 7 am. The bartender in the morning told us that they have music festivals like that all summer long. Even being free this place was not worth the stop. Caribou Crossing up the road was kinder and had amenities that worked.

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.

I love the potato patch. Large spaces and great easy going people; primarily tent campers. Clean, clean creek...Deer Creek, Lassen Snow melt.

Fishing is made easy as the Creek is planted two times a month.

RV, Camper, Tent, and hammocks within few yards from creek. But get to sleep right next to the creek. And wake up to it with beautiful forests. Bring tube and rope! You will thanks me. Dog MUST be on leashed.

This is a hidden gem on highway 36. Most of the sites had good shade for both trailers and tents. You have to boil the water, so we brought plenty with us. Lassen Park is just a short drive away.

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.

General tent spots available with picnic tables. The campground itself is tucked back in the trees with fewer spots than some of the more popular spots near by. Close to the creek. A little uneven on the ground front, but enough choices to make due. This site is mostly shaded, so can be colder than other setups around.

The campground has several campsites for tents and trailers. Each time we stayed at this campground, I became more and more disappointed. The campground is much too close to Hwy 36. You can see the highway from most campsites, the creek runs close to the busy highway as well. There also seems to be an issue with meat bees during certain times of the year, this makes for uncomfortable meal times.

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.

We’ve been on a road trip through California living in a van so after hiking lassen all day we were on the lookout for a shower . This place had a hot shower and toilet ! Community firepit was nice to share stories around with fellow travelers. Very nice folks running the place .

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.

This campground is a very quiet spot after Labor Day, it is small, only 10 sites total and it is only open until September 30, which I don't understand since there is no snow here until November.

When we were there only one other camper was staying here and he was a deer hunter.

The water is shut off after Labor Day so come prepared. This campground has two sites that will take a 30' trailer and the remaining sites will take smaller trailers, tents or campers.

One site has a new picnic table but all sites have tables, fire pits and plenty of room between sites. Pit toilets are near the entrance and only one was clean when we stayed here.

Not to far from Bucks Lake if you want to camp and then drive to the lake.

Fees have changed, they are $25 a night and $12.50 if you have the pass.