Best Equestrian Camping near Cassel, CA

This little gem is a great place to stay while visiting Lassen. Located off a well maintained gravel road near beautiful Butte Lake. We had no problem towing our trailer to this location and neither did our friends whose trailer is 30+ ft. The campsites are spacious and well maintained. Lots of trees and within walking distance to the lake. Flush toilets were decently clean.

There are no sites located on the actual lake so you have to pack a beach bag, chairs, toys and snacks and haul them down to the waters edge if you want a beach day. Mosquitoes were HUGE so don’t forget bug spray!

The Cinder Cone hike along the old lava flow behind the campsite is spectacular! Don’t let the climb up the cinder cone dissuade you; the panoramic view from the top is well worth it! We did it with two 6 year olds. Don’t forget to visit the nearby Lava Tubes and geothermal sights.

Free! I do love free. I had spent the day in the sun and had no intentions of driving four hours away. I did Subway Cave 👍🏻, Burney Falls👍🏻, and took a much needed nap by Hat Creek. 

I pulled into another campground but there were kids running everywhere and the second I got out the mosquitoes came at me starved for my blood. I left. 

The next was Bogard. I had literally no idea where I was. I needed rest. 

It was beautiful. Aspens fluttered. Owls hooted through the night. 

Most of the sites are for horses so I tried to take another without corrals as I’m not a horse but light was fading, I took a horse one. 

I met all my fellow campers. So many dog cuddles. Kids rode bikes and played hide n seek. 

5 other sites were taken so it was nice and quiet. 

I found some wood someone had placed in my site previously and had a nice fire before sleep took over.

It was hot so no rain fly on my tent and the stars were abundant. So were the bugs. 

Literally the only downside. 

Easily 30 bugs came to bed with me. I used repellent to no avail. 

But hey. It’s free.

We did not stay the night here, as there was too much snow on Bridge Creek Springs Road in April for our RV to be able to get through. We spent the night in a clearing nearby though, and walked over to the campground to check it out. 

The camp sites are nicely spread out, and each comes with a picnic table and steel fire pit. The website says max trailer length is 25 ft, but the sites looked plenty large enough to accommodate longer vehicles.

There is lots of shade, almost no sun, so if you rely on solar power keep that in mind. 

Not maintained during the winter, but the campground is open. There are two unisex handicap accessible vault toilets, and one was unlocked and the other was locked. We saw several sites with dedicated horse corrals at the site. 

There is also a day use area. 

We saw a sign pointing the way to “water” but did not see any water spigots in the campground. The sign may have been referring to Pine Creek which passes along behind the campground. The website does mention handpumped water though, so maybe there was a spigot that we didn’t see. 

During the winter the campground has kind of an eery, disheveled look. However, when maintenance starts up again, and when the Aspen change color in the fall, this campground is probably a beautiful place. 

Zero cell service.

No fees even during open season.

Stayed at Butte Lake for two nights in late June 2022. None of the campsites has an unobstructed lake view, but it’s a short walk to the day use area on the shore. This is a good jumping off point for a ton of hikes on this side of Lassen NP; excellent signage tells you how far each destination is. The sites themselves are not very private; kids were rolling through our site on bikes all afternoon and evening, dogs were barking at each other, it was a little crowded feeling even though it was probably only at half capacity. (There were reservation cards on almost all the sites, but it seems like a lot of people didn’t show up.) That said, after driving past some of the other campgrounds right next to the highway, I was happy to have chosen this one.

Despite the remote location and the bumpy gravel road to get to this park, it is a very popular campground. Advanced reservation is a must. Make sure to read the signs about the wildlife and take the advice of how to store food seriously. We saw a bear just a mile outside the campground. 

The sites are large and spaced far apart and shady. The lake is only a short walk away and great for swimming, kayaking or paddle boarding. The lake is surrounded by lava and the beach has been formed by volcanic material and smells a little sulphuric but the water is very clear. There are several stunning  hikes starting right at the campground .

If you're up for driving down a bumpy gravel road for 5-6 miles, this campground is a hidden gem within Lassen. Facilities are clean, sites are decent sized and there's a beautiful lake (Butte Lake) and a couple of great hikes that you can do directly out of the campground. We did the Cinder Cone trail, which is short, exposed, extremely steep but has a great payoff in terms of view and curiosity factor. We stayed for one night only, as we were passing through and I enjoyed our stay. If you're freaked out about taking your rig down a bumpy and dusty road, I would avoid this one. Otherwise, this is a tranquil spot away from the masses, which easily offers a day or two of activities, including potentially serving as a base camp to see other sites in the park and area. e.g. Barney Falls.

Nice spot near the NP. Level spot, nice clean bath and shower area. Got a nice hot shower, thank you!

We stumbled across it when all the campgrounds in the national forest and national park for closed for the season and what a nice surprise. They had a little grocery store with ice cream..we had some ice cream. It was delicious.

They had the cutest little resort with little cabins, yurts and spots for a camper or big RV. They had a volleyball court, cornhole and a basketball area. Great little spot! We would absolutely come back. Internet on my phone was hit or miss outside. They offered internet for a cheap price. $1.95 a day. 12 minute drive to Park entrance. Otherwise, you are in the middle of nowhere. 20 minutes to a grocery store. Beautiful spot!