The best DISPERSED camping near
Centerville , CALIFORNIA

Not much to say similar to rest stop. Spent evening in their parking lot that does say no parking unless your a customer. I went in and purchase couple jars of olives to take to Slab City with me as trading stock now I’m a customer (happy face). No one messed with me and it was decently quiet. Only two other rvs. Super small dog potty area too but it’s their yay.

A Good Camp Host can make or break the most Beautiful.

It's a beautiful area, the campground is located in the middle of Red Bluff Recreation Area. Lot's of nature trails. They have many of the plants and trees recognized by little name tags. So interesting and absolutely gorgeous.

Spent the evening in the RV/Truck area after stocking up on some Olive stuffed garlic and artichokes. Mmmm. Was quiet besides the obvious freeway intersection area near by but NOT complaining. Easy boon-docking. Small pet area. Well lit if you park under a light. Safeway,Burger King, Taco Bell, Auto parts store lots more in little area around The Olive Pit. Basically park and walk to get shopping done. Boom. Hope this helps a little.

Years ago you could camp right on the lake in primitive walk in spots, now that is not allowed.  There is a small campground with just a few spots down the road a quarter mile but it's rare to find an empty spot there.  The lake has grown in popularity over the years and if you want to secure a day spot on the lake's edge plan on getting there first thing in the morning.  People do also disperse camp about another mile down the road in a gravel pull out area.  Castle Lake is easy to get to via Castle Lake road which is paved the entire way.

The first thing to know about this campground, is that there are only 6 camp sites, and it is all first come first serve, and it's free.  I got there on a Thursday to be sure we got a spot, and already 4 of the 6 were taken.  Since there is only 6 sites, it was super quiet all the time.  I'm not sure which site we had, but it was at the end of the road, and set far back in to the forest.  We couldn't see anyone else, and no one could see us.  We loved the privacy!  Castle Lake was a short drive up the road, and it is a very popular lake.  There was tons of people there fishing, hiking, paddling, taking pics….  There are trails to get to Heart Lake, which is a smaller lake, but great views of Mt Shasta from there.  It is about a 20 minute drive to get back to town, so if you needed anything it would be easy to just pop down.  There was reception at the campground about 80% of the time.

It says on a sign reservation only, but after driving around to the other spots in red bluff, and feeling great unease, I went ahead and drive in to a spot around 9pm. I immediately felt much better and more safe here. Had a great sleep and was on my way in the AM. I never interacted with the site host but it looks like the trails and areas around are worth hiking.

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

The sites are narrow. The water was really low down. No beach. It was really hot! Not much around. Plus will we were there at least two trees came down. Thank goodness they did not land on our tent! There are a lot of Geocaches though.

This campsite is pretty awesome. We stayed at site #21 in loop D. The sites were very large and came equipped with a fire ring/grill, bear box and picnic table.

We had a great time exploring the park and hanging out around Lake Manzanita.

Lassen National Park is beautiful and we hope to be back soon. Even during a busy Labor Day Weekend the park was crowded but nothing like a bigger national park (think Yosemite) in a regular weekend. It was nice being able to experience the park without feeling totally overcrowded.

The camp store was very convenient if you forget anything!