Best Cabin Camping near Colusa, CA

What a lovely peaceful campground right on Cache Creek. Great fishing! Lots of wildlife sightings across the creek in the state park reserve. Great birdwatching. Cute little store and boat rentals. Owners are super nice.  Especially loved kayaking on the creek.

We camped here TWICE in 2019. First time in mid April and 2nd time on the first weekend of November. Both times were AWESOME!!!
Both campsites, #66 and #116 had power, water and sewage. They were both lake front campsites, which meant the water or shoreline was right at our "front door" from our 27' travel trailer. They were both back in spots but with ample room to maneuver the trailer into a great spot, unhitch our truck and park the truck next to the Travel Trailer. Site #66 was closer to the camp store which was one of the best ones I have been to so far. They sell quite a bit of camping and fishing needs. They also have a great ice cream parlor. Don't miss out on that if you do decide to camp here!!!
The fishing is awesome on Collins Lake! We fished from kayaks and always caught fish for dinner :-) There are nice hiking and biking trails in and around the campground as well. 
Just an FYI, in the Spring, the water level is much higher so the water line is closer to the campsites, especially #66. In the fall, pre-winter, the water level is much lower. It was about a 50 yard walk down to the water from #116 camp site, which is a lake front site. They do have a nice dump station row just outside the camping sites, so it is not necessary to have RV sewage at your campsite, which saves you a few $$.
The campground also rents different types of boats and cabins at this campground. See website for details :-)

Cute but older and I mean really old RV camp on what's called a creek. I was told I could pick any Lakefront campsite but this is not the lake! They have a nice small pool and showers are included in the cost and there are full hookups available. Three Yurts available for rent. They offer kayak rentals and have plenty of boat ramps for guests but I didn't want to go into this nasty water, And I brought my own inflatable kayak. Decent for the price if you can't find anything on the lake itself but not what it is cut out to be.

We were just happy to get out and camping. It’s definitely a place I’ll put on my list to camp at again, especially when they figure out their electrical issues. From what I could tell when driving around the majority of the sites were level; we had 4 spots and all were easy to back in.

Some Pros - the market was well stocked; majority of the staff were very helpful; campsites on the outer rings had shrubbery for site separation and inner rings are great for groups; showers were close and they had hot water; kids loved fishing from the shore; quiet at night; deer had no problem hanging out with us as we had our meals.

Some Cons - I’m not really a fan of “first come first serve”, it makes it hard when group camping; there wasn’t a single day when some campsite didn’t have electrical issues, in fact they turned a lot of their RV sites into Tent Sites because of electrical issues; no wood fires, propane is okay; at no fault to the site/staff, and all due to Covid precautions, there was no playground, boat rentals, etcetera.

This campground is above Marysville California.

Pros: If you are a person who likes to either stay all day at your campsite or are a water sport/water toy type person this campground is for you. Cons: Bathroom near our campsite wasn’t working. Campsites were overgrown with foxtails, not good for my dogs. Trash in our fire pit. A few campsites away from ours had a huge poison oak plant at the back where you park your rig. A walkway near the campground popular for fishing had a tree fall on it, instead of clearing the tree, the park rangers closed it off. Not much hiking in the park, and if you decide to walk the couple short hikes, don’t bring your dogs, NO DOGS ALLOWED. For the number of workers this park employs you would think these things would be dealt with, but no. I guess this is typical of State Parks in California, so much potential but sadly California parks slowly deteriorate.

General: There are four campgrounds in Clear Lake State Park: Upper Bayview, Lower Bayview(both of which were closed when we were there in April), Cole Creek, and Kelsey Creek. This review focuses on Kelsey Creek. 

Site Quality: The sites all appeared to be level with paved pads. No hookups throughout the park. Not a lot of privacy between the sites but decent separation. 

Bathhouse: Clean but as we have found in other California state parks, no soap! Showers take tokens which must be purchased on-site 

Activities: Limited hiking on a short nature path. In season, there is boating, swimming, and fishing. It was very quiet when we were there in April but I imagine there would be quite a different vibe come summer when the campground would be full (which is why we like camping in the off-season!)

[Internet. Verizon via iPhone 12: 26 mbps down and 0.40 mbps up with 34 ms ping. T-Mobile via Nighthawk MR-1100 - 4.24 mbps down and 16.9 up with 159 ping.]

This is a great campground for the camping experience. The vibe is chill in that I don’t have anywhere important to be. I can sit here and drink my coffee. I can take a stroll to the water. I can do nothing and it’d be well worth my time. In places like this, bring all the camping gadgets you have. You’ll have time for them!

There isn’t much privacy between the sites but there is a fair about of space at the end of your site facing away.

Be prepared for bugs in Spring! We had to pull out our bug screen! Dawn and dusk is their most active time. There weren’t many mosquitos at this point. The other bugs don’t bite but there were a lot. So many that at dusk I thought someone was flying a drone but it turned out the symphony of buzzing was coming from the sky. Look up and the sky is blanketed in bugs. Just after sunset they go away.

The showers are token operated. Outside the bathrooms is a machine for token exchange. It takes $1 and $5 bills. They are these cute, unique coins specific to the park. Apparently lots of California state parks use tokens and you can “collect them all.” It’s 50¢ per token and one token gets you 2 minutes. Which is nice because you can do your shower things in between the token time so you need less tokens.

My only gripe is the hot water was inconsistent. My shower was hot as hell and my partner’s shower was cold. I can tolerate cooler water temps but she just can’t. Unfortunately the only way to find out water temperature is by putting in a token. From now on I shower first to make sure the water is warm enough and then text her when I’m done so she can use the same stall.

This park was perfect except for the shower water. 4.5-stars

[Rig. Mercedes Sprinter. 22 feet]

Dump station? - Yes Water fill? - Yes Clean site? - Yes Clean bathroom? - Yes Flush toilet? - Yes Showers? - Yes, token operated Laundry? - No Dish washing sink? - No

There are a TON of great sites here - with shade, without shade; flat, hilly; etc.. We camped there for the first time on opening weekend in April last year (2018). When we got there there were SO MANY PEOPLE. We were worried that there wouldn't be any spots left! And even if there were, they wouldn't be good spots.

But, no worries, there were plenty of sites spread around - it is a large reservoir. We found one that had shade, wasn't too sloped and wasn't even next to anyone else.

We are going again this year.

I've been to this campground twice now, and had very different experiences.  

The first time was memorial day in 2019, and we had a great spot right on the water.  We took our canoe and were able to launch from our site.  So ideal.  It was relatively quiet, and nobody immediately near us.  Amazing sunsets.

The second time we went was June 2020.  This time we stayed on the other side of the lake.  The water was super low, so our view was completely dried up.  Also, it was pretty noisy with sites cramming several tents onto their sites.

Either way, on both occasions we the site relatively last minute, maybe a week or two in advance.  Any Californian will know it isnt always easy to book last minute campsites, so I appreciate that!  There are 100+ campsites there, so it seems like always something available.  Plus, not too far from the bay area.

Gravel spots & pick nick tables. Only had 30amp service & the outlet moved around a bit. Had to prop up my plug with some blocks to keep it from moving or would lose power. Nice playground for kids. The trees around the grounds dropped a ton of sap in the morning. Gravel stuck to my shoes as i was walking around.