Best Cabin Camping near Elk Creek, 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.

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.

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!)

The Mendocino redwoods RV resort just outside of Willits on CA-20 to Fort Bragg, California, was 3 years ago a KOA resort. The overall facility is still in fairly good shape but you can see the results of the pandemic and a little bit lack of effort on maintaining various things with inside the facility. Not to get me wrong, it's still a very nice resort but the new affiliation that they've decided to go with needs to step it up a little bit otherwise it will go into disrepair and short order. After traveling recently to a very high-end KOA resort, I can assess and compare between the two locations very quickly. I think it is a very wonderful location with a lot of wonderful things to do and activities within an hour's drive of it, I just wish they would do a little bit more to start bring it up to the level that it once was.

[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

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.

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.

It was such a unique experience staying at Pine Mountain Lookout. The tower is unique in that it only gives a 180º view rather than 360º which allows you stunning views of the sunset. And they were absolutely gorgeous sunsets! There are cots provided just make sure you bring a sleeping bag, sheets, etc. It looks like they recently put in a new outhouse which was very clean! The only bad thing I have to say is there were a bunch of rodents; didn't see any while we were there, just a ton of mouse droppings on the counters and by the door in the morning, so make sure you pack away your food at night. There were also signs that rattlesnakes are in the area, but didn't see or hear any.

The roads driving up to the lookout tower are logging roads so they are a bit rough, this wasn't something we were expecting on our drive there. But overall it was an amazing experience. I can't wait to stay at another fire tower!

This is a gem in Red Bluff. CA. You are minutes from I-5 but it is impossible to hear the traffic. Right on the Sacramento River and the skies are remarkably dark.

We paid $8 per night for a site with our Interagency Senior Pass, no hookups. There are some sites with water and electric for $25 or $12.50 with pass. No sewer dump available.

I did not use the showers or bathrooms. Quarters required for a hot shower. Husband says bathroom was clean.

Beautiful old sycamore trees give this park lots of shade in the hotter months and provide a peaceful setting even in the winter months.

It is only about an hour to Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at Lassen NP.

In November when we stayed, there were maybe four or five other campers.

We would definitely return when we are driving thru.

This is a great spot close, but not too close to the highway. About 5-7 drive off the highway right next to the Sacramento River. There were about 20-25 sites that need to be booked online. It was full when we went, but we were able to boondock in the fisherman’s boat loading area w/out issue.

I stay here a lot as I pass through. Every single time there has been a methhead staying who is a ranting and raving lunatic dropping f-bombs this and m-fer that for the whole campground to hear. If they stopped taking cash it would fix a lot of problems separating vagrants from true nomads.

Excellent park for a mid week stay. There were lots of vacant spaces and weather was fabulous. We stayed in site 59 and will definitely return. View of the lake was great and watching the bass tournament was fun. Dry camping only but lots of fresh water hydrants, clean bathrooms and coin operated showers.

We were in a group site, which was nice and spacious. Had some tree coverage too which we were very grateful for because it was quite warm. Trees also were great for our hammocks! Downside was that due to extreme fire danger and fires in the area, we were allowed to have fires of any kind. Only propane stoves and grills were allowed. Also due to the extremely low water level the water seemed to have more algae and so we didn’t feel like getting in. Other people were in the water though, and they told us the water was fine to swim in. Bathrooms were decently clean but I think because they were individual bathrooms and had no windows, even though it had extremely high ceilings, there didn’t seem to be enough circulation and so they didn’t smell the best. We visited the visitor center, which was very informational and the ranger was very helpful and friendly. We even went to an evening event by the same ranger about raptors (birds of prey). Overall, was a really beautiful area and would definitely go back!

Nice place to camp. Very pretty. Not sure why we( and only us) weren't allowed to us the plug in for our RV. Very rude staff who work there.