Best Campgrounds near Helena, CA

Really love this campground though it does have some limitations. It's about 15 minutes west of Willow Creek off the 299. Very well shaded and has a creek running through it alongside the majority of the sites. There are two larger group sites towards the back, and at some points the creek gets deep enough to recline in, though not fast or deep enough to be unsafe for anyone older than a toddler.

For me, the major drawback was that the cell service gets patchy as this site is in somewhat of a cleft in the mountains, and the geography also limits the amount of direct sunlight throughout the day. As such, I had a difficult time getting signal and had trouble sending or receiving texts the further away I got from the camp entrance. Though some might view this as a positive, it is also a potential safety concern should an emergency arise. This may be mitigated to an extent by current technology allowing some phones to utilize satellites for emergency communications, but I can't speak from experience as to whether or not it's effective in this case.

Additionally, the mosquitoes can get pretty thick due to the proximity to water. 

Usually this would work best for me as a base camp to return to after a long day at the Kimtu shore.

Very close to Willow Creek which is convenient, but once night falls, beware, or bring very good earplugs. 

This never would have occurred to me as a potential issue before experiencing it firsthand, but the site is right next to the highway, and cars are not the issue. This is a precise point where due to the grade of the road, every. Single. Passing. Semi. Downshifts, and there are plenty that go by all night. It's like sleeping next to the gods themselves, if they had sleep apnea. I slept miserably because I kept getting jolted awake by that unmistakable, obnoxious gurgling of exhaust at random intervals anywhere between 1 to 20 minutes at a time. If that's not a big deal to you, then you'll probably be fine, but I would have been eternally grateful to have known that in advance.

My second time here...dunno why I didn't review it on the first.

Mid-July and a main gateway to the Trinity Alps, I figured this place would be fairly busy.  Exact opposite!!   Not a soul in camp & very few cars at the trailhead parking lot (about a mile up the road).  There are 8 spots, 4 fairly close to a parking 'slot', 4 that you can park in an open area and walk to (at most 10-15 yards away).  There is one pit building with 4 toilets, 2 men/women.  There were trash/recycling receptacles.   All spots had fire rings/picnic tables, several had bear boxes.  There was NO cell service (Verizon & T-Mobile).  With temps into the high 90s, the jewel of this camp was Canyon Creek.  The color of this creek was the most beautiful gray/blue I had seen.  Crystal clear water at a refreshing mid-60s? temperature.  With a hot summer day...it was perfect!!

Absolutely beautiful and spacious. It was a little hard to find, but granted we showed up in the middle of the night so I added to the struggle. There is a picnic table and a campfire pit to designate the camp spot, which was nice. The table at the spot was a little bit eroded, but nothing we couldn’t handle. There is a beautiful little creek right next to the campsite.

The only negative I would say is that the first night at about 3 AM we heard some random gunshots go off and a chainsaw And then about an hour later, someone walked up to our campsite, which was a little sketchy, but overall, we were OK.

I will also say that there is a beehive right above the campsite that we were at so the bees did go a little crazy, but we did not get stung and my dog was OK

The road to get up there is a bit overgrown and there’s a lot of potholes so just keep that in mind

We did have a few deer walking through our campsite through the middle of the night, and my dog loved chasing them away

Castle Crags was one of my favorite camping experiences I've had in ages. I stayed here for five nights this past April. My site was so huge, I couldn't believe I only paid $12.50 a night for it (with my pass). The only major downside was that showers were down, and only the section of campground without showers was open. Yes there was some noise from the train and highway but I personally prefer this over yelling and bass. The PCT has an auxiliary trail to this campground and there is a site reserved just for PCT hikers for $6/night. There are several electric charging stations hidden near this site. The hike from the campground to the view of Shasta, Lassen, and Castle Crags was moderately difficult but relatively short and well worth the view. There are several famous waterfalls located not far from this campground and Weed, CA is only about 15 minutes away. Not much around other than that but I'd come back just for the campground.

We stayed here a few years ago and the water was so low that we literally could not reach it, even after a long walk down, it just became too rocky. So we were incredibly happy this time around that the water levels were so high. It was beautiful. We scored ourselves a really cool spot right along the water on a Thursday afternoon, thinking that even if it gets busy for the weekend at least we have our nice spot secured. But. It was spring break. And just about an hour after we arrived, so did everyone else. We were practically surrounded by this huge group, with kids, loose dogs, ATVs, boats, dirt bikes, generators running, just…. Not where we want to be. We left the next morning. But I will say that the few peaceful hours we had before they all arrived were incredible. We’ll definitely go back, but only if it’s during the week and not on a school break. 

It’s free to stay here in the off-season but $15/night during the season. Not really sure how the payment works since it’s dispersed camping along the lake shore but maybe it makes sense when you see it or when it's open. Pretty good cell reception here. We managed to navigate to our spot just fine in a 26ft class c.