Best Glamping near Helena, CA

Stayed here for 4 days. Huge campsite with view of the lake, room for a few tents and a hammock. Fire pit. Can collect dead wood for the fire. Swimming, fishing and boating. Caught bass and catfish. Watched Osprey diving for fish in the early morn right from my campsite.Bald eagles, Herons and Hawks were also a joy to watch. Kids enjoyed swimming catching frogs, turtles and baby catfish with their hands. Poison oak is cleared from around the campsite but need to use care off trail. Nice short trail to Fir Cove. Very much enjoyed our time. Only downside was the heat.

Nice little campground right next to a pretty river.  When I stayed I was the only one at the campground.  The sites are near the road but it seemed to have light usage and I never heard cars in the night.  

No running water (unless you filter from the river) and no trash services, just a pit toilet.

This campground is a great place to stay before heading into the Trinity Alps.  A 20 minute drive on a dirt road leads to the China Gultch Trailhead, a popular trail leading to Grizzly Lake.

I would definitely recommend this site to anyone headed into the Alps.

Nice, small campground near the edge of Trinity Lake. Approximately 8 campsites can be reserved and 8 are available on a first come, first serve basis. There are no showers available, but there are showers at the nearby Bushytail campground up the road. Site 1 is the only site with electric hookups. The nearby lakeshore is quite muddy (depending upon water level), but provides great fishing and boating opportunities. A nice trail runs along the campground. There is no wifi or cellular coverage. Booking the site was a little confusing because the website noted "dry camping" - we did not know what to expect based on this description. However, there IS running drinking water and bathrooms with flush toilets and sinks on-site. Advise picking up firewood before arrival. There is no firewood available for purchase on-site. However, you are able to gather available wood. There is also a small store which sells firewood 10-15 minutes away  (Pinewood Cove).

We stayed for one night as we were passing thru from Oregon to Central California.

Pros

• No cell service
• In the trees, very secluded
• Flush potties.
• Nice swimming hole, the water was warm in mid June. This seems to be the primary attraction for this area. Most of the families were gathered along the shore and playing in the water.
• Hiking straight out of the camp ground. But, it is a very steep trail, so make sure you bring a walking stick(s) and wear proper gear. This is also a heavy bear area, so pack your bear spray.
• Best for tent or car camping.
• Nice fire pits, wood for sale at office
• Fantastic place for kids… so many families with young children.
• The camp host and other campers were really friendly.

Cons

• Close to the road, we heard vehicles all night. We were in a hard sided camper two rows away from the road and could hear them inside. It’s got to be really loud for people closer and in tents.
• Tight spots and everyone is packed closely together (Check out the video).
• No electric, site water, dumping, or showers.
• Not suited for most RVs and travel trailers, you need to be very small and fully self contained. Our 19’ A-Line barely fit into our spot. The sites are close together, short, with roots coming up in the road and parking areas, and sharp angled turns to get into your spot. A lot of spot have over hanging tree limbs. We made it in our spot because our camper is super low profile during travel mode. Would not have been able to fit under the tree limbs with a normal camper.
• Hwy 36 from the 101 is very curvy with lots of narrow areas and very few turn offs.
• Not a good place for dogs, very few areas they are allowed other than your camp site. Upon arriving we receive a yellow sheet letting us know why our dog was a problem for wildlife in this area and all the reasons we should not bring him with us next time.

Over all, I this campground would be a fun place for families, wanting to disconnect from technology for a weekend of tent camping.

We stayed here for 4 weeks while traveling for work in Redding, so I think our review is well qualified. We're traveling in a 40ft RV for reference though they do also have tent spaces. 

First off, I'm surprised to be the first one to review this campground on the Dyrt, since it has a lot of informative reviews on Google. We looked at a handful of other campgrounds prior to staying here. Covid and wild fires did have an effect on the other campgrounds that were open, but of those that were,  I think this was one of the best. 

It has all the amenities one could expect from a typical RV park, full hookups, wifi, cable, showers, laundry, etc. There's a cell tower on the way in to the campground. You can expect two to three bars of LTE from both AT&T and Verizon (we use both) . The staff is very friendly and helpful. I can't say enough about their exceptional attitudes. The spaces are all in the woods with mostly shade, though there are some that get more sunlight than others. The RV spaces are large and offer more privacy than most campgrounds. It tended to fill up on the weekends (sometimes completely) but was fairly quiet during weekdays with only a handful of people. Quiet and peaceful during the week. About thirty minutes to downtown Redding. Small gas station within walking distance, and a small grocery store in driving distance. 1.5 miles off the highway. Big rigs welcome. The website shows pictures of all the individual sites, quite helpful.

It was a mostly positive experience, but we'll mention two negatives. The bathrooms  sometimes got pretty dirty on the busy weekends and ran out of supplies at times. Hard to say if the pandemic was causing short staff or not though. The other issue is the bears. Its wasn't an issue of them bothering us, we only physically saw them one time in four weeks. They got into the trash pretty regularly though. It was very evident in the morning when the cans would be knocked over and rummaged through.  It could be easily solved with some bear-proof trash cans. Not really a big deal and it didn't have any effect on our stay. 

We'll definitely be coming back next time we're in the area. Checkout the reviews on Google for more perspective.