Best RV Parks & Resorts near Helendale, CA

A bit challenging to locate via Google Maps... Just go up (south) Summit Blvd, when you get to the parking lot of the ski resort, veer towards the left, and just past a concrete wall, you'll see the little Pineknot Campground sign attached to an aluminium pole. The campground is very cozy, countless tall pine trees, clean bathrooms, clean sites, water from taps, no hookups, and not for big rigs. The hosts are friendly, but strict! No generators from 8 pm to 8 am, a $3000 fine if your campfire is left unattended, and no rowdy obnoxious behavior is tolerated! We appreciated the rules, and thoroughly enjoyed our peaceful, quiet, deep in the woods getaway!!

Traveling while pulling my utility trailer along makes slow going. And pulling up a long, long, long desert mountain grade can be downright exhausting.

So this is a mighty grateful thumbs up review. Robert made my day when I phoned up in the late afternoon and offered me a limited use rate on one their full hookup sites.

And of course, I got in real late, just after late closing hours–10 pm!

I got the last pull through site at the end of the lane. It was a breeze to pull in, get my deep cycle battery charging. 30 Amp with an adapter is all I need.

Shady Lane is mostly populated by real big rigs. So a 50amp socket is also on the post.

The park is a little distance from the highway, so it's blessedly quiet overall. After a grueling pull from Las Vegas, it was a wonderful blessing to crawl into my tent with my feline road companion, Missy. She just loves tent camping the very best. It was down in the 40s last night, but our traveling bed is a cushy cloud ☁️ from Heaven 🌠🌌✨ Just me and Missy and all those stars on that dark desert night.

Just woke to a lovely quiet morning here at Shady Lane. Fully renewed, to make my long drive down towards San Diego.

Looks they offer all the basics, showers, laumdry, and the same wifi network is offered all over these desert parts.. So once signed up, its the same login wherever you go on this network.. That's handy. Great wifi signal all the way down at the end of the lane, too.

Most importantly, Shady Lane offers tent spots and doesn't get snooty about whether you're pulling a utility trailer, or a spit shined mega-rig. On the phone, when I spoke with Robert, told him what I'm pulling along, he was as nice as can be.

I'm glad I found this quiet little desert overnighter. 🏜 Just right for Missy and me.

Needed somewhere fairly close to home to take my new to us motorhome. Sites were decent size but fairly close together so don’t expect a lot of privacy. Sites interspersed among long term residents. Hookups water and electric at each site. Some shade, trails to riverbed currently mostly dry and Bonita falls about 25 minute walk over river rock. Fire rings available to rent for $5. The biggest issue I had was our electric went out to our loop at about 7:30pm…luckily we are self contained…it still had not been restored when we left the next day at noonish. The lights to the office area and restrooms was still on (thankfully) but not the camp sites.

This is a great BLM campground, FREE, individual sites with varying levels of privacy and levelness, no reservations. Each site has a shade structure, table, fire pit, and grill. There are pit toilets but no other amenities. No water and no trash service- please pack your trash out! We had to pick up after some other campers which is just so dumb to have to do. There was a camper there who looked like they had set up for long term residency, and the sheriff came by and kicked them out.

This is also a big rock climbing destination so you’ll have climbers coming in for the day as well. There are some “dispersed” type sites in the brush area so if you show up and all the spots are taken, you can sleep in one of those spots in a pinch until morning. We were there in late December and there were only a couple of other campers, and then again in early January and it was busy on weekends but quiets down during the week. 

The road coming in is 1.6 miles of washboard and some big dips, but it’s doable. Cell service is very spotty throughout the campground. Parts of decent ATT or Verizon service, and parts have zero. Lots of hikes and trails and places to walk and scramble.

We reserved and camped at this beautiful campground back in July of 2018. It was a great experience. We pulled a 27' Travel Trailer from Livermore, CA and picked out the perfect site #94. It was the furthest RV site north of the campground and we had power, water and sewage. It was a lake front campsite so we had a nice view of the lake right in our "front yard" :-) We had a picnic table and a fire pit for our use.
The fishing was awesome, but I suggest fishing in the mornings before the afternoon winds come in as the weather cools down. We had our kayaks and it is a beautiful lake to kayak. But when it gets windy, know your limits :-)
The campground is close to the Lassen Volcanic National Park. We took a drive there for a visit and it was spectacular. 
The campground also has a great store there. It has all the camping necessities. If you are into hiking and biking, this campground has the accommodations for that activity. It also has a kid's park.  They also have cabins if you do not want to use a tent or RV.