Best Tent Camping near Lassen Volcanic National Park

Another great campsite within the gorgeous (and uncrowded) Lassen Volcanic National Park, this one is on the northern shore of a Summit Lake, a blue, pristine lake near 7000 feet. There are two camping loops with tent sites and small RV trailer sports available. No hook-ups, but flush toilets and sinks nearby.

Sites can be further inland near the forest with a parking lot that separates you from the lakeshore. In the summer, the lake is great for swimming.

There is another campsite on the southern side of the lake that is very similar, but we prefer the north campground in that the sites are closer to the lake itself. Numerous hikes are available within the area.

This campground is just south of Lassen Volcanic National Park.  It has two main sections, one for RVs and the other for tents.  There are a small number of RV sites with full hookups and then a larger number of tent sites.  The RV sites are fairly small, but felt separated enough to have some privacy.  The tent sites are a bit more rustic.

The other slightly odd part is that most of the RV sites were filled with people who came and stayed for the entire summer, year after year.  We were the only not long-term camper in the RV section.  

Pros:

* Close to a lot of amazing scenery with Lassen

* Well kept, clean, quiet campground

* Camp store/restaurant is great

* Laundry on site

* Access to a nice little creek w/swimming hole

Cons:

* Camp store is open limited days

* Tent sites only have pit toilets which are not the best maintained

OK:

* No fires in the RV sites

* Showers were not always very clean

The camp ground was beautiful. Pretty close to the water, however, this year summer 2021 the water is very low. The camp ground offers bathrooms, bear boxes, very nice fire rings and clean water. There is no camp host so bring your own wood. The fee is $25 a night. The trash cans were over flowed and there was bags of trash outside of the garbage. Please don’t do this)-:

Weird vibes: when we pulled up there was only one other truck there. They were two people yelling at each other pretty loud so that was kinda awkward but, nothing crazy. Then we set up our tent and other car came to the spot next to ours and checked the bear box and was walking around the spot. They moved parked at another spot and did the same thing. I’m not sure if they left something or what was going on but, they just walked around to each site checking the bear box’s??

Not sure if I would return unless more people were there because I felt uncomfortable leaving my tent and things there unattended.

This is a great spot that I almost didn't review because I don't want anyone else to know about it. The campground is approximately 30 minutes off of Hwy. 44 on dirt forest service roads. The roads were in great condition in August of 2017, to the point were a two-wheel drive low-clearance car would have made it without issue, but would likely take longer than 30 minutes.

The campground itself is nice with sites being reasonably spread out. This was our first visit to this campground but in talking with some of the friendly neighbors many people come back to this same campground year after year.

There are two sets on campsites, drive-up and walk-in. The walk-in sites can be a bit of a hike away from the parking area, so if you do plan to camp there (I believe they are all first come, first serve), do bring a wagon, cart, or backpack to carry your gear in and out. It did seem like a few folks may have been able to talk the host into opening the locked gate so that they could drop off their stuff before parking their car in the designated lot. The walk-in sites are located right next to the reservoir and there is a separate bathroom building for those sites. The remaining drive-up sites are still close to the reservoir, maybe a short 500-foot walk to the closest access point.

The reservoir is beautiful and is plenty big enough for some great kayaking or paddle boarding. There were also many people fishing both from the shore and from boats or floats.

Four-wheeling and dirt bike riding seemed to be another common way to spend the day for many folks at the campground, likely exploring the miles and miles of forest service roads surrounding the campground. Although we didn't notice anyone with a telescope, this area was incredible for stargazing. Camp near the reservoir or bring your telescope down to the shoreline as the rest of the campground is pretty heavily wooded, but don't miss out on enjoying one of the most amazing night skies you may ever see.

We drove in and out once each day we stayed at the site to hike inside Lassen Volcanic National Park. While it wasn't a short drive we enjoyed being away from the RVs and large groups of people camping within the National Park campgrounds.

Next time we come here, and we do plan to go back, we will plan in a day or two to simply enjoy the reservoir and area around the campground. There is plenty to do between exploring and just relaxing in the relative quiet, and well worth a day or two to not go anywhere and just enjoy the area.

I have camped at Lassen Volcanic National Park twice. And this campground is definitely the family friendly, rangers in sight, store nearby type of campground here. It’s right next to manzanita lake, and easy to access the area off the highway. My first time here I was more than excited to see bumpass hell, unfortunately this was in June of 2018 so bumpass hell was closed for construction. I still enjoyed my time here because the park is very beautiful. We drove up to summit lake and did some exploring in the area. Summit lake also has a campground that only holds a few sites. It’s a more relaxed and quiet campground since there aren’t really stores nearby.