Best Equestrian Camping near Nice, CA

Great free campground! We've stayed here many times. It's open, grassy level and quiet. Next to a stream and surrounded by hills. The only tough part is getting across the stream to some of the hikes. It's a hot spot for horses which of course have no stream problems, so the only negative is fly's sometimes. But just keep your screen door closed (& fly swatter handy). We always manage to level out in our 23" Winnebago View. There is lots of open space so no crowding. There is a rural road near by but traffic noise isn't a problem. Perhaps I should say it's awful so fewer people come and it's not discovered.

Great place to stay at when visiting the Napa wine valley that is halfway between St Helena and Calistoga, two nice tourist towns. There are nice hiking trails in the park though they are closed currently (Dec 2020) due to the fire in the area. There was no damage to the campground even though the fire burned into the grounds. The weekends usually are full, it clears out Sunday evening so during the weekdays it is really nice. Staff are really nice. Be careful of the poison oak, it is prevalent there as it is so anywhere in Northern California.

I’ve been camping cross country for the last month with my husband. We’re from New York, and like to think we’re not easily rattled or intimidated. This was the first time on our trip that we were both scared.

The forest service website says this campground is not open for camping, just dirt bike and horse riding, so I had found a campground further into the National Forest to camp at. When we drove by Middle Creek, we could see the sites from the road and a few of them had tents and we could see some folks, the campground was pretty clearly operating to some extent. We just wanted somewhere to stay overnight on our way into SF so we doubled back and found a site, paid the $8 and had a snack. We explored our corner of the campground a little- pretty clean, a fine campground. No visible host.

Lots of wasps and flies, like standing right next to a dumpster. There was a woman who seemed to be experiencing homelessness and/or mental illness occupying multiple sites. She pretty clearly was stealing from sites people weren’t present at, right in front of us. She also had a dog that didn’t seem to be hers.

The man at the campsite next to us didn’t have a tent or anything, just paid then sat in his truck screaming and cackling and breaking stuff loudly and pounding beers.

We left without spending the night. The police need to go take a look out there.

We just stayed here for 2 nights, great location very close to Calistoga and not to far from Saint Helena! Next time i would love to try out a cabin or yurt. Cons are lots of poison oak and lots and lots of wasps! Bring a trap and be prepared to constantly tell the kids to stay away from the bushes. Great creek near by (we spent most of our time stacking rocks) and great hiking trails i believe it’s a 5 mile loop up ritchy creek. Very cool to see hundreds of frogs everywhere at night. Overall had a great time. Pool was awesome, staff was friendly, facilities were clean! Wood was overpriced but hey that’s the Napa Valley for you!

This was Part 2 of a "Test My Gear Close to Home" camping experience.  It's close enough to the wine country aspects of Napa to be an easy overnight without the excruciating Napa Valley hotel prices.  Google doesn't like finding the entrance, but I got the street address off the website and eventually made it.  The gentleman at the gate was lovely; the camp hosts kept to themselves.  My only drawback was that the showers were foul (cobwebs and spiders everywhere).  It's very quiet and woodsy.  I couldn't see my neighbors.  I was awoken (as is the norm in NorCal) to gobbling turkeys at dawn.  Easy access to hiking trails.  A shuttle stops at the park to take people into town for dinner if they don't want to drive after drinking.  The ground is volcanic rock and super hard in the dry weather.  I broke a couple tent poles and couldn't pull the rest out of the ground, so they're now donations.