Best RV Parks & Resorts near Shasta Lake, CA

Manzanita Lake Campground is the campground closest to the north entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is best accessed from California State Route 44/89. My wife and I reserved space A8 for a four-night stay beginning August 7, 2023. 

While the campground is well-maintained, I cannot, under any circumstances, recommend that space for anyone camping with an RV or travel trailer. From all appearances A8 looked perfect. But appearances can be deceiving. Looking at an online map of the campground A8 appeared to be a pull-through site which it is. The problem is the site dips down from the access road, bottoms out slightly, then rises again back toward the access road. It took us nearly an hour to locate an area within the space that would allow us to attain a reasonable level so that our refrigerator would operate on propane. And our travel trailer is only 18-feet in length. Once the trailer was reasonably level, the entry step was approximately 18 inches from ground to the step (see images).

Despite the initial difficulties, once settled, we found the campground to be quiet even though there is not a lot of space between sites. The camp store offers some grocery items but is mainly dedicated to the sale of tourist merchandise. It does have a gas pump offering only 87 octane regular gas at $4.99 per gallon - cash only which is below market price for the area.

We would camp at Manzanita Lake Campground in the future but would be highly selective in our choice of sites - driving through the various loops we noted that very few are close to level.

We stayed there long term after Paradise Camp Fire. Many spaces had their own private grassy areas, which management took care of. We had pottd plants and yrd art and potted veggies. .y site didn't have a cemented space but there was an old picnic table and it was small gravel so easy to get trailer leveled. Allowed to put up a dog containment fence, outdoor screened room on the awning and a small storage shed. We also started a community veggie garden where residents could plot their own veggies. Many spaces are spacious and ours backed up into a wooded area. Our neutered cat loved to roam the woods at night. Pool is refreshing but there are a lot of kiddos, so don't expect quiet "no splashing" moments unless it's a dinner time. Bathroom/showers/pool area are clean, grounds are green and colorful with flowers, there's a club house used for parties and management puts on Christmas and Halloween events. There's a newly built sunshaded playground for the kids, ultimate course on grounds and a small boat ramp nearby to Sac River for fishing access. I wouldn't launch my kayaks or paddleboards due to under currents, but that's just me. I prefer Whiskeytown and Shasta Lake for kayaking/paddle boarding. Overall, I had a wonderful year staying there. Rules aren't so rigid that it makes it uncomfortable. Basic common sense and common RV etticate are expected, like picking up after your pooch, don't let you barker bark too long without duct taping (just kidding) doing something about it, keep area clean and not junked out and just chill out.

Where camped here just after they opened in April, 2021.  The daytime visitors made for a large crowded parking lot and line at the entrance station, but so far on 8 campers in the 64 sites that were open.

It is a wonderfully shaded park (i.e. no solar) and the sites are nicely separated.  However it is an older park and our 18 foot trailer was too large for many of the sites.  There were no pull throughs and any trailer over 25 feet is going to have a problem.  Otherwise, for the most part the pads were paved and flat.

They had solid picnic tables, aging stone fireplaces, but nice, newer heavy metal fire rings.  Wood was available for purchase.  There is no electric on site and the water faucets (not threaded) were scattered around the site.  No dish water dump or cleaning station, but there was an RV dump station.  They flush toilets with hot and cold water sinks as well as the showers (2 tokens for $1 = 4min) are excellent.

This is a cell dead zone.  Absolutely no Verizon service until you drove back to Burney.

We really enjoyed the different hikes that were available, being around 2 miles more or less in length.  The falls are the usual tourist zoo, but very beautiful.  Once you get out on the trails, you don't see many people.

General: Four loops plus a cabin loop, however, after September 5 at noon, the only loops open are A, B, and cabins. 

Site Quality: Some pull-throughs and some back-in. The back-in sites were, for the most part, better suited for tent camping as the camper pads were quite short and many were not level. We lucked out in that our camper pad was only slightly unlevel and we could make it work with our camper van. Some sites were close together with minimal separation while others had more trees separating them. 

Bath/Shower house: There were several toilet options ranging from vault toilets to basic bathrooms with flush toilets, to larger restrooms with dishwashing sinks. Although there was a soap dispenser in the two closest to our site, there was no soap. The very cold water was oh-so refreshing on a cold September morning! The dishwashing sink in the A loop was locked but we did see campers using the one in the B Loop.

Activities/Amenities: There is a camper store with food, showers, gas, and laundry available. You can access both Manzanita and Reflection Lakes (1.5 and.5 miles respectively) from the campground. The Chaos Crags trailhead is approximately a half mile from the A Loop. There are kayak, cataraft, and SUP rentals available for Manzanita Lake but it was a bit chilly when we were there. There is zero cell service in the campground but it is noted there is a milepost where you can grab a signal. On our Chaos Crags hike, however, we got a strong signal on Verizon!

The campground was okay but worth it as a base camp for exploring the northwest part of the park. Happy this one has not been outsourced to a vendor and the price is still reasonable ($26 or$13 with the senior pass).

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.