Best Equestrian Camping near Shasta-Trinity National Forest

This little gem is a great place to stay while visiting Lassen. Located off a well maintained gravel road near beautiful Butte Lake. We had no problem towing our trailer to this location and neither did our friends whose trailer is 30+ ft. The campsites are spacious and well maintained. Lots of trees and within walking distance to the lake. Flush toilets were decently clean.

There are no sites located on the actual lake so you have to pack a beach bag, chairs, toys and snacks and haul them down to the waters edge if you want a beach day. Mosquitoes were HUGE so don’t forget bug spray!

The Cinder Cone hike along the old lava flow behind the campsite is spectacular! Don’t let the climb up the cinder cone dissuade you; the panoramic view from the top is well worth it! We did it with two 6 year olds. Don’t forget to visit the nearby Lava Tubes and geothermal sights.

We were looking for.a place to camp near Redding, our home town. This campground is about 30 mins from Redding. It was an easy tow on rural but well maintained roads all the way to the campground. Easy tow for my 25.5 foot travel trailer and 2019 Chevy taho .

The store is well supplied with camping and fishing needs. The park has lots of trees for shade and the spaces are wide. Wider than any other places we have stayed . The spots are grassed, all clean and well maintained. Everyone there was very nice and will happily give you fishing advice, if you ask.

Our dogs loved the area down below, we would take them off leash and let them do dog-things.

Just around the corner from the campground ( walking distance) is access to the river. The whole family enjoyed dipping in when it’s warm outside

We will be back

Stayed at Butte Lake for two nights in late June 2022. None of the campsites has an unobstructed lake view, but it’s a short walk to the day use area on the shore. This is a good jumping off point for a ton of hikes on this side of Lassen NP; excellent signage tells you how far each destination is. The sites themselves are not very private; kids were rolling through our site on bikes all afternoon and evening, dogs were barking at each other, it was a little crowded feeling even though it was probably only at half capacity. (There were reservation cards on almost all the sites, but it seems like a lot of people didn’t show up.) That said, after driving past some of the other campgrounds right next to the highway, I was happy to have chosen this one.

Despite the remote location and the bumpy gravel road to get to this park, it is a very popular campground. Advanced reservation is a must. Make sure to read the signs about the wildlife and take the advice of how to store food seriously. We saw a bear just a mile outside the campground. 

The sites are large and spaced far apart and shady. The lake is only a short walk away and great for swimming, kayaking or paddle boarding. The lake is surrounded by lava and the beach has been formed by volcanic material and smells a little sulphuric but the water is very clear. There are several stunning  hikes starting right at the campground .

If you're up for driving down a bumpy gravel road for 5-6 miles, this campground is a hidden gem within Lassen. Facilities are clean, sites are decent sized and there's a beautiful lake (Butte Lake) and a couple of great hikes that you can do directly out of the campground. We did the Cinder Cone trail, which is short, exposed, extremely steep but has a great payoff in terms of view and curiosity factor. We stayed for one night only, as we were passing through and I enjoyed our stay. If you're freaked out about taking your rig down a bumpy and dusty road, I would avoid this one. Otherwise, this is a tranquil spot away from the masses, which easily offers a day or two of activities, including potentially serving as a base camp to see other sites in the park and area. e.g. Barney Falls.

This is a great little mom and pop rv campground. There are tent sites away from the rv part, but we never checked that area out. The rv spots are very clean, and even though they’re close together with no privacy it was an amazingly quiet park. The park is about 1/4 full time residents, 1/4 permanent vacation spots that people keep trailers at and visit from time to time and the other half is campers. We stayed for a week and became buddies with the camp host Craig who gave us great fishing tips for the area and had some great conversation with as well. The owners were very nice and run a tight ship. The rv spots are full hook up with nice green grass, no cable but ok Verizon signal and we got a few local channels on the tv antenna. They have a nice little store and a fish cleaning stand. We fished Lewiston lake less than 10 min. away and Whiskeytown Lake about 20-25 min. away with great luck. The little town of Lewiston is pretty cool and a 5 min walk from the campground as well is the trinity river. We will definitely be back.