This past weekend, I had the pleasure of camping at the Manzanita Campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Overall, the site, the park, and the experience was wonderful and made me fall in love with camping again. The weather was absolutely wonderful since there was no wind and it was sunny all weekend in the mid 70s.
Recommendations for Manzanita Camping
In general, the campgrounds were pretty solid around this area and I highly recommend choosing this campground for your stay in Lassen. We stayed in the A-Loop for Manzanita and I think it was the perfect location for camping since it was so close to the general store, the showers, the lake, and the bathrooms. Here are some general information that may or may not be useful for your trip.
General Campground Amenities
- There are flush toilets on site with toilet paper. They are very clean.
- There are hot showers + a laundry station. The showers can be paid with card and the laundry machines are quarter operated.
- The general store has all of the camping essentials and has a mini cafe where you can enjoy food and coffee.
- Bear lockers, fire pit, and picnic table within every campsite
Things to Be Weary Of
- Bear lockers are big enough for a standard sized cooler and bin, don’t bring anything too oversized
- There are a lot of ant hills on the campsite, make sure to bring a footprint for your tent and to pick a spot without an anthill underneath it
Recommendations for Lassen Volcanic
- Bumpass Hill Trail: this was one of the coolest things that I’ve seen in a National Park and it legitimately felt like I had entered another planet when getting to the sulphur pits along this trail. The artists’ palate was really cool and the colors were stunning.
- Kayaking on Manzanita: I’d recommend skipping this. The late is pretty small and the view wasn’t that cool. I would have much rather spent some time in other portions of the park.
- Burney Falls: worth the 45 minute drive north of Lassen. One of the coolest waterfalls I’ve seen in California
- Stargazing: at night, you can walk into a clearing and see the milky way with your naked eye. Highly recommend doing this at least one of the nights.
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