Canoeing/Kayaking

Mendocino Magic

Mendocino Magic in Laytonville, California, is a multi-format camping destination in inland Mendocino County offering RV sites, glamping setups, and traditional tent camping — a versatile outdoor accommodation property in the US-101 corridor of the North Coast Range where the Eel River's wild and scenic stream country, the Cahto Wilderness, and the drive to the Mendocino Coast's redwood groves, sea stacks, and art galleries give guests the most complete North Coast camping experience available from a campground positioned between the redwood coast and the inland mountain valley. Laytonville's Mendocino County position on US-101, 45 miles east of the Mendocino coast and 50 miles south of Humboldt Redwoods State Park, gives the campground the specific North Coast corridor character of a property at the intersection of the coast road's scenic tourism appeal and the inland mountain valley's quieter outdoor recreation character. RV sites, glamping setups, and traditional tent camping give Mendocino Magic the complete spectrum of overnight outdoor accommodation in a single Laytonville property — the glamping format specifically gives the comfort-seeking non-camper the curated outdoor accommodation experience that the Mendocino County inland mountain setting sustains without the tent camping infrastructure logistics, and the RV site gives the self-contained traveler the hookup service for the North Coast leg of the US-101 coastal tour. The campground's multi-format accommodation reflects the specific Mendocino County market of the coastal artisan and agricultural heritage tourism that the North Coast's unique culture sustains. Pets are welcome. Humboldt Redwoods State Park, 50 miles north of Laytonville on US-101 in Humboldt County, protects the largest remaining contiguous old-growth coast redwood forest in the world — 17,000 acres of ancient Sequoia sempervirens forest in the Eel River's Bull Creek drainage where the Avenue of the Giants 32-mile scenic alternate to US-101 passes through the Rockefeller Forest's 10,000-acre old-growth stand, the world's largest preserved ancient redwood grove, in a grove of trees that include the confirmed tallest individual specimens in the forest. The coast redwood's maximum height of 380 feet and the 2,000-year age class of the Bull Creek drainage's oldest trees give the Humboldt Redwoods the specific scale and antiquity that no other temperate forest in the Northern Hemisphere matches. The Mendocino Coast, 45 miles west of Laytonville via CA-162 and CA-1 at Fort Bragg, provides the dramatic sea stack and headland coastline of the Mendocino Headlands State Park, the Mendocino village's Victorian architecture and artist colony character, and the Noyo Harbor's working fishing fleet and salmon charter boat operation that give the Fort Bragg-Mendocino corridor its specific combination of natural coastal scenery and North Coast cultural heritage. The MacKerricher State Park's 10 miles of beach north of Fort Bragg and the Glass Beach's sea-polished glass deposits give the Mendocino coastal day trip its accessible natural and geological attractions. Mendocino Magic serves guests through Mendocino County's North Coast camping season, with the spring whale migration from February through April giving the coastal viewpoints their spectacular gray whale observation and the summer fog season from June through August creating the coastal marine layer conditions that the inland Laytonville valley's warmer, clearer summer temperatures specifically complement for the guest who values the inland camp over the often-foggy coast campground in the summer. The Cahto Wilderness in the Mendocino National Forest gives the campground's immediate backcountry hiking access in the Laytonville area's inland mountain terrain. Reserve sites and glamping accommodations ahead for the summer US-101 coastal tourism season and the fall harvest season in Mendocino County's wine and apple country.

Blue Lakes Village RV Park

14 RV Sites

Blue Lakes Village RV Park sits directly across California Highway 20 from Blue Lakes in Lake County, Northern California, a small private resort tucked into the wine country foothills north of Clear Lake where the pace slows and the water is the center of daily life. The lake is private to resort guests, and the combination of direct waterfront access and a campground designed for campers who want to actually use the water rather than just park near it sets Blue Lakes Village apart from most RV parks in the Northern California lake country. Full hookup sites serve RV guests, and the resort's amenities lean into the lake experience: a private beach and dock give guests a direct launch point for kayaking, swimming to the rope swing, fishing from the dock, or simply jumping in on a summer afternoon. The property includes a fenced dog park, hammocks, BBQ pits, camping games, coin-operated laundry, a community garden, and resort-wide WiFi. Hot showers ensure the transition from lake to campsite is as comfortable as the experience of getting in the water in the first place. Blue Lakes sits in a long, narrow valley in the Lake County hills, surrounded by oak and manzanita terrain that holds the warmth of the Central California summer while staying noticeably cooler than the Sacramento Valley floor below. Lake County is California's least densely populated wine region—a place where the volcanic soils and high elevations produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel largely without the weekend crowds and tasting room queues that define Napa and Sonoma. The lakes here are spring-fed and clear, the kind of water that makes you want to get in it rather than just look at it from the shore. Clear Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake entirely within California, is a 20-minute drive south and supports excellent bass fishing, kayaking, and birdwatching along its extensive tule marsh shoreline. Lake Mendocino, formed by Coyote Valley Dam on the East Fork Russian River, is a similar distance north and adds boating, swimming, and hiking on Cow Mountain Recreation Area trails that climb the ridges above the reservoir. The town of Lakeport on Clear Lake provides restaurants, a lakefront city park, and the Lake County Museum's collection of Pomo and Wailaki basketry that is among the finest in California. Blue Lakes Village operates through the Northern California camping season with summer the peak period for lake swimming and water recreation. The resort accommodates both short-term campers and long-term guests on weekly and monthly arrangements, making it a flexible option for extended stays in the Lake County hills. The tiny home and retro RV accommodations available for overnight rental give the property a boutique character that goes beyond the standard RV park, and the private dock and beach ensure that arriving without a kayak is not a reason to miss out on what makes this particular lake destination worth visiting.

from $50/night

Clear Lake Campground

39 RV Sites

Clear Lake Campground in Clearlake, California, offers 36 full-hookup RV sites on Cache Creek with 30-amp service, taking rigs to 40 feet, plus a boat ramp, kayak and boat rentals, and an outdoor pool. Established in the 1950s, it sits on the sole natural outlet of Clear Lake — the largest natural freshwater lake entirely within California. Thirty-six sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30-amp in back-in, creekside back-in, and pull-through configurations sized to 40 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Rigs longer than 40 feet will not fit, and the 30-amp service is worth noting for guests running high-draw appliances. Laundry, restrooms, and showers handle longer stays, and WiFi reaches the property. Water access is the campground's core. A boat ramp gives direct entry to the creek and lake, and boat and kayak rentals are available on site for guests who arrive without their own. Fishing, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boats, and swimming all run from the property, with an outdoor pool as the managed alternative. A playground serves families, and hiking, biking, ping pong, and birding fill out the rest. Pets are welcome. Cache Creek carries bass and catfish, and Clear Lake's position on the migratory corridor concentrates birdlife through spring and fall. Note the lake experiences blue-green algae blooms in some summer periods, which affects swimming conditions. Clearlake sits 90 miles north of San Francisco on Highway 20, in Lake County's wine country and volcanic highlands. The campground has drawn returning Bay Area families for seven decades. Summer is peak — reserve ahead, and check current lake conditions when planning swimming.

from $58/night

Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe

14 RV Sites, 8 Cottages, 1 Yurt

Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe in Junction City, California, occupies the banks of the Trinity River in Trinity County — a riverside resort in one of California's most remote and most scenically dramatic inland counties, where the Trinity River flows cold and clear from the Trinity Alps Wilderness through a forested canyon that supports world-class fly fishing, whitewater rafting, and the kind of genuine wilderness character that Highway 299's remote corridor delivers for travelers willing to make the drive between Redding and the Humboldt coast. The resort's combination of cottages, a 30-foot yurt, pet-friendly accommodations, and full-hookup RV sites gives guests a range of accommodation formats suited to the river canyon environment, and the on-site café — built into a 2,000-square-foot straw bale structure overlooking the Trinity — provides the culinary experience that makes staying at Strawhouse a more complete destination than simply a camping infrastructure. Cottages including the Creekside Cottage and Suncrest House, the distinctive 30-foot yurt, and RV sites positioned across from the café with private fishing and direct Trinity River access give guests multiple ways to inhabit the same riverside setting. The resort's family-friendly orientation and the pet-friendly policy across multiple accommodation types make it accessible to the full range of traveling household compositions, and the private river access at the RV site level gives campers the direct Trinity River contact that motivated their drive to Trinity County in the first place. The café's organic coffee, full meals, and river view make it a natural gathering point for both resort guests and Highway 299 travelers. The Trinity River through Junction City and the Trinity County corridor is one of California's premier wild and scenic rivers — a designated Wild and Scenic River with exceptional water quality, substantial populations of summer and winter steelhead, spring chinook salmon, and rainbow trout in a river setting of old-growth Douglas fir and ponderosa pine forest. The Trinity River fly fishing tradition draws anglers from across California and the Pacific Northwest specifically to this corridor, and the combination of drift boat float fishing and wade fishing through the green-water pools accessible from the resort's private access makes Strawhouse the natural base for fishing-focused Trinity County stays. Whitewater rafting on the Trinity River, accessible through outfitters operating from the Junction City area, provides Class II through IV whitewater through the canyon sections that the river's gradient and volume produce in the right-season conditions — typically from snowmelt through early summer. Trinity Lake, formed by Trinity Dam upstream near Weaverville, adds flatwater recreation, bass fishing, and lake camping options to the broader Trinity County recreation available from a Strawhouse base. The Trinity Alps Wilderness, rising to over 9,000 feet above the resort's valley floor, provides trail access into some of the most alpine and least-visited wilderness terrain in Northern California. Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe operates through Trinity County's outdoor season, with the steelhead and salmon fishing windows driving the most fishing-specific visitor traffic — fall chinook from September through November and winter steelhead from December through March. Summer whitewater and general resort season runs May through September when the café operates at full capacity and river access from the RV sites is most actively used. Reserve accommodations ahead for fall fishing season and summer rafting weekends, when Trinity County's limited lodging inventory fills from the Redding, Sacramento, and Bay Area markets.

from $62/night