Castle Crags State Park

The staff here is awesome and worked hard to accomodate our desire to arrive a day early. The campground is in a couple sections, with those by the Sacramento River nicer and further apart. However, an active train track is 30 yards away and trains went by day and night, always blowing their horn in passing. Those on the other side of I-5 (the park was built by the CCC in 1935 and later bisected by the freeway construction) are lovely and wooded, but very close together and none that I could see were level. Quite a few had a parking spot 5 yards from the tent site and picnic table. Too cramped for our tastes. And no RVs here - we struggled to find a flat site for our 21' Class B (number 9, which was awesome). Showers are in the main campground; the river side has only a skanky restroom but multiple water faucets. No dump station. A couple great hikes in the park! Definitely a good 2 night location. Big cell service in the main campground but slim to none by the river.

Stayed here while supporting a PCT hiker in early June ‘22. Staff were extremely helpful and accommodating where possible. I had a FedEx package delivered here and I needed to stay an additional night beyond my reservation so had to shift campsites. Not really suitable for trailers over 25’ and leveling is required in most spots. There are a couple of pull-thru spots but small so still had to work trailer a bit to fit. There is freeway noise and more so in the lower section. There was very poor solar due to dense trees and I had to run my generator part of the day to keep up after the first couple of days of cloudy weather and rain. There is a gas station with a minimart within walking distance; not much else around. Lots of hiking trail access (Castle Crags) and vista point access at the end of the campground.

Mid September and hardly anyone hear at the campground. Stayed a Sunday night on the way to Oregon and a Thursday night on the way back. I have passed by the campgrounds many times and never went in to look at them. It is a bit older camp grounds but still in decent shape and close to I5 (some road noise Michelin river is one way to think of it)
We were tired so we were hoping we could get a spot here as we came off the highway.
The ranger said to go look and see where we would like to stay. There were only a few places we could fit the trailer and truck but most of the campground was available for tent camping and day camping/hiking. We would love to come back and hike the trails some time up to the beautiful crags that you can catch a glimpse from on I5 coming through The area. No hookups or dumps for the trailer but we were just fine dry camping.

This park is open. No reservations needed. Frist come/first serve.
Cost is $25 a night/$22 a night senior.
Only lower camping loops are open at this time. Upper loop by Memorial Day.
One bathroom is open in the lower loop with heated bathrooms and showers. Additional bathrooms will be open in late April. Fires are allowed at this time with firewood available for purchase.
Camp Host onsite as well.
Beautiful views, great hiking trails (Easy to Difficult).
Each site has picnic table, fire pit, and old grills structures from the 1930s. They work but old. (need to be refurbed).

“Due to the recent visitation surges at this unit, the park is again temporarily closing vehicular access, meaning that there is no camping, parking facilities, or vehicular use of park roadways beginning July 22, 2020 until further notice. All restrooms are closed. The park will be open for locals who can walk or bike in for trail or day-use.”

From Parks.CA.gov

Wanted a place for one night on our way to Washington and this filled our needs. Being right off I5 made it perfect for stopover but being so close to I5 also made it less than quite. There was also a train running. Stayed in May so everything was still green. Campground was pretty much empty. Our site had a concrete pad, we still had a little leveling to do. Campground had flush toilet, shower and running water. No hookups.
Trail down to the Sacramento River. Hiking trails throughout but one we enjoyed was the Vista trail. Views of the crags and Mount Shasta.

I stayed here only one night, on the way north toward Oregon. The park is located just off Interstate 5, which is convenient but also a major drawback due to noise. I recommend staying on the Upper Loop, which is further from the highway. I arrived late and the only availability was the Lower Loop.

The site was fine for tent camping, but the noise from the interstate was very loud. Also, the mosquitos were horrendous! They swarmed any exposed skin and made it impossible to enjoy sitting outside. The bathrooms had running water, showers and flush toilets; however they were nothing to write home about and could use a cleaning.

I didn't hang around the next day to do any hiking, but the park looks fairly nice.

In the future, I would likely make this a day trip or visit during the cooler months when the bugs are less active.