Perry Riffle

This is NOT a campground. It is a gravel parking lot for horse trailers and vehicles doing camping along the trails.
The 14 day limit camping sign is referring to the ACTUAL CAMPSITES miles away down the numerous trails. This spot is designed for day use visitors and those camping out on the trails. It is a trailhead parking lot with a restroom...NOT A CAMPGROUND.

Arrived at dusk after a long day of driving. The road in can be a bit iffy at dark with low hanging branches for our 37' 5th wheel, but we made it just fine with no issues. For the Sacramento Rec Area, there are 3 places you can camp overnight - Perry Riffle is one of them. Dont park overnight in the random pull offs - they will ask you to move- we learned the hard way. We stayed for a total of 6 nights for our work week, before heading south. The location is just a small gravel parking lot/trail head. Day use can be pretty heavy and fill up the lot. We had no trouble getting a place to park for our 37' 5th Wheel and truck, but it is February and that could be a very different story in a months time -we also arrived around sunset when most day use was gone. Would venture this is probably an ideal place for vans or small Class Cs, but you'll be lucky to get a big rig in here during warmer months. There are a lot of little trails around which make for nice morning and evening strolls. We have electric bikes which were fun to take out on the roads, but most of the paths are not great for large electric bikes. The walk down to the river is short and pleasant to watch the ducks and occasional floater. If you have watercraft, the river looks perfect for a slow float! There is a pit toilet and trash/recycling available. No hook ups of any sort. We had 2/5 bars for Verizon and fast Starlink service for work. Would definitely come again!

This place was perfect for what I needed, a quick place to crash off the 5 as I traveled up state. There’s a single bathroom that is surprisingly well kept. No RV hookups, and there is Not a lot of space either, so your miles may cary depending on how busy it is. That being said, it is also likely you’ll hear noisy neighbors because of how close it is. There are also few spots for actual tents.

We stayed here in a 32 ft class A and suv tow vehicle. The first parking lot is not overnight but keep driving and you’ll get to Perry Riffle. The entire road is paved to the end. We parked under the tree. Good for mountain bike and hike. Personally I found it a bit boring. Might be better to go to Iron Canyon Hike next time, I think the hike is more scenic but I’ve yet to go yet. Very quiet at night and handful of other vehicles. Someone camped by the river.

At least one review mentioned signs saying no overnight camping. There are no such signs, only a sign saying the camping limit is 14 nights. Easy access to river, decent bathroom, receptacle for trash and recyclables. Only surprise: two other RV’s here and four vehicles belonging to hikers camped overnight on the trail. Thought we might be the only ones here. But plenty of room for all.

We enjoyed our stay here at Perry Riffle trail head. You can camp in the parking lot here (see photo for official PDF). There is one vault toilet which is clean. You can hike, ride a bike or a horse on trails in the area. There is also primitive camping about 4.5 miles away in Massacre Flats. The surrounding area is beautiful with the river not too far away.

Besides the occasional car that drove in at night, it was quiet. You could hear the local wildlife come alive at night, frogs, cattle, coyote and owls. In the morning we were greeting by wild turkeys.

Not sure what the weekend looks like but we were there on a Thursday night and it wasn’t crowded at all. We would happily stay here again.

The Perry Riffle parking lot in the Sacramento River Bend Area BLM allows camping. It is the only location in the BLM area that does. The access road is paved the entire way. There are a few tight turns on the way in, but a 42' 5th wheel triple towing a Jeep was able to make it, so any rig size should be fine. It is a gravel lot that can fit 3-4 large rigs, but you will be close together. You could fit a couple more rigs if you squeezed in, but quite a few people stop for fishing, biking, and horseback riding, so you should leave some space for them to park and turn around. If you park parallel in the middle of the lot, it will leave room for horse trailers to turn around using the outside edge of the lot.

There is a large tree on one side of the lot, but if you stay a little away from it, you'll get plenty of solar. AT&T signal was weak but usable unboosted (~2 mbps down, less up), and Verizon was a little worse. With a MIMO antenna, though, both AT&T and Verizon had very usable speeds (~25 mbps down, 5 mbps up on Verizon).

Two BLM staff live in the area and came by at least once a day to empty the trash (not a dumpster but big enough for a kitchen bag) and recycling and clean the pit toilets.

You can walk down to the water from the lot, and you also have access to hiking/biking trails in the area. Warning about biking, though - we took a ride on the Yana trail and came back with 4 flat tires. There are a lot of small spikey plants. We used the site as a base camp to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was a bit far, but it was also much warmer than free spots closer to the park.

I highly recommend Carlito's Mexican in Red Bluff, if you're looking for a place to eat. The portions are large and reasonably priced, and the food is delicious.