Schonchin Springs Campground

This is the only free campground in the Medicine Lake Recreation Area. There are 3 - 4 other campgrounds around the actual lake, but they cost ~$14/night. We stayed in the area, just not at this campground.

All the campgrounds in the area just opened at the end of June because of the big snow year California had. I think because of this and the fact that Schonchin Springs is free (so less of a priority), the campground wasn't totally cleared out yet. There were a lot of down branches around the area, making it hard to tell which spots were actual campsites. Some of the campsites had picnic tables and fire rings, while others didn't (or maybe they weren't actual sites?). Access to the back half of the campground was actually blocked off from piles of snow that were still around. Most of the sites I saw were pretty heavily covered by trees. Not the greatest place to stay if you need sun for your solar panels. A couple of the sites I saw would've fit our 25 ft. long fifth wheel.

The campground does have a pit toilet, but no other amenities. The paid campgrounds do have dumpsters, bathrooms, and water spigots (the kind without thread). But when we were there (early July) the spigots at the campground had signs saying it wasn't potable due to it being chemically treated. While other spigots weren't turned on yet (we did wake up to frost one morning).

There is a free dump station right off the Volcanic Scenic Byway outside Medicine Lake Recreation Area. There was a sign by the water saying it's non-potable.

There wasn't any AT&T or Verizon signal. We have a booster for AT&T but decided it wasn't even worth pulling out to try to get anything.