Mt. Lassen/Shingletown KOA: Our Favorite KOA… So Far

Travel dates: June 30-July 2, 2017

We stayed at a lot of campgrounds last summer. I think if I had to declare one our favorite, the honor would have to go to Ingalls Homestead….but that’s because it was at Ingalls Homestead, not because of anything particularly special about the RV spots themselves. But if I were to hand out an award for the campground itself, the Mt. Lassen/Shingletown KOA might take the prize.

Maybe.

It’s really hard to pick!

But definitely right up there near the top at any rate. And, as the title suggests, I think it definitely takes the prize for our favorite KOA so far.

I you read my post about Lassen Volcanic National Park, you know that our visit was cut short by snow-blocked roads and grumpy preschoolers. The silver lining there was that the Lassen KOA was a fabulous place to have come back to, and the kids spent a couple of really wonderful evenings hanging out at the campground with their cousins.

Booking and Arrival

We picked this campground because it had a nice selection of non-RV site accommodations for Dave’s family who was joining us for this leg of the trip (and because there’s a not whole lot of selection for campgrounds near Lassen with hookups). We booked several months out, and the campground appeared pretty full while we were there…but it was 4th of July weekend.

We were very nervous about the drive to the Lassen area from Lava Beds–so much so that we went the long way around, past Mount Shasta, to avoid some mountain roads we were nervous about. In a bit of dramatic irony, this attempt to avoid RV-related problems led us directly into our biggest one to date, when we stopped for lunch in Weed, CA and ended up backing the trailer out of a very tight drive. And Amy and Craig took the shorter route and reported that it likely would have been just fine for us after all. Oh well. The actual road that the campground is on was the worst part of the drive; it’s 34 miles from I-5, and there’s a pretty substantial climb to get to Shingletown. But we made it (and made it back down a couple of days later) no problem.

Check in went smoothly; everyone at the campground is very helpful and friendly. We paid about $57/night for a big pull-through.

Campsites and Cabins

We had a large pull-through near the front of the campground, close to the office and the pool and playground.

The sites are spacious and wooded; not a TON of separation between the pull-throughs, but we didn’t feel crowded at all. The campground has kind of a quirky layout with sites and cabins tucked in here and there rather than laid out in rows. Some of the sites near the back of the campground were very big and private; a few were deluxe sites that even had their own fenced off yards, basically:

There’s also a nice tent camping area and a good selection of cabins (as well as an apartment for rent over the office). Dave’s sister’s family and his parents rented cabins and both were really nice. I seem not to have any pictures, though, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Amenities and Activities:

This is where this campground really shines. There are your standard features like a playground and pool:

But there’s also a HUGE wooded area in the back with every kind of activity you can think of. The kids spent hours running around back there and had a fabulous time.

Basketball! Tetherball! Giant swings hanging from tree! A track for RC cars! And this place where kids can build their own forts:

There weren’t a ton of activities, but the ones there were were fun and well though out. There was an outdoor movie one evening (Beauty and the Beast) and an ice cream social one afternoon. The campground had a really nice community feel to it and everyone we met was friendly and chatty.

Local Area

The big draw here, of course, is Lassen Volcanic National Park. There are other cool things to see, as far as hikes and natural wonders and whatnot close by, but we spent all of our time in the park and the campground. It’s a fairly isolated area, so we were surprised to find a pretty decent little restaurant/grocery store/hardware store (jack of all trades!) right down the road. Reed’s Grill….or Reed’s Deli….or Reed’s Supermarket–it goes by many names, but basically it’s a more than passable restaurant inside a store, and we ate here our first night. They were a little overwhelmed by our group of 12, but our food came out pretty quickly and tastily and we were able to load up on supplies to make dinner at the campground the next night, too. They even do barbecue on weekend nights, but we got there a little too early and most of it wasn’t ready yet. But they have an extensive, if fairly basic, menu, and I can definitely recommend them if you’re looking for a meal out during your stay at the KOA.

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