Best Sierra car camping

You want us to post our “secret” uncrowded car-accessible camping sites in the Sierra, on the Internet?

Yeah I thought about that when I was. posting…

Also just realized this probably fits in the off piste category better.  Never said I was smart….

Thought about this recently as my GF doesn’t really like the wilderness.

I would just find a place close enough to the road that you can bushwhack in 1-2 miles and setup near a lake.  This way you’re close to the car but also don’t have to deal with lots of people.

If necessary you could take 2-3 trips to the car over the day to bring more stuff.

Can you provide a general location of where you’d prefer to camp?  No sense in recommending a spot in Tahoe if your driving from Southern Calif.

I’m in San Jose.   So Tahoe is in scope :)

My cousin was raving about Lassen Peak. There are lots of lakes, you can day hike to the top of said peak (10,000 feet) and it has a wilderness designation. Not a lot of people. Lots of trails of varying degrees of difficulty. they had no trouble getting a camp site.

I recommend getting California Camping by Tom Stienstra. Then checkout camps without water. They are generally pretty empty. Turns out having to carry a couple of jugs of water is a big deterrent to many people. I also recommend picking up a cheap and easy car camping tent from Target – I have a small “instaset” one that I can have up in 2 minutes single handed. It is easy and fairly indestructible, great for kids to run in and out of, great for 1 parent to kid wrangle while the other tent wrangles.

+1 on Lassen area. If you give the ranger station a call, they might recommend some good lake camping just outside the NP.

In regards to the Lassen area, we camp out a lot of the time on the south side of the park near Domingo Springs. There is a USFS campground right there by the springs, but we normally dispersed camp out in the forestry land in that neck of the woods. You can drive up Warner Valley Road and check out Devils Kitchen as a day hike. If you have a vehicle with decent ground clearance, you can drive up to Willow Lake and check out that area. At the north end of the lake there is a floating bog that you can walk out on. Lots of neat carnivorous plants like sun dews and pitcher plants out on the bog as well. Take some sandals or croc like shoes if you head out onto the bog, as it’s swampy and wet. Also on that side of the park is Juniper Lake which is a nice day hike as well. The town of Chester which is right next to Lake Almanor is nice, good store in town to get supplies and the Pine Shack has great Ice Cream.

Green Creek – eastern sierra. bunch of free camping along the creek as you go up. and then an official campground at the top. seldom used.

twin lakes or virginia lakes or lundy lake are always great.

there  a campground at the top of sonora pass.

there are obviously really sweet campsites up every drainage in the eastern sierra but they get father to drive to as you keep going down

Another vote for Lassen. Manzanita Lake is a nice campground.

If you find a spot in South Lake Tahoe, your kids should enjoy Taylor Creek across from Fallen Leaf Lake. Really nice observation area with a cut out of the creek. Fallen Leaf Lake is decent but somewhat crowded.

The Lakes Basin near Graeagle is beautiful with some really nice lakes. Great hiking and really good place for first backpacking trips. Lots of car camping too.