Lassen Volcanic National Park guide · 1 min read
Choosing Among Lassen's Lakeside Campgrounds
Lassen Volcanic National Park has eight campgrounds, and they differ in more ways than their locations.
Some are reservation-only, while others operate first-come, first-served. Your choices include recreational vehicle sites alongside tent sites, plus single-family units and group sites. Reservations generally open several months out, and peak season tends to fill quickly, so book early.
Manzanita Lake Campground is the most fully equipped option. It has a dump station and a camper store with pay showers and laundry, and none of the other park campgrounds offers those services. No campground in the park provides hookups for recreational vehicles, so plan around that before you arrive.
Butte Lake Campground lies in the northeast corner of the park, roughly 45 minutes by car from the Northwest Entrance and the Manzanita Lake area. Reaching it means traveling a six-mile road that heads south from Highway 44. The campground has little in the way of facilities, yet there is plenty to keep you busy: you can climb Cinder Cone or paddle the lava rock shoreline of Butte Lake. Reservations are required, and the 101 sites include group sites and a horse site.
Summit Lake North and Summit Lake South are also on the list. Three campgrounds have wheelchair-accessible sites: Summit Lake North offers site A1, Manzanita Lake has A32 and B9, and Butte Lake has A6. Those sites sit close to accessible restrooms, and every one must be booked online through recreation.gov.
Visitors traveling with horses have one overnight option, the park's stock corrals. Animals cannot spend the night with you at wilderness sites, so a corral is the only place to keep them. If your trip includes a night in the park, secure one through recreation.gov ahead of time. Riders can explore more than 100 miles of trail across the park.
