Red Bluff Koa Journey

Booked two nights here intending to tow my Ford Ranger for the first time. (Fairly close to home in case I ran into any issues). Before leaving home, I determined there is one thing I need to work out before using my Toad). With two nights already booked, I decided to just use my reservation anyway. I'm glad I did.

My brother came along and we brought our bicycles and had a nice ride along the Sacramento river on the bike path off of Sale Ln. (Take Antelope Blvd over Highway 5 and make a right on Sale Ln). Nice views of the Sacramento river, including the Diversion Dam. There is also a USFS campground here that was very sparsely population. A few of the sites looked to have water and electrical.

We also rode our bikes to downtown and was pleasantly surprised to find many beautifully painted murals.

The campground is well maintained, with clean bathrooms and a nice pool. The sites are kind of close together, with a fairly narrow strip of grass between them. Traffic noise from Highway 5 is always there. Also, a train seems to pass through a couple of times at night, blowing it's at traffic crossing. It's quite a bit louder than the highway noise.

I will return at some point with my Toad and venture out to explore nearby sights. (Lassen NP, Mt. Shasta, etc)

We pulled in for one night, Good Friday, to find, as I would have suspected, that this beautiful resort is very popular with families with younger children and RV'ers looking like they could have been the loud party type, on at least this, a holiday weekend. Never heard the loud music or carrying on that I was concerned about. This appears to be a park that enforces its rules. And this is an RV resort. Beautiful with lots of extras. Many of the premium sites - gorgeous - could wind up being buddy sites so check with the office if this concerns you. The office staff is great as is everything about this resort. Very likely the nicest in the state of Jefferson.

We stopped here for its proximity to Mount Lassen. From the time you drive in this is evidently a unique place. Check in was smooth and orderly. Almost felt like checking into a hotel. Then they have you follow someone in a golf cart to your spot. No frantic reading of little site maps to find the correct location. Pool and hot tub area were lovely. Dog friendly. We stayed in a large pull through spot. Wifi has worked all day!

Very clean, well designed park. Check in was easy and we were directed to the full hook up, pull through site by an employee in a golf cart. We arrived in the late afternoon and were planning to get back on the road early the next morning so we didn't check out the amenities. When I checked the tire pressure in the morning, I noticed we had an (almost) flat. I called Good Sam but being 8am on a Saturday, they were having a hard time finding a local tire replacement. After waiting for 2 hours for Good Sam to call back and being day 2 of a 12 day trip, I used yelp to find a tire shop. Bob's Tires in Red Bluff got us right in and back on the road. If you ever need tire service in Red Bluff, give them a call. Lance (I think hes the owner) runs a quality operation! We were heading north on I-5 to Washington and this is a nice location to stop for the night before approx 150 miles of mountain driving (Redding, CA north to Medford, OR is pretty mountainous).

Right away when thinking about what to review about this RV resort is that there is absolutely no shade and we were SO hot the whole time. Even with the AC running all day and night it was miserable.

Luckily they had a pool, hot tub was closed at the time but why would we go in there in the heat hah. The pool was foggy and other guests commented on that as well. Gross. Public pools, am I right?

Hotspots and cell phone service in general were terrible.

On to the good things: the laundry area was nice, the public showers were the nicest I've been in, the Sacramento River runs through the back of the property and is nice to look at, there are public fire pits all around and apparently they even do massages but we didn't feel the need to try that out. The store inside is small and doesn't have rv supplies to speak of but the staff was welcoming.

Lassen National Park is not a far drive from this RV park so make that on your to do list if you are staying here. Just beautiful! There is also a little downtown area in Red Bluff with a couple of cute shops and a cafe we frequented called From The Hearth. There are also grocery stores, camping supplies stores and a farmers market on Wednesdays. You may see on the map that there is a Walmart in town but it is actually completely closed down.

Getting to the park seems odd because it is behind a strip mall but you can trust your maps. It is back there.

Next time we will book a spot closer to Lake Shasta. The price was too high for what we got but all and all it's not that bad of a park.

We stayed here one night and wish we could have stayed more. Clean friendly and all accommodations wonderful. Cement sites. All hook ups. Pool bathroom showers all incredible. Coffee in morning. Only negatives is highway right by it (road noise).

Easy access to the 101 FWY for overnighters. Clean bathrooms, well managed, nice clubhouse. I like the paved sites, no dust, no dirt, friendly staff.

First impressions are always good and this park succeeds in that. We usually avoid KOAs due to quality and price but this was the best park in the area. The price is still KOA high. Check-in was quick and easy, and someone takes you to your site. The interior roads are paved and the sites are pretty level concrete. (We did see a few RVs with blocks or tires in the air.) There is decent spacing but no privacy. Lots of trees and nice landscaping with fountains. It is on the Sacramento River but I never found a way to get down to it. Crystal clear pool with attractive decking and comfortable seating. They even have areas you can reserve with privacy curtains. A huge gas fire pit surrounded by Adirondack chairs. There is a cool indoor area with leather furniture, a TV and a fireplace. The workout room is small and has the typical equipment. Peaked in at the bathrooms which appeared very clean. Now for the not so good. Obviously, it is right off I-5 so expect all the noise that goes with that. We were in the back so it may have been a bit quieter. There area also many trains and sirens. For some reason, Verizon coverage was in the twilight zone. Sometimes we had 4g 2/3 bars, and then we would have zero coverage. It even went out for hours one day. We didn’t have much luck with the WII FI either. Even though it was pricey, we would stay again when passing through for a night.

Stayed overnight while traveling south. Nice KOA camp ground. Easy check in and friendly and helpful staff. Easy on and off from I-5. Yes you can hear traffic from I-5 and the occasional train. For us it was a minor issue, tho our ODRV trailer that has double pane windows and a set of ear plugs we slept all night. Yes we WILL stay here on our way back home.

Stayed here Oct of 2022.

Site type: Back-in, FHU, 50 AMP, Fountain Site

THE GOOD
Location: Gas, restaurants, and groceries are within 5-10 minutes.
Sites: Spacious paved spots. Grass living areas. Had some shade from trees, which is nice. Our site was backed up to the fountains
Grounds: Clean and nicely maintained, Paved sidewalks throughout the campground.
Office/Store: Good sized store. Some grocery items and a good amount of RV stuff.
Facilities: Laundry was nice and worked as expected. Showers were clean shared stalled showers. Not private locked rooms which are preferred.
Wifi: One of few campgrounds that has pretty solid wifi. If you camp often, you should know that there is no campground (essentially) that compares to your own home's wifi.

THE BAD:
Nothing of note.

COULD BE BETTER: Not good or bad
Location: Not too much in the area to explore, in terms of outdoors.
Traffic: I-5 is only a few hundred yards away, so you can hear continuous interstate traffic day and night.