Clear Lake State Park

Stayed here off season in September. Plenty of available sites close to the lake. The site was spacious. The restrooms and showers were clean and well maintained. The campground was about 4-5 miles from kelsyville which was an easy bike ride. There were several wineries in town with tastings. We stayed here once before in the summer and at that time of the year the lake develops massive algae blooms which can be both unpleasant to look at and odiferous.

Clean park with level sites. Not noisy, although I was here mid-week.

Camped in November. I launched my kayak right from the campsite. Very few people in the park. Visitors center was closed. Quiet time. Lots of birds. Beautiful fall leaves.

I stay here quite a bit. Place is very clean very well monitored. Lots of wildlife. Usually see 4-6 deer per day. Then lots of raccoons and squirrels. Not campfires or charcoal use right now as it’s still fire season here. Lots of hiking trails and plenty of room to bicycle. Boat launch and lots of fishing. Clear lake gets a bad rap loa lot but this place is an oasis.

Last minute over night camp trip to Clearlake State Park. With the lake being so low we expected it wouldn't be as pretty. With cooler weather, the lake was still beautiful. We were fortunate to see the flock of Pelicans. Camp sites clean and pretty spacious. Pretty hiking areas.

[Internet. Verizon via iPhone 12: 26 mbps down and 0.40 mbps up with 34 ms ping. T-Mobile via Nighthawk MR-1100 - 4.24 mbps down and 16.9 up with 159 ping.]

This is a great campground for the camping experience. The vibe is chill in that I don’t have anywhere important to be. I can sit here and drink my coffee. I can take a stroll to the water. I can do nothing and it’d be well worth my time. In places like this, bring all the camping gadgets you have. You’ll have time for them!

There isn’t much privacy between the sites but there is a fair about of space at the end of your site facing away.

Be prepared for bugs in Spring! We had to pull out our bug screen! Dawn and dusk is their most active time. There weren’t many mosquitos at this point. The other bugs don’t bite but there were a lot. So many that at dusk I thought someone was flying a drone but it turned out the symphony of buzzing was coming from the sky. Look up and the sky is blanketed in bugs. Just after sunset they go away.

The showers are token operated. Outside the bathrooms is a machine for token exchange. It takes $1 and $5 bills. They are these cute, unique coins specific to the park. Apparently lots of California state parks use tokens and you can “collect them all.” It’s 50¢ per token and one token gets you 2 minutes. Which is nice because you can do your shower things in between the token time so you need less tokens.

My only gripe is the hot water was inconsistent. My shower was hot as hell and my partner’s shower was cold. I can tolerate cooler water temps but she just can’t. Unfortunately the only way to find out water temperature is by putting in a token. From now on I shower first to make sure the water is warm enough and then text her when I’m done so she can use the same stall.

This park was perfect except for the shower water. 4.5-stars

[Rig. Mercedes Sprinter. 22 feet]

Dump station? - Yes
Water fill? - Yes
Clean site? - Yes
Clean bathroom? - Yes
Flush toilet? - Yes
Showers? - Yes, token operated
Laundry? - No
Dish washing sink? - No

Nice campground with well spaced spots. In our area there were very few level spots for an RV. #104 is by far the flattest, most private, spot.
No dog this, no dog that signs everywhere and the camp hosts came by many times to make sure we were "complying" with those rules.

The park has a lot of trees and the spots are pretty level. Bathrooms are clean. One slight problem I ran into was the somewhat near access at the Ranger's entrance kiosk. This newbie RV owner scrapped my slide-out cover on the rain gutter on the corner of the kiosk. A lot of places to fish with the lake completely full. Catching fish is another story.