Butte Lake Campground

The campground is at the end of a 6 mile dirt/gravel road which was very manageable. Our site, A 39 is a pull through site but two sites are on the same pull through. The other site was occupied and they were taking up more than half. We managed and had a great stay. Each site has a fire pit, table, and a bear box. No water, power or sewer at the site. The water had a non potable sign until the last day of our stay. There are flush toilets and vault toilets. The flush toilets do not have lights so get dark at night. Our fire pit had not been cleaned out for quite a while. The campground is in a stand of old Ponderosa Pine with the Dixie Fire scars all around. Butte Lake was full and very pretty. There is a lave flow near by and a wonderful hike up a cinder cone. It is challenging but well worth the effort.

Very nice campsites that are large enough for most RVs. if you look at a site map you can see that many are pull through types. I managed to get my 31 foot class A situated with little trouble. As you would expect some sites are more level than others.

Be ready for a 6 mile drive with a fair amount of washboard and ruts. Not impossible if you take it slow. The road is pretty much chip rock.

Well worth the drive as the lake is perfect for paddling a kayak.

And there is an excellent, lengthy hike that takes you by the cinder cone. That also has a hiking trail to the top... pretty amazing. They have a "no pet" sign but I took my pooch just the same... no issues.

This will be dry camping with water available by the flush toilets. There are trees at all sites so solar will be spotty.

Note:

1) The group area can be noisy so check to see if it has been booked and by whom. And pick a spot away from that area.

2) No cell coverage

3) There is another camp area (free?) on the left next to a creek about 2 miles before the Butte Lake Campground. That area will take reasonable sized RVs (<33 feet).

We scouted here to see if camping would be feasible in our 32' class A. It's "doable" but I wouldn't want to drive 6 miles of the washboard. It's not worth it. Instead, camping at the near by Hat Creek Campground was great, took about 30 min to drive over. We hiked the near by cinder cone volcano, that was worth it. I don't think there's much to see with a paddle board, we paddled and the water was dirty and smelled fishy. I wouldn't swim here.

Two stars for access because at least it's a maintained gravel road. No cell coverage on ATT and TMobile. Some signal on top of the volcano.

We had a really rough time with the camp host. They definitely were playing up their role to be the campground police. Be aware that dogs are no longer allowed on trails or the beach or allowed to swim in the lake here. The camp host had no problem walking the beach telling people to get their dogs off the beach and water. Cinder cone is a hard but awesome hike, with a great view at the end.
We won't be back due to the National park rules regarding pets. I prefer to let me dogs swim and have fun!