1. Sycamore Ranch

    1. Sycamore Ranch

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    Browns Valley, CA

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    Sycamore Ranch

    3.8 (24 reviews)

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    Morning view
    Darlene M.

    Overall, we had a good experience at Sycamore Ranch. We reserved 3 nights and two full days at the camp. We were a large, Christian group. We reserved both sections A & B the week before school started so the camp was very quiet. We didn't use the campground bathrooms. Instead, we rented a Two-Station Restroom/Shower from thelavatory.com out of Fresno which was perfect for our group. We had bright signs on it to ensure only folks from our camp used them. As for the park itself, the only complaint I had was the lack of cleanliness of the picnic tables. We setup a main area for our group which included a group of four picnic tables. We scrubbed them with lots of dish soap and hosed them down with water, including the cement underneath the tables. We did that at least three times. The picnic tables are porous so a lot of dirt came out. It would be nice if they maintained the park and power-washed the tables and concrete periodically. We also had yellow jackets and fleas... and fleas that followed some of us home. So be aware and prepare for that. Other than that, we had a good experience. "Jan the Man" was very pleasant and helpful. He even complimented our group and invited us back. He said we were easy, and we made the place classy. Haha! It just goes to show that it's not the park, but the people that gets low stars. We were told quiet hours were from 10PM to 7AM. We were respectful and did what was expected. Nights were quiet, except the sound of crickets then roosters in the morning.

    Emily B.

    Very nice little county campground. The caretakers take great care of this place. We've been twice in the summer, once in the fall. In the summer, the caretakers have some fun activities for the kids like scavenger hunts and sprinklers to run through. Fall is beautiful. Bathrooms are clean enough. Free, warm showers. Lots of birds, fun fishing and no pests -- never seen a raccoon! Only downfalls are you can hear road traffic at night, dirt bikes -- even at 3am, and because there is no locked gate, sometimes people (not campers) cruise through here late at night. Also wish it was a no smoking park. Overall though, we love this little campground! Tip: if fishing the Yuba by raft/boat, the caretakers will do a shuttle for you for a fee.

    Day use area
    Darin A.

    Great little place to camp if fishing the Lower Yuba River. This is where many floating anglers take out. There is also a nice day use area with ample parking, very nice grassy picnic areas. Through the campground area one can walk in to the creek. While I have not camped here, there is a lot of nice trees in the camp area keeping most spots fairly shady, which is key in this part of California.

    This is a hidden gem and so happy its still open even for day use, its not a huge location but simple and good ol fashioned camping site.

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    5 months ago

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    7 days ago

    Campground atmosphere with water and electric hook ups. Plenty of space and creek nearby.

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    10 months ago

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    3 years ago

    Jan is great! He went way above and way beyond just because. Thank you! This was our first visit and will again.

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    6 years ago

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    Ask the Community - Sycamore Ranch

    Is there internet service?

    Yes they have free wifi there password is easytime1 works ok in most of the campground and dayuse area

    Does this place have a swimming area?

    Yes swimming and rope swings on both the creek by the campground and on the yuba river also

    Can you fish right in the campground at Sycamore Ranch in Browns Valley? If so, what type of bait would anyone suggest. I am new to fishing. I used to fish as a kid ALOT. I lived on a lake. But now,, just starting again. Any suggestions?

    Yes you can worms work good for catfish bass and bluegill along with rubber worms or lures

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    Review Highlights - Sycamore Ranch

    after we wrote to the county about the horrible management of the campground, the county hired a new caretaker.

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    Lake Carr Campground - Lake Carr at Sunset... captured on the trail just beyond the last campsite at the very end. Ugh! Heaven!

    Lake Carr Campground

    5.0(2 reviews)
    21.1 mi

    - $15 per site per night. $5 for additional vehicles. Cash or Check deposited in an enveloped and…read moredropped off in a bin at the entrance to the campground. - Sites include: Picnic table, Bear Box and Fire Ring. - Camp Fires: As of July 20, 2020. Fires are permitted only in the fire ring. Plenty of wood around to collect and burn. *** Camp Fires are not allowed if you are dispersed camping. *** - Bathrooms: 4 portable bathrooms next to spot 1 in the front and a vault bathroom with 2 stalls by spot 9 &10. When we arrived on Friday, they were cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. By Sunday, they were a stinky mess. The Carr lake campground was great. Spot vary in size. Some of the spots in the front had lake access. The spots in the back have a lake view. You can still access the lake from the spots in the back, but its a pretty steep decent. The spots in the middle do not have lake access but some are pretty private and have lots of shade. Spot 8 has the most privacy and a good amount of distance from the neighbors. Spot 8 is also by a creek. This drowned out the noise other campers made in the evening. Carr Lake was very pretty. However, the main event is Feely lake. Access to Feely lake is between Spot 8 and 9. It's a larger lake with stunning views. A lot of backpackers were heading to Island Lake which is about a mile from the Carr Lake Campground. Due to the Covid related closures around the state, more people than usual are heading to the outdoors. This meant that this usually secluded area was not packed with day hikers and backpackers. The parking lot was at capacity by mid day Friday and people had to park on the side of the road as far as a half a mile away. I recommend that you stake your claim as early as Thursday or very early Friday.

    Lake Carr Campground is a true gem for those adventurous enough to brave the road up there…read more Quick Campsite Stats: Number of Sites: 11 Cost: $15 per day, honor system by envelope (cash or check only) Amenities: - Pit Toilets, but generously stocked with toilet paper. - Metal fire rings with a grill - Picnic table at each site Does not include: - Water (unless you purify the lake water, plenty of that around) - Trash cans (you must pack in what you pack out) Pets Allowed? Yes! Elevation: 6,663 ft Reservations Required?: No. All first come, first served as far as I could tell. Owned and operated by PG&E Getting There (the hard part): It's a good 30-40 minute drive north of Hwy 20 up Bowman Lake Road (Forest Road 18) to where it splits off to Forest Road 17. From there you will see a giant log with "CARR" spray painted in white with an arrow to the right (pretty awesome, I know). Now you're in for three miles of rocky dirt road... and I mean rough. A road full of rocks ranging from the size of grapefruits to dodge balls... so take is slow and steady. I will warn all sedans or low-clearance vehicles to be extremely careful. I saw many cars bottoming out (a mini cooper and prius among them). Towards the top of the road, you'll need to navigate around some big boulder-like rocks embedded in the road. Here is where most low-clearance vehicles gave up, pulled to the side and decided to walk the rest of the way. I have a two-wheel drive Honda CRV. I decided to give it a whirl and made it up to the parking lot by some miracle. Entry to the Campground: Surprisingly the parking lot was already packed at 4:30pm on a Friday! Who are all these people brave enough to make it up that road? I was impressed. I wasn't quite sure what to expect campsite wise considering it was 4th of July weekend and I was hoping to snag one of the first come, first served sites. I wasn't too optimistic, but I threw on my backpack and decided to take a look around. You want to head to the top of the trail (i.e. the road barricade). There you will see a wood bulletin board of sorts with the campsite rules and a place to leave your nightly fee ($15). You put your cash/check in an envelope and tear off the receipt at the bottom. Put the envelope in the slot on the green post and take the receipt to your campsite of choice. Clip it under your campsite number and voila! Note: The PG&E people are checking to make sure you've done this word to wise, but I have no idea if and how they would "cite" you if you didn't pay. It's kind of the honor system. Surveying the Campsites Right after you walk past the bulletin board there are a number of campsites up off to the right. Some of them were already taken by the time I got there, so I walked on down the road, but I heard from some other seasoned campers that one of the first campsites was one of the best out of the eleven. I continued down the road and saw some absolutely stunning ones! I was thrilled to see a few were empty and available. On 4th of July weekend!! I couldn't believe my luck! After I checked out all the real estate I decided on my beauty, campsite number 8... I think? Can't remember exactly. Also recommended is the very last campsite past the bathrooms (farthest from the parking lot). Totally spectacular lake view. I was jealous. Most of the campsites do not have lake access. You're behind some seriously thick brush with no paths to the lake, but I believe the campsites at the very beginning and the very end do have lake access. Something to keep in mind. Not a deal breaker at all though considering Feeley Lake is just a hop skip and jump up the road and even MORE beautiful! :) The bathrooms are clean, although to get there you have to cross part of a river... a stream really, but might be hard to do in the middle of the night unless you have one of the campsites nearest to the bathrooms. Think hopping from stone to stone or just wading through up to your ankles. The campsites grew fairly crowded as the day went on but I observed there were still two or three out of the eleven campsites that were unoccupied throughout the weekend (I was there Fri-Sun). The crowd level was just enough to feel safe and not too much so that you felt it was cramping your solitude time. If you do end up campsite-less for some unfortunate reason, disperse camping is allowed and I saw a ton of people do it along the Round Lake Trail and Crooked Lakes Trail. This is something I will do next time for sure, as the scenery gets even more spectacular the father down the trail you go, espectially up towards Penner Lake. I will definitely be back here as it is one of my new favorite spots in the Tahoe National Forest. I hope this is helpful! :)

    Photos
    Lake Carr Campground - Feeley Lake right next to Carr... who needs lake access to Carr when you have this 100 yards away! Gorgeous!

    Feeley Lake right next to Carr... who needs lake access to Carr when you have this 100 yards away! Gorgeous!

    Lake Carr Campground
    Lake Carr Campground - Last campsite at the end of the road by the bathrooms. Sweet setup. They told me they were here at 11am Friday morning to grab this one.

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    Last campsite at the end of the road by the bathrooms. Sweet setup. They told me they were here at 11am Friday morning to grab this one.

    Dark Day Camp Ground

    Dark Day Camp Ground

    4.4(5 reviews)
    23.2 mi

    Very warm water must visit good for pets boating fishing swimming camping hiking it's a very good…read morespot for everything.

    Worth the three hour drive for a day trip. I wasn't sure on what to expect specially since I've…read morenever had a reason to go to Yuba County BUT I'm so glad we found the New Bullards Bar Reservoir, which is where the Dark Day Camp Ground is located. Great for swimming, boating, and camping. If you are going for day use, get there early preferably before noon. Parking is limited. The area where we parked only had space for less than 20 cars and that's parking creatively to fit all 20. Bring a portable grill because there are plenty of picnic tables but limited number of grills and they are not always near the tables or clean. I hate sharing food with bugs so we placed our canopy with a mesh screen over one of the picnic tables where we had our food. The spot we were at had some, maybe around 5-10 that I could see, unwanted winged visitors but it was tolerable. The drive was not bad. There are areas where the road is winding but not too steep. Not a lot of oncoming traffic and there were also few cars heading the same direction as us. We went on a Saturday and once we passed Sacramento traffic to Yuba County was light. I would have given this place 5 stars if the grills were more accessible and the toilet area did not smell like a toilet area.

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    Dark Day Camp Ground
    Dark Day Camp Ground - View from our picnic table.

    View from our picnic table.

    Dark Day Camp Ground - Great spot for swimming and picnicking.

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    Great spot for swimming and picnicking.

    Thousand Trails Lake of the Springs

    Thousand Trails Lake of the Springs

    2.8(64 reviews)
    12.5 mi

    Electricity, hot water heaters, wood burning stoves, and even water frequently stop working. If…read morethey can't fix it --and they typically can't--they move you to another spot. No refunds or discounts. Their business Internet, electronics, and equipment frequently malfunction. During holidays, the sewer backs up. WiFi is weak. (Ice cream is cheap. Head to Collin's Lake for gourmet ice cream and a better camping experience.) Managers are learning disabled, malfunctioning elderly (FTT), functionally illiterate, and/or have psych-issues. Underdeveloped "adults". Spiteful. Dramatic. Their team is both short- & under-staffed. Overworked. Underpaid. Unskilled labor. Very high turnover. FT Regular staff are exploited locals. OPERATIONS IS A JOKE !!! Staff cannot or will not enforce rules, especially overnight. Customer service is rough and so is the park itself. Regular guests & members are a tougher crowd. One worker can barely talk. He just looks at you. No greeting. No take-leave or well-wishes. When you're done with your order or request, he literally just nods-- like he's putting a period at the end of a line of text or telegraph. It's like you don't even really know if he heard you or understands spoken language. Manmade structures are aging and failing. The whole place looks dated. Their glory days are over. LOTS looks like the perfect setting for a horror film. It's really too bad because the nature is beautiful! Good luck!!!! It's a sinking ship.

    The bad attitudes of certain staff and the upkeep of the park. I've been going to this park for 30…read moreyears and my entire family has joined through the years. Probably nine memberships , that's just my family not including friends that we recruited to join. The new people that they have hired spend a lot of time harassing certain campers for no reason whatsoever . They are not friendly, they do not speak to you when you pass by And you get the feeling of just being a burden to them during your stay. This is nothing like the staff from Lake Of The Springs in the past years. They need to realize that the memberships are what pays their paychecks and if we don't feel welcome, there will be no need for them if the membership ceased to exist. Do better or this beautiful park will sadly fail. It is also humanly impossible to speak with anybody from corporate to discuss the specific issues.

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    Thousand Trails Lake of the Springs
    Thousand Trails Lake of the Springs - Awkward situation here?

    Awkward situation here?

    Thousand Trails Lake of the Springs

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    Giant Gap Campground - #27 - very close to #28 (could be rented together to make a group site)

    Giant Gap Campground

    4.2(39 reviews)
    33.7 mi

    Camped over the 4th of July weekend. Was perfect weather at nighttime but got a tad bit warm during…read morethe day. Great man-made lake that is around 4 miles to go all the way around, half of the path is paved so bike appropriate and good for jogging. When we went a portion of the trail was washed out and closed off but we were able to bypass it anyways with our dogs. Trail can start at the day use park then keeps going through the camp sites till you make the full circle. We regretted not bringing our swimsuits. We reserved campsite #5. All the campsites are all pretty secluded and spacious, but when we passed by #10 we were jealous in that it was the end of the culdesac and walkable to the lake and very secluded. Dog friendly. Vault toilets (no lights, bring headlamps). They have a potable water faucet. I thought the fire pits were well maintained. If you are bringing a RV/Trailer and coming from the South, make sure to take the Forest Hill route (slower route when it shows up on Google Maps). It is much better maintained and spacious. On our way up we went the quicker route and had no trouble as we just had one truck but the trailer in front of couldn't make a sharp turn and was stuck and actually damaged a portion of it, we were able to guide it through thankfully but go at your own risk.

    Fellow campers. My family and I have been going to Giant Gap campground for 35 years. That's where…read moremy children spent every vacation. We grew together as a family there. Covid brought hordes of people many disrespecting nature. Ok I get it. You can't go on your cruise. But what I found today devastated me. Yes they took down infested trees a few years ago and left them EVERYWHERE. Yes are familiar path and beach were blocked now. Ok. But when I drove to our campsite today I cried like a baby. I was in shock. The amount of trees that had been cut in the entire campground was shocking. Not a few, not 50% - more. Although I am grateful for our time there and our memories that will never be forsaken - I am sorry new campers will never know it former beauty. Maybe you can see the lake now. May be that was the point. But our slice of paradise is gone.

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    Giant Gap Campground
    Giant Gap Campground - #16 - pull thru

    #16 - pull thru

    Giant Gap Campground

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    Little Town Campground

    Little Town Campground

    4.1(38 reviews)
    33.8 mi

    By far the one of the best, if not the best, campgrounds in California! Myself, friends, and family…read morehave all been to dozens of other camp sites and we haven't come across any that come close to Little Town Campground! Specifically, after the second week of July until about the end of August, the river is AMAZING! The water is crystal clear and the temperature is rejuvenating. Whether you want to tube, swim, or just chill in a floaty, it's perfect. Plus, there's tons of swimming holes up and down river you can explore. The campground itself is awesome! There are bathrooms that are unusually clean for being in the middle of the woods. Also, each bathroom has two shower stalls, so if you want to rinse in the middle of your camping trip you can. You do need quarters and it's a quarter a min, but this cuts down on wait time, if there is any, and prevents wasting water, which I think is great and very reasonable. You can also buy firewood and ice directly from the campsite and they deliver it right to you campsite. Being able to get wood/ice onsite is incredibly convenient! The campground also has a small park, cement flat top, and basketball hoop. We bring our pickle ball net up, play ultimate frisbee, HORSE, and whiffle ball. Sometimes there's too many options on what to do when we're there, which is never a bad thing when on vacation. I've been coming to this place for 40 years now and have never had a bad experience. The owners Dennis and Sandy, are very nice reasonable people. The improvements they have made to The campground these past few years are amazing. If you go up with positive energy and focused on having a good time they will definitely reciprocate! I can't recommend this place enough!!

    A sweet and cozy campsite situated in the beautiful mountains around Washington town. The little…read moreshop on site was perfect for getting ice and firewood delivered right to your campsite (although my partner and I noticed the wood would make the fire extremely ashy?). The Yuba river was epic! Do bring extra bug spray if traveling during warmer weather, mosquitos were extremely active. Also bathrooms are extremely well kept and convenient. I do wish quiet hours were more enforced, I'm all for people enjoying and having fun but a few sites close to ours were partying until around midnight which made it difficult to sleep and enjoy the river. All in all, would go back with ear plugs!

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    Little Town Campground
    Little Town Campground
    Little Town Campground

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    South Yuba River State Park - Lupines along Buttermilk bend

    South Yuba River State Park

    4.2(59 reviews)
    12.2 mi

    This seems to a park focused on picnicking & summer river time, rather than hiking (at least from…read moreprior reviews.) However, don't sleep on South Yuba River State Park for its hiking trails! I stopped by on a drizzly spring Saturday. The rain seemed to keep crowds away (I've heard weekends can be packed!) If you visit the Bridgeport area of the park, there are two lots. One is by the newly restored covered bridge and another less than a quarter mile down the road. Parking was self paid when I visited but they also accepted CA state parks pass. It's an interesting park from a history perspective but also has quite a display of spring wildflowers. I tried out 2 trails. First, I did the Point Defiance loop trail that was a moderate climb with woodlands, river views, hillsides with flowers and some small side paths down to the water. It is just under 3 miles but a fun adventure with a variety of landscapes. Second, was the Buttermilk Bend trail which is an out and back that is a fairly flat trail that follows along the river (but higher up with some amazing views.) The second trail was an out and back and about 2.5 miles total. I was really impressed with the quality of the trails -it's a well maintained park. There are several picnic areas and a visitor center (which I didn't get to check out this time.) I can't speak for summer time and swimming here but it's a great scenic hiking spot for river views and wildflowers.

    Took a peaceful trip to the South Yuba River in Penn Valley with my boyfriend and our pup, and it…read morewas everything we needed. Nature at its finest -- cool, clear water, smooth rocks to lounge on, and beauty in every direction. The air felt fresh, the vibe was mellow, and it was just one of those spots that reminds you how healing a little escape into nature can be. Perfect for a dip, a walk, or just soaking in the calm. Already dreaming of going back.

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    South Yuba River State Park
    South Yuba River State Park - Wildflowers on the Point Defiance trail

    Wildflowers on the Point Defiance trail

    South Yuba River State Park - So many globe Lillie's on trail

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    So many globe Lillie's on trail

    Sycamore Ranch - fishing - Updated July 2026

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