What a great place! Walk over to the golf course clubhouse to check in, she gives you the wifi password, then you pretty much park on the grass anywhere you want. The wifi was great, it happened that I parked 30' from the bathrooms What with food at the clubhouse, good wifi, and a short walk to the shower, I literally could live here a while.
Due west of Chico, about 12 miles on the west side of I-5 is Black Butte Lake. It has two ACE campgrounds, this is the secondary one, it closes in early September. It's a few miles closer to Orland and on a bluff 100 or so feet above the water. Very pleasant.
Really pleasant little park south of the Missouri, on a plain that used to be a Missouri Indian settlement. Deluxe shower building, well-maintained nature trails, nice picnic area, what's not to like?
On Lake Mendicino, a little closer to 101 than Bushay Campground where I've gone before. Kyen is much more accessible, no three mile, 9-speed bump access road, but it's also much noisier and busier. Tonight I just want to park and crash, so it's working for me. It's in a manzanita scrub forest that's very, very pretty. The shower has the insanely heavy flow you expect at a reservoir campground, but in an historic drought, maybe a little too much. I again protest the arcane self-pay procedure by not doing it, and again I escape unscathed. I have a pleasant night and leave!
How have I not known about this place?! It was nearly perfect in every way for what I like to do on the road. Common Room next to the office with satellite tv. The pool is awesome. Maybe 100' across, 2-4' deep mostly, with incredibly, life-threateningly hot water comong in from the southeast end, and cooling jets shooting out from the south, so you simply ewade in and find your spot!
The park is pretty cool. It's an easy walk from the campground to the little waterfall, and the boardwalk makes some quite dramatic bridges over the chasm. Yes there is a chasm! Oklahoma State Parks did a very nice job with this. And across the chasm is a frisbee golf course!
On lovely Williard Bay, the northeastern, freshwater(!) arm of the Great Salt Lake.
right outside Ashland, dusty little hippie place near the fancy Lithia Hot Springs Resort. The pools were excellent and clean, as was the pavilion area with wifi and electrical outlets. But the rest of the place was third world and had a weird vibe.
Six pools. The big rectangular one, around to the right in the grotto, is the very hottest - 112°. They get progressively cooler moving left. Next is the biggest and ranges from 110° to 103° according to the sign. Beautiful setting at the opening of a little canyon with the busy highway and railroad tracks right above..
The springs at Grover gurgle out of the hillside into a beautiful U-shaped alpine meadow. So it should be a groovy, enchanted place, but sadly it is managed by the State Parks system, who do their darnedest to make it prosaic and institutional. The pools are a couple of rectangular concrete tubs - a big one with lukewarm water, and a shallow (3 feet) one, maybe 40x20 which they keep at a pleasantly toasty 104°. You can look over the fence on the uphill side and see the water burble out of the ground and down a sluice to you. There are showers and cubbyholes to store your stuff. There is a campground, which I have never used since it's CA State Parks expensive and there is boondocking three miles down the road.
non-descript but sort of pretty, nice manager, overpriced
Bike one way to a lovely lagoon, walk the other way to to beach, nice sites high on the bluffs. A really nice campground.
Wonderful campground only a few miles off of I-77. Sites with elec+water, elec only, or neither (my favorite!). All reasonably priced, and with Senior Card, downright cheap!
Camping is expensive and the pools are extra, so not my thing. However just the pools is $5 for an old person, which IS my thing. There are: - three small pools ranging from very hot to way too hot. - one unheated pool for them kiddies - the biggest pool varies in temperature, see below. The big pool has three little waterfalls set up. The middle one is very hot, the left medium and the right cold. The left is always crowded, the right empty, and the middle always has an old dude or two planted under it.
Right in downtown Crescent City. The main harbor pier 2 blocks south, lighthouse and beach houses a mile or so north. Park near the wifi tower and you're good!
Unexpectedly wonderful place! Alligators, zillions of birds, nice hikes
pretty but nondescript little spot in the interior of the state. Really nice fall colors when I was there, big yellow leaves covering everything!
Nearest gas is > 80 miles in any direction. An unexpected valley full of reedy marshes in the middle of endless high country desert. There's little warm pool and bathhouse with two showers that run always forever. The whole thing is quite unexpected!
Right across the highway from the Trees of Mystery, a few miles north of Leggett. On the map it looks like it's right on the Eel River, but it's on the bluffs, quite disconnected from the river, which is a dusty, steep hike mile long hike down the hill. Full-featured family campground. Swimming pool, big play area, decent regulation basketball hoop. There's a bar and a little restaurant, a lovely shaded patio and bocce ball. Happy hour 3-6 every day!
Small, quiet, well-run, densely packed little campground on the south side of Alturas, very close to the wildlife refuge. I like that he charges $30 straight up, no "plus tax".
funky, but very convenient, probably awesome on a pretty day. Sadly it was gloomy and windy when I was there. good windsurfing I'll bet!