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    Sycamore Ranch

    3.7 (23 reviews)

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    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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    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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    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

    4.3(4 reviews)
    23.2 mi

    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.

    My family and friends stayed for two days in campsites 2D & 3D and it was pleasantly fun. The…read morebathrooms were close by but very smelly and had spiders inside but that's what's expected during a camping trip. Each site has two reserved parking spaces which was nice. There was not much space to set up camp between the 20 of us since some of the space was a slope but we made it work. There were no trash cans so we had to use big black bags and then throw it in the dumpster at the end of the night which was not really close at all. There was a little trail that took us to the mini beach (be aware that the incline is pretty bad) but it was very crowded and not much room to "relax". Thankfully, we brought a boat and found a small island where we were able to enjoy ourselves. There was also a gas market 9 min away if you needed ice, etc. In addition, we did come across a cub that was looking for food around 11pm and we had to scare it off in case mama bear was around. In the end, our stay was enjoyable. FYI: Please bring alot of mosquito repellant. Most of us got bit at least 10 times even after spraying our bodies down with OFF!

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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(63 reviews)
    12.5 mi

    We throughly enjoyed everything about our RV camp trip December 30th to January 4th. The wild life…read moreis plentiful, even mountain lion sitings. Janie made Bingo super fun and very efficient. So many campers left with full size chocolate candy bars. Saturday night Janie made fresh popcorn and kept the lodge open for family gatherings, board game players, and many campers watched NFL football.

    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.

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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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    Little Town Campground

    Little Town Campground

    4.2(36 reviews)
    33.8 mi

    While the town of Washington is super cute and cozy, the people running this campsite are…read moreoutrageous. We came here last year for a Friday-Monday and loved it. The water nearby in town was crystal clear, the camp sites are decent sized, and the bathrooms were nice (which is huge when camping) but Sandy running the place is unbelievably rude. She isn't welcoming when checking in, not friendly to speak with or anything. Despite that, we spent all year saying how much we loved this place and couldn't wait to go back. We emailed requesting the same sites and received a rude email stating our reservation is being canceled, a full refund is being issued and we are no longer welcome there "due to events that took place last summer". When asked why, the reply was "we received multiple complaints of yelling at kids". We asked about this (we weren't at camp Saturday as we were in town at the water, in bed before quiet hours, didn't play loud music, etc.) we have yet to receive a response, even after multiple voicemails being left as well asking why this is the case now when no one said anything while we were there if this actually did take place. It's a campground, kids were all over yelling and screaming while playing, dirt bikes in and out, etc. Sunday the kids spent most of the day between the playground and running around with other kids at other campsites. But I guess blatant, obvious underaged drinking at multiple other sites is ok. The golf cart drove by our site multiple times, no one said anything. The kids played at the park for majority of day 2, no one said anything. We arrived after dark on Friday, left on Monday in the morning and no one said anything at all. We also left the 2 campsites cleaner than when arrived. The town of Washington around here is beautiful and everyone in town super friendly and welcoming. It's a bummer that Sandy who is running the site is so unwelcoming and rude. If there is an issue, rudely addressing someone almost a year later is uncalled for.

    Thank you Dennis and Sandy for the best camping experience! We were new to this camp site, and of…read morecourse we hauled a trailer filled with our camping equipment. If it were not for Dennis, there was no way my husband could have driven the trailer to our campsite. He was so thoughtful and helpful. Dennis had the experience and was able to get our trailer to our camp site. He truly made it possible for our family to enjoy 5 days on the river and we will forever be so grateful to him for his gracious hospitality and the best camp host we have ever visited. Thank you to Sandy his lovely wife and we look forward to next years annual family camping vacation! Thank you to John, he was there twice a day making sure our garbage and campsites were looked after. Our time there was EPIC! Lofton

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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.

    Photos
    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 May 2026

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