Rancheria Campground

We have been coming to Rancheria for years and have always enjoyed it. The redone campground is beautiful, but not for the light of heart. Cold nights, breezy afternoons, outer loops have just pit toilets and no sinks but spotless. (Ok, I don’t want to encourage too many people to go there…) Camp hosts are wonderful! Wish I knew their name. Even warned us about possible noise from a group next to us and told us to come wake them at any time. We didn’t have to. Huntington Lake is like a trip back in time. Relaxing, old buildings, not much to do except to enjoy the wonderful outdoors. Oh, prior reviewers are correct about the woman at registration. She was rude and not friendly at all. We assumed she must be someone’s relative and kinda laughed it off. But she is giving NFS a bad name tho. She wouldn’t work for me with that attitude… at least not dealing with customers.

I don’t know how one could have a bad experience here. Was happy to find availability on short notice for just one Saturday night. The drive-​in campgrounds are clean and fairly well-​spaced apart. Had the most enjoyable time walking and climbing rocks at the base of the lake and river with our two hounds. Lake was very low but no less scenic. Was also pleased to find that the water was so accessible from the campground. Rancheria Falls provided a good 2 mile hike nearby. Overall, this was a great hit-​it-​and-​quit-​it campsite, but I can imagine returning and finding lots to do over a few days as well. Only thing I would caution was that there were several ‘walk-​in’ sites, which was new to me, and I don’t think those would provide the privacy you’d hope for while camping.

This was the first time we have camped here! We loved it! The fishing was great! Caught 8 trout in one day!!! The camp hosts were very nice and friendly! The bathrooms were clean. And I like how the campsites are not neck and neck with the neighbors. The entire staff even the office crew were very friendly. Penny Champagne in the office, highlighted all the available campsites and told us to drive around and find the perfect one and then come back and reserve. We did just that. Smooth and easy transaction. Overall, perfect experience! Thank you!

Rancheria was totally revamped this year (2012). Arrived on Friday ⁸⁄₃₁ after staying one night in Dorabelle down at Shaver. Couldn’t do 3 more days of Dorabelle’s pit bathrooms (see that review for details).
Dorabelle’s nice hosts told us about Rancheria up at Huntington opening that very day, so we headed over to check it out. Part of the campground was open, the other half was still being worked on. We picked a hike-​down site to the tree lined lakeside area (not much of a hike really).
Here is the hassle part about camping anywhere in Huntington Lake: You must head over to a main registration place where we dealt with the most unpleasant human ever. To protect her name I’ll just say she sports short red hair and her name is that of a 1 cent coin with Lincoln on it… I watched her work her magic with her victims in front of me and thought «Wow, they must have ticked her off!!!» Nope, they likely didn’t. It was just her rank personality in general treating her poor fellow *nice* employees and customers alike as if we were poop on her shoe. Her reputation must be legendary in these parts because when we commented to a local person about the beast who works the camping registration counter — they immediately identified her by name.
Rancheria was very nice though. We had a great spot, however there are quite a few double sites and we were flanked by two — lesson learned. Double’s hold up to 12 people. I will try not to camp near double spots again — of course at around 10 pm a couple of families with kids and dogs came pulling in to set up in the dark.
Still– Kids, noise, dirt, bugs, is all part of camping and Rancheria has a lot of good sites to chose from. The new bathrooms are wonderful, the roads repaved, Sinks in the bathrooms and sinks outside. The parking pads newly paved, the sites scraped out and paths laid with DG, large bear boxes. It does get chilly at night and there is a constant breeze (probably why sailboats love it). We noticed that the interior campsites were much warmer.
Both at Shaver and Huntington I was disappointed with the amount of trash found by the shore. I picked up a grocery bag of trash every time I took the dog for a potty trip. It is sad that people discard bottles, chip bags, socks, etc.,

This is probably the biggest campground I’ve ever stayed in. It’s 149 drive-​in spots situated on the east side of Huntington Lake. Due to all of the people that the camp can accommodate Rancheria is an upbeat, energetic and busy place. That said, once quiet time comes around 10pm, everyone was respectful. If it’s privacy you’re looking for, the best bet is one of the outer loops by the main road (
). The trade off is hearing cars passing by. Many of the spots in the center of the site are close together. The view next to lake is great and you’ll have plenty of company. Overall the camp is good for big groups of people that love boating and fishing. Secondary to that is hiking.
There are some hikes nearby like Rancheria Falls and Kaiser Wilderness. Other than that, there are hikes around Shaver Lake and Dinkey Creek which means you’ll drive back down the road twenty minutes.
The camp has all the normal features: pit toilets, fire circles, picnic tables, bear lockers. There’s also some fun things for the family too. On the weekends, group programs are held by the amphitheater (
) like stargazing, talks about local animals and history. The host is also a very helpful and nice guy. If you have any car issues, he may be able to help. He used to run an auto shop.
Other than being in the middle of nowhere, the campground was great. Getting away was kind of the point.