Northern California back roads remote camping ideas??

benatc1

Hooked
Hey everyone, this coming may/june a friend and I will be packing up the the Jeep and heading from Reno, NV to the ocean in Nor-cal. Our plan is to camp for a few nights on the way and then we will be meeting another friend and doing some beach camping. Question I have is if anyone knows of any spots along the way to maybe check out and camp for the night. Don't mind a challenging trail that leads to a remote area but also don't want to have to high of a risk of breaking stuff. My jeep will have 35's front/rear ARB lockers, pr44 and be pretty capable otherwise. Anyway, we don't have a route set yet or a beach destination locked down but if there were some good ideas of places to check out I'd really appreciate the advice. Thank you!
 

Desert Crawler

New member
There are tons of good spots, but it really depends where on the coast you want to go. There are a lot of beaches in California. Where do you plan to meet the other friend? Where in NorCal do you want to go? I would figure that out first. There really is hundreds, if not thousands of options.
 

benatc1

Hooked
There are tons of good spots, but it really depends where on the coast you want to go. There are a lot of beaches in California. Where do you plan to meet the other friend? Where in NorCal do you want to go? I would figure that out first. There really is hundreds, if not thousands of options.

Thanks, well we are still waiting to hear from our one friend where he wants to meet up with us, he gets out of the service mid April and will know soonish where in Nor-cal he wants to go. I was looking at one night up around Bowman Lake in Yuba gap, think we will just make our way across and then head to wherever on the coast our one friend decides one we get out there. Just trying to see if there are any quiet but can't miss spots that would be good for a night/evening. I know we will be north of Santa rosa probably south of Eureka. (I know that's a big area)
 

benatc1

Hooked
Planning on going from Reno, maybe bowman lake (yuba) then make to Trinidad/redwoods to meet our friend and either stay at patricks point or gold bluffs.
 

benatc1

Hooked
Will need to find another spot between bowman and Trinidad to camp for the night- looking at going up through redding/Shasta then head west
 

Desert Crawler

New member
Bowman is a nice place that I like to frequent, but if I was heading to the Trinidad area I would start by heading north to Susanville, then over to Redding and across Hwy 299 to the Coast. It is a more scenic drive. There are a lot of great camping spots along that route and some good off roading if you have the extra time. You could camp in Lassen if you want to do some hiking (Mt. Lassen is worth seeing if you have never been that way and there is some cool geothermal activity in the park or camp along Hat Creek which has some epic fishing if you are into that. There is a Lava tube cave near the intersection of Hwy 89 and 44 that is only about a mile out of your way, is a quick walk through and is worth checking out. Once you pass Redding, 299 follows the Trinity River most of the way to the coast. There is campgrounds along the way, or you can hit a multitude of dirt roads and camp just about anywhere in the forest. A short sidetrip could be camping at Trinity Lake. Patrick's Point is nice. There is a beach there where agates can be found, a elk perserve close, and some cool short hikes through fern canyon and old grove redwoods close. Let me know if you need any other info, because I grew up hunting/fishing/offroading and camping in the areas you are talking about being in.
 

benatc1

Hooked
Bowman is a nice place that I like to frequent, but if I was heading to the Trinidad area I would start by heading north to Susanville, then over to Redding and across Hwy 299 to the Coast. It is a more scenic drive. There are a lot of great camping spots along that route and some good off roading if you have the extra time. You could camp in Lassen if you want to do some hiking (Mt. Lassen is worth seeing if you have never been that way and there is some cool geothermal activity in the park or camp along Hat Creek which has some epic fishing if you are into that. There is a Lava tube cave near the intersection of Hwy 89 and 44 that is only about a mile out of your way, is a quick walk through and is worth checking out. Once you pass Redding, 299 follows the Trinity River most of the way to the coast. There is campgrounds along the way, or you can hit a multitude of dirt roads and camp just about anywhere in the forest. A short sidetrip could be camping at Trinity Lake. Patrick's Point is nice. There is a beach there where agates can be found, a elk perserve close, and some cool short hikes through fern canyon and old grove redwoods close. Let me know if you need any other info, because I grew up hunting/fishing/offroading and camping in the areas you are talking about being in.

Man thanks for the info, lots of great stuff, maybe will will head up north and find some spots, I kinda know where your talking about with everything as I drove that way to the Redwoods about a year ago, we didnt make any stops along the way. were looking to rough it in pretty remote areas for the first two nights on the trip so ill keep searching along those routes to see where so good spots might be. Thank you!
 
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