Juniper Lake Campground
National Park Service - Lassen Volcanic National Park
Longitude -121.29541, Latitude 40.45074

Juniper Lake Campground is located in the backcountry of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The campground is located along the scenic Juniper Lake in the far south-eastern corner of the park.

The Juniper Lake recreation area is reached via County Road 318 (Juniper Lake Road) from Chester. This road is paved the first half from Chester and then turns to dirt. The road is only in fair condition. 4WD is not necessary in most conditions, but the road would not be acceptable to a large majority of sedan owners. However, cars can make the journey if you take your time and pay attention for rocks. There was signage saying trailers are not advisable along this route.

Once you cross the National Park boundary, there is signage alerting you to the $10/vehicle Entrance Fee. The fee is paid at a Self-Service Kiosk in front of the Ranger Station near Juniper Lake Campground. Once the fee is paid, you are good to come and go as you please throughout the park for the next 7 days. It's at the Ranger Station where the road forks, turn left into the Campground and South Shore Trailheads, or continue straight to the Juniper Lake Day-Use Area and North Shore Trailheads.

From the Ranger Station you descend a little into the campground. On the way down you pass a parking lot for the Mt. Harkness Trailhead and the Group Campground (For Group Reservations call (530) 335-7029). Shortly after that you come to Site #1 and and the Message Board/Pay Station.

The campground is laid out along one dirt road, winding through the forest, along a meadow and ending along the lakeshore. Most sites have excellent shade, and half are lake front. The Lakefront Sites are obviously the prettiest, and Lassen Peak is visible across the lake (how cool). Site #15 and #16, though not lake front, do have filtered views of the lake.

A few camp sites here are well clustered together with not much privacy (like Sites #2 - #4 and Sites #6 - #8). Campsite #1, #5, #17 and #18 are pretty reclusive and offer quite a bit of solitude. All the others are a normal separation.

Each site has a sturdy concrete Park Service logo'd picnic table, a fire pit with swiveling BBQ/griddle and a bear-proof storage locker (a little difficult to use). There are bear-proof garbage cans throughout the complex. There is no water provided in this campground, so you will need to bring it in with you.

The bathrooms are a little worse for the wear, and this would be the most obvious place the NPS should spend any future capital improvement budgets on. These little shacks are very similar to porta-pottys but with the bottom removed and sitting on a sewage pit. Very dated and not very refreshing. There are new toilets at the Warner Valley Campground, so maybe new toilets will be coming soon here, too. But these little stink shacks work and they were freshly stocked with toilet paper.

This is a great place for day-hiking, or to begin/end a backpacking trip. There are lots of trails nearby. You can day-hike to the summit of nearby Mt. Harkness or the 5.5 mile Lakeshore Trail around Juniper Lake. There are lots of backpacking trips into the back-country of Lassen. The possibilities are nearly endless on that end using round-trips, or one-way with setting up a two-car shuttle. Also kayaking, canoeing and fishing were popular on Juniper Lake. I don't think motorized boats are allowed on the lake (even though definitely large enough) because there is no boat ramp.

Nearest place for supplies is in the community of Chester (approx. 14 miles away), along the shore of Lake Almanor. Here you can find a gas, restaurants, grocery store, hardware, etc. The nearest full service communities are Susanville (approx. 40 miles) or Red Bluff (approx. 75 miles).

Visited August 2005.