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Austin Creek State Recreation Area
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
5 reviews for Austin Creek State Recreation Area
5 reviews in English
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Review from S G.
Forestville, CA
Updated - 7/4/2011 6 photos
Update:
Bullfrog Pond Campground and the three backcountry campsites are once again available for camping!
No reservations available. Only first come-first served. No more than eight people per site. Be forewarned...it's B-L-A-Z-I-N-G hot in Austin Creek right now, so be prepared. Oh and bring lots of bug spray cause' the mosquitos are out in full force. No showers, potable water and flush toilets. Tent camping only...no trailers.
If the weather continues to be this hot, the campground and the backcountry sites will certainly go into a fire-ban very soon.
Rumor is that camping will be closed again by September 6th. And...Austin Creek and all of it's camping/day using is one of the 70 parks slated for complete closure by 2012. Come and enjoy while it's still open.4 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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1/2/2011
Bullfrog Pond and all three backcountry campsites in Austin Creek State Recreation Area will be… Read more »
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Review from Dianne M.
Oakland, CA
10/25/2009
Camp sites are first-come, first-serve. You might have been able to make reservations in the past, but looks like state budget cuts have eaten into the reservation system in California, and only 23 parks take reservations for camping.
Sites are now $25.00 per site, plus $8.00 per additional car.
Now, I'm 33 and haven't been camping since 1986, so I'm no expert, but me and my group had a grand time at Austin Creek this weekend.
The number one plus for me was that the toilet was CLEAN. There was also ample toilet paper for the amount of people camping.
Ranger came by our group of 10 (we shared two sites) at 10:00 p.m. and politely asked us to keep quiet and not to gather firewood.
Beautiful and quiet surroundings, and a huge clearing for star-gazing and sunset-admiring. -
Review from C W.
San Jose, CA
6/25/2006
Not really within weekend striking distance, but nevertheless...
A memorable camping area. I felt like I'd slipped back in time to 1960. Some day, at the end of my road, I might join the brown hippies I saw here and ride around Cali in a crummy RV with a scruffy dog. Cool my beer in the nearby river and swim during the day, sleep for free at night (no pesky rangers here! it's all an honor system) and sell firewood to the non-hippies who stop here.
Unfortunately, I did not take any of the trails at this park so can't comment on that. The camping site was lovely, on the bank of cool, deep green river. -
Review from Audrey K.
Fremont, CA
8/13/2007
Perhaps I camped at a different spot than the 1st reviewer... we stayed at the Bullfrog Pond Campground. It is not free, but at only $15 per night, it is not bad. Especially considering many of the private campgrounds want twice this much. It is a trek to get to however, despite that it is only 3 miles from River Road, it is a narrow one lane road that winds tightly up a 12% grade and takes about 15 minutes. I drive a Saturn sedan and she handled it pretty damn well. Although, this drive is not one you want to do a couple of times a day so we found ourselves planning what we wanted to do out of camp instead of coming back often.
The campsites get crowded for the weekend by Friday morning and I dont think there were any left by Friday afternoon. We came up Thursday night and had our pick of a few sites. "Bullfrog Pond" was more of a muddy swamp, but the bugs were surprisingly not too bad. Bathrooms are the true highlight of this camp, clean as a whistle. Bullfrog Pond campground gets only 3 stars since because it is so high up in a really dry area, they do not allow campfires!! So save your sm'ores for another weekend. The drive down the windy road anytime you want to leave your campsite is also another reason I gave it only 3 stars, since the Russian River is the seeming draw to this area.
However, the Redwoods are AMAZING!!
This campsite also allows dogs, which is a plus! -
Review from Angi C.
San Francisco, CA
3/11/2008
4 of us camped here at one of 24 sites by bullfrog pond for one night during barrel tasting weekend and loved it! this being the off-season, it wasn't super-crowded and we easily found a spot even though we arrived around 3pm on a saturday. $15 and a crazy drive on a curvy, one-lane road later, we were setting up our tents under redwoods, a little ways above the pond. due to said curvy road though, you won't have to worry about setting up camps next to loud and stinky RVs.
maybe the rules have changed since audrey k's review because we were able to start a fire for grilling up dinner in the fire pits (one at each site). bathrooms are immaculate with flush toilets so even the not-so-rugged amongst us (i.e. me) was pleased. even though the pond looked quite stagnant, there were surprisingly not very many bugs...perhaps the bullfrogs eat them all? and yes, there really are frogs, so you'll get to fall asleep to their chorus.
