Yuba River

We decided on Yuba River as our next camping trip. There were a bunch of campsites along the river. We chose this one South Yuba Campground because we thought that since it was the only campsite in the area we would get a relatively secluded stretch of river to play around on.

We arrived at the campground around midnight on Friday. As we drove through the campground it became horrifyingly clear that this was a VERY popular campground. We drove around both the upper and lower campgrounds twice before determining that yes, the campground was completely full and no, we couldn’t share spots with any of the filled sites.

Since it was midnight, our options were pretty limited. We could go back to Nevada city and try to find a room or we could try to find a clearing to camp in. We chose the latter. There was a grassy area which was not a campsite near the front of the campground. (no picnic tables or fire ring). There was already a car and a tent there, so we set up camp on the other side of the grass.

We didn’t have a fire pit to make a fire so we lit our mosquito candles (after Union we stocked up on mosquito repellants- lantern, incense, candles, roll on, spray on). Since we didn’t want to bug our not-real-campsite friends we ended up going to bed early.

When we woke up the next morning we had a conversation about whether to stay in our site or move. We ended up on deciding to stay. This is BLM land after all! It belongs to us! We made this fire ring.

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Luckily I brought a fire grate! We also cleared away a lot of the leaves and added bigger rocks that we found after a hike.

From the campsite it was a little over a mile to hike to the river. We brought 2 rafts and 2 inner tubes and a cooler. As you can see the river is really low. This is in July. I suspect that most of this is normally under water.

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We decided to float down to Edward’s crossing bridge and walk back to the campsite. Morgan and I are in the big raft with the cooler and Rusty! We also have the dry bag which I highly suggest because everything except what was in that bag ended up getting drenched.

The float down proved to be very bumpy! Since the water level was so low we were hitting rocks left and right. But the rapids were pretty tame so we didn’t have any spills. When we got out, we had to cross a hot sandbar. It was too hot for “Princess Rusty” (named by Leah), who started yelping as soon as his paws hit the sand. We scooped him up and carried him across the beach. After our long hike back to the campsite we started making dinner! Here is our fire ring in action along with a boat of asparagus and a tired/dirty dog.

Cooking the crawdads. They were deeeeelicious with some garlic butter.

A ranger stopped by to check our fire permit. Luckily I had the one from Union still in my car! Fire permits are good for a year I think. I would make sure you bring one even if someone else plans the trip in case they forget. Around 10-11 an RV rolled by looking for a campsite and we offered to share our space/fire. They came over with a bottle of wine and hung out with us for a while around the campfire. Good times!

The next day we went back to Edward’s crossing bridge and played around in the lagoon.

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There were a ton of people on the river. It was pretty fun to hang out in our own little cove and relax after a long float day!

Overall: 7.5

Location: 6
Solitude: 4 Busy busy busy, but nothing like yosemite.
Campsite: The actual campsites are pretty nice, although they are close together. There is also potable water and trash collection which is a huge plus. 9 for the trash collection!
Activities: 9
Other notes: Get there early! We weren’t the only group to roll in late and not find a campsite.