Bear River Fishing Access — Hotel in Grass Valley

Edit 02/01/23: Campground is closed in result of the 2022 Oak wildland fire. Sites have been cleared of tables, bbq and fire pits, site markers were removed and large boulders were placed to block site driveways. **Day Use beach area and parking is open.

Quiet hidden campground with 23 non-reservable sites along Bear River. Most sites have little to no shade. In other reviews people mention trash everywhere, nasty restrooms, broken glass scattered around, etc. I was just up at the campground last weekend and had a great time. The restrooms we're cleaned daily and there was only a few pieces of trash in our site when we arrived, and I picked up a couple food wrappers along the bank of the river. The site did have a handful of broken glass pieces on the ground, but I've seen way worse in other campgrounds.

I learned from an employee at Starbucks in town that there's a handful of homeless people that reside in the campground, and the Sheriff overlooks it because they're not vandalizing or trashing the place. The employee also warned us that locals don't camp or go there because the homeless campers are known to steal from campsites when they're unoccupied. We didn't have any troubles with people in the campground, and no one bothered our belongings when we left our site unattended. We did see the sheriff drive through once or twice a day. The campground was quiet at night, no yelling, screaming, or loud partying.

When we were camping the fire pit and BBQ were both taped off and posted signs prohibiting open flame fires due to the extremely high fire danger. Gas camp/cook stoves were allowed.

I think Bear River Campground is a great weekend getaway and will...

Went here because we wanted a cheap place to stay for a quick night stop over, and weren’t looking for hookups. It didn’t really look like a homeless encampment; I saw minimal broken glass and trash. However as the night went on we walked our dog and noticed most of the tent sites had no vehicles. We had a nice pleasant evening on the river until.... around 12:30 am when we were awoke to a man screaming HELP!!! for at least an hour. Being 2 females we were not going outside of our RV to see what the issue was. We eventually called the Colfax Sheriff which took 45 minutes to arrive. It was quiet afterwards. But after that sketchy event, I don’t think I will ever be back again... it’s sad because the place has potential. We did not see a camp host on site, and that’s exactly what this place needs- a real camp host. Maybe with the increase of prices effective June 2019, the homeless problem...

Only $10 a night almost always a campsite available, except for major holidays. And gold panning fun, rafting, and swimming. Well, forget all that I said above. Now you have to make reservations and they have more than doubled the price per night. Plus they even charge you $8 on top for the pleasure of making reservations online. And if you are thinking of sitting around a campfire, forget it. No campfires allowed, cant even use the BBQ. But then maybe you can cook stuff on the electric fence they have surrounding you. This place went from my favorite to least favorite. You'd think for the price you pay there would be electric and cable hookups, running tap water, flushing toilets, and showers. Maybe if your smart enough you could use some jumper cables and tap into the electric fence that surrounds you for power. I've got one more day here, think I'll use it to pack up and get the hell...