Martin's Dairy Horse Camp and Juniper Stock Corral: Lassen NP, California

I had to wait more than a month to go on another camping trip, due to eclipse week making travel nearly impossible, a small accident that I needed to heal from, (not horse related), then forest fires burning everywhere, BUT after the labor day weekend, I finally departed for California.

The Cinder Cone in Lassen National Park.

After over four hours of driving south, I was still in heavy smoke, which was not encouraging, however once I got to the camp it wasn't quite as bad, so I tacked up and went on a ride.
Although on Trailmeister it states that there are 25 miles of trails, I looked everywhere but I never found any!

Martin's Dairy Horse Camp is in the Klamath National Forest and has four spots with not a lot of room to maneuver. After unsuccessfully trying to back into a couple of them, I made do with pulling straight in so I would be able to open my trailer doors.
There is a turn around area at the end of the camp and it is also a tight squeeze, but doable by jackknifing. Unless you want to unhook, if you have a rig longer than mine, 39.5 feet total, you will not fit in any of the spots.
There is a communal set of four corrals with a water trough that reaches all of them, but there is also a perfectly good spigot and a hose, so I didn't bother filling the huge trough. The water is potable, there are bear proof garbage cans, and a bathroom and it is $10.00 per night. There are picnic tables, fire rings, (actually more like wood stove type of things), and no manure bin.

The corrals at Martin's Dairy Horse Camp.

There is a day use area on the road before getting to the horse camp, then another large people campground, all within short distances from one another, but not a trailhead to be found. So I just rode on the many dirt and gravel roads in the area. Unfortunately it got smokier as the day went on, so I cut the ride short and headed back.

That evening the smoke was so thick I was forced to hide in my trailer and was starting to wonder why I was even there, when it started to storm, buckets of rain, thunder and lightning right above my head, which was a little scary, but on a positive note, it got rid of the smoke.

The Little Shasta River.

Found a spring.

Pretty country, but the smoke was getting heavy.

The next day was clear and I went for a ride towards the top of Willow Creek Mt. I wanted to save my horse's energy for our next destination, so I only rode a short while. In the afternoon I spent my time driving back into Oregon to Klamath Falls to buy something important that I had forgotten at home. While there, the air quality was horrible, then another storm blew in, and the wind kicked up so much dirt, blowing it across the road, that we all had to stop driving, since we couldn't even see the cars in front of us.

On the way up Willow Creek Mt.

Update: As of 2022 Juniper Lake Stock Camp is closed due to damage from a fire in 2021.

On Thursday I continued my journey south to Lassen National Park. There are three stock campgrounds in the park, Summit Lake, Butte Lake, and Juniper Lake. These are reservation only, and they are big enough for a group. Summit is the most popular, in fact it was reserved for the rest of the season, and I think I know why, although I did not go over there, I know it is on a paved road with easy access. Juniper however is on a long gravel road, that is rough and sometimes rocky and has one pretty steep section. On my way up the steep section I heard an unusual noise, I looked in my mirror and saw a tire lying in the road behind me. My spare had fallen out from under the truck. I backed down the road, got out and used brute human strength to get it hoisted into the back of my truck. The metal bracket thing that it sits on was still attached to it. Sigh. I had just had it re-installed since I had blown a tire on my last trip.

Juniper Lake Stock Corral sits next door to a ranger station that is unmanned. It is $28.00 per night and there is a bathroom, and two large joined steel corrals with water troughs. There are bear proof garbage cans and metal food lockers, picnic tables and fire rings, but no potable water and no manure bin. The ranger station has a small map of the nearest trails, but there is a better more detailed map online that you can print out.

 Juniper Lake is just a short walk downhill and it is the largest lake in the park, beautiful, clean and pristine. This area is fairly quiet, and because the road to the people campground nearby is not RV friendly, there is not a whole lot of traffic, just a few car campers or hikers arriving here and there.

The Juniper Lake Stock Corral is next to the ranger station.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that the water troughs were empty, this was puzzling since I had actually had someone call me from the park a week and a half ahead of time to confirm how many horses I was bringing, so they would know how much water to have ready for me. Very luckily, I always carry a barrel of water, on this particular trip it was meant to refill my trailer, but since the last camp had that handy dandy spigot and hose, I had already done that, so I was able to use the water in the barrel for my horse.

Juniper Lake Stock Corral.

On my first day of riding in the park I chose to head out to Butte Lake, passing Snag Lake. I wanted to do a loop but found that the short section of trail past Butte Lake was signed "no horses". At this point I had already ridden over 10 miles one way, so I just turned around and went back the same way. I saw not a single living soul on the trails the entire day.

A few bonuses about riding in a national park: you know the trails will be cleared, there are no hunters, and the junctions are all marked complete with mileage to all the destinations. This was handy, as every day I tended to start with one plan but would often change my mind mid way through, and I could just add up the mileage and figure out how much farther I wanted to go.

Snag Lake.

Aspens beside Snag Lake.

Butte Lake has little lava islands with trees growing on them.

Trails are well marked at every junction with mileage.

There is some confusion on the website about stock use in the park, it says all stock users must fill out a back country use permit, so I went and looked at the self serve ones they had at the ranger station. They are free and I was going to grab one and fill it out, but when I read the info it said they are meant for back country camping, which you can't do with a horse anyway.

The next day I did a 20 mile loop first passing Horseshoe Lake, where there is a cabin that I eventually learned someone actually stays in. What a peaceful and serene spot with a creek running through a meadow, and the lake sitting directly behind the cabin. I then continued on to Swan Lake and the Twin Lakes where I was on a stretch of the PCT for only about a mile, before I veered off towards Rainbow Lake and the Cinder Cone.

The cabin at Horseshoe Lake.

There were a few of these fun bridges made more for people than horses. This was one of the better ones.

Horseshoe Lake with the tip of Lassen Peak in the distance.

On the trail to the Cinder Cone in a burn area.

The Cinder Cone.

Once I got to the cone I saw that you are not allowed to ride horses to the top of it, so I went along the side and looked at the large round balls of lava strewn about. I think the correct terminology is lava bombs. Clearly I am not a geologist, but it was interesting and different from what I am used to seeing back in Central Oregon, where we also have a whole lot of lava.

Beside the Cinder Cone.

Beside the Cinder Cone.

The Fantastic Lava Beds.

On the way back I passed by the opposite side of Snag Lake from where I was the day before.

Snag Lake and Mt. Hoffman.

On my last day I headed up Harkness Mt. which is just south of camp, where I got some great views of Lassen Peak and also of the entirety of Juniper lake. There is a staffed fire lookout on the top and a nice lady named Tina was on duty, and she was delighted to see a horse. Although she meets and greets many hikers in a day, a horse was a new experience and she had some baby carrots as offerings which Rina was happy to accept. I spent about an hour there just chatting, and then let her get back to diligently keeping watch for fires. I rode down the other side of the mountain, over to Indian Lake, and then back to Horseshoe Lake making a nice loop. Once I was back on the main road, I took a detour to the top of Inspiration Point and then headed back to camp.

Almost to the lookout on Mt. Harkness.

Lassen Peak.

Looking down on Juniper Lake from Mt. Harkness.

The Mt. Harkness Lookout, built in 1931.

A rare photo of me, on the Mt. Harkness Lookout.

Mossy trees on the way back to Juniper Lake from Horseshoe Lake.

At Inspiration Point.

Since this was a slightly shorter riding day, I got back about an hour earlier than usual, and it was the warmest day thus far, so naturally I went down to Juniper Lake and lazed about on the deserted beach and had a relaxing swim. A perfect end to my trip! On a side note, when I arrived back at camp I saw that someone had come by and filled my water, or tried to, they started to fill the trough, then gave up on that idea and just filled my bucket. Not sure if this happened because I had mentioned to Tina that there was no stock water, and she had called someone, or if they just happened to come by and check. In any case I now wonder whether the tank had been filled originally and maybe there was a leak or?...... I guess I will never know.

Juniper Lake.

Update: I went back to the park in 2019 on a trip without my pony, and climbed the Cinder Cone, and Lassen Peak as well as hiking a whole host of other trails, plenty of which are horse friendly. I also checked out the Butte Lake Stock Corral, although it had already been dismantled for the season.

Butte Lake Stock Corral, the panels are normally set up in this area.

 GPS COORDINATES TO MARTIN'S DAIRY

GPS COORDINATES TO JUNIPER STOCK CORRAL