299 in Northern California, Trinity River

The ranger is correct. Quite a few Forest Service Campgrounds along the Trinity River. Hayden flat, on the river side is a favorite. Burnt Ranch is another. There is also a BLM campground just west of junction City that is nice.

Rmack1 wrote:
...it will be easy for me to find a camping spot for my rig, many close to the Trinity River.

Ackerman Campground near Lewiston is almost always accessible.

Here's my Google Review

Farther west on 299, there are narrow sections, some of which are one lane due to the second lane being closed. I'd be a little wary of driving that portion with almost any trailer.

DarkSkySeeker wrote:

Rmack1 wrote:
...it will be easy for me to find a camping spot for my rig, many close to the Trinity River.

Ackerman Campground near Lewiston is almost always accessible.

Here's my Google Review

Farther west on 299, there are narrow sections, some of which are one lane due to the second lane being closed. I'd be a little wary of driving that portion with almost any trailer.

The thing is; I'm coming up the coast and staying at several places that I already have reservations for, but I need to get to Mt Shasta where I'm spending the rest of the Summer, so I'm using the 299.

The only other ways are way out of the way, or the 36 through Mad River, which I hear is worse.

How old is your information about the closed lanes? Is this from the heavy rains this winter? Anyone know what the current road conditions are?

I googled 299 conditions and confirmed DarkSkySeekers info.

It didn't say how long till they finish. I will be going through starting July 6th.

Rmack1 wrote:


How old is your information about the closed lanes?

I traveled that road Sep/Oct 2016. I made it fine in a Chevy 3500 and a cargo trailer.

I take back my comment about being "wary".

DarkSkySeeker wrote:

Rmack1 wrote:


How old is your information about the closed lanes?

I traveled that road Sep/Oct 2016. I made it fine in a Chevy 3500 and a cargo trailer.

I take back my comment about being "wary".

Why? Being wary is always a good idea, if you ask me.

Yes, these delays on CA-299 are all from new slides in the past couple weeks:

Last Tuesday, May 2 - CA-299 had two blockages / delays.

One near Burnt Ranch was alternating one way traffic for a slide repair. Probably 5-10 minute delay.

One near Big Bar closes CA-299 for road work. They open up CA-299 for traffic once an hour - one way first then the other way - between 6 pm and 6 am. CalTrans says expect a one hour delay. Between 6am and 6pm - they open up the road for traffic each half-hour.

Three people I spoke with who traveled CA-299 from Redding to Eureka during the day time said their total delay was 1 hour, 80 minutes and 2 hours.

These slides / repairs should be completed/ repaired before your trip.

(FYI - south of Crescent City about 8-15 miles on US-101 - Thursday - there were five single lane sections due to repairs/ road work - three pilot car - two traffic light - total delay was about 45 minutes northbound at 11am.)

Use the Caltrans website to check road conditions when you are close to your travel date

Caltrans Road Conditions

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:


Three people I spoke with who traveled CA-299 from Redding to Eureka during the day time said their total delay was 1 hour, 80 minutes and 2 hours.

I'd always wanted to drive it. I had some romantic idea of the scenery, but the length of the route and lane controls added a lot of time to my return home.

It would have been much faster for me to return home via Highway 5 - duh.

Don't know what you will ultimately decide to do, but I've been fishing the Trinity for 35 years for the Fall salmon run and have stayed at almost all of the campgrounds alongside 299 between Lewiston and Burnt Ranch. They are rarely full and a lot of them to choose from.

Some of the campgrounds don't have a lot of room to navigate the backing in of a trailer and I don't recall seeing more than a handful of pull throughs. You just have to take a drive through them to take a look. Some of the campgrounds have no working water supply, so check it out before you get setup.