Camping on the Russian River at Casini Ranch

This past weekend I camped at Casini Ranch on the Russian River with my family and our neighbors.  This is our second year in a row camping at Casini Ranch, and we absolutely love it. 

Weekends in the summertime are the best time to go to Casini Ranch because the Saturday activity schedule.  In the morning they have a scavenger hunt and at the end kids are rewarded with candy.  In the evening there is hayride, followed by a very large bonfire on the beach with marshmallows included but its BYOC&GC.  That is to say, bring your own chocolate and graham crackers.  Family-friendly Casini Ranch has been around for over 40 years and they know how to please.

The kids really enjoyed the hayride.  A tractor pulls two open trailers lined with hay for everyone to sit on.  The hayride goes around the campground with an entourage of bikes trailing behind.  As it goes by each campsite the campers and hayriders cheer.  There were enough campers that wanted to do the hayride that the tractor did four different packed rides.

During the days we drove up to Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville just a few miles up the river.  Johnson’s beach is another family oriented atmosphere where you can rent tubes, canoes, kayaks and paddleboats. Tubes are $5 for the day, and it's $30 all day for any of the boats. You can switch off between any of the boats as well, and it's fun trying them all. It is $10 for an hour for a boat rental, but the best deal is to rent for the day and try the different boats. They also have a snack shack on the beach with softies, snow cones, hamburgers, hot dogs, beer and other goodies.

One thing I missed was the rope swing they had set up last year a quarter mile up the river.  It’s now been cut down, probably due to liability issues.  I loved going on it last year though and my older daughter Sky took a few turns launching into the river as well.

Speaking of launching into the river, on Saturday morning while the kids were scavenging I was trying my luck with a fishing pole and watching a few of the camper kids climbing a 15 foot rock and jumping into the river!  I didn’t want to even try.  The Santa Rosa Kaiser is relatively close, but that’s not how I wanted to end our vacation.

A few other things to note if you do visit Casini Ranch.  It’s a beautiful drive through the wine country and only 60 miles of so from San Rafael.  Casini Ranch is a little closer to the ocean than Guerneville, so it’s a bit cooler there during the day.  Once you are at Casini Ranch heed of the poison oak warnings, especially if you are picking blackberries which are ripe and extremely tasty this time of year.  If you have a dog, the last thing you want is the animal running through the oak and rubbing up against you!

On the way out of the campground my daughter’s would not let us pass by the duck pond without a feeding session. We bought bags of 25-cent feed at the Casini Ranch general store and had a nice time feeding the ducks.  It was a perfectly relaxing way to end a great little camping vacation.