Casini Ranch Campground Review
If you’re looking for a campground with onsite access to the Russian river in Sonoma county, then check out my Casini Ranch Campground Review!
About Casini Ranch
The website says they “are a family friendly, pet friendly, nature filled, amenity rich campground in the Russian River Valley, offering a variety of accommodations in the quaint Sonoma County town of Duncans Mills, CA. One mile of river runs along this 110 acre part of the ranch, offering campers a memorable, get back to nature camping experience.”
Casini Ranch
22855 Moscow Road, Duncans Mills, CA 95430
(800) 451-8400
Campground Offerings
Casini Ranch offers 3 types of camping: RV/Cottage rentals, RV full and partial hookup sites and tent sites. In terms of activities, they offer kayak/canoe/tube rentals, fishing, swimming (river), hiking, sports areas (basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc.), dog parks, kids playgrounds, etc. The list is quite extensive, definitely a full service family campground. But, during the COVID-19 pandemic many group activities, rentals and areas were closed. Wifi is offered too. At the entrance is a general store, just in case you ran out of something or forgot something. Also, there is the small town of Duncans Mills that has some stores too.
My Thoughts
Below is a short video of our stay at Casini Ranch.
The campground was really large and spread out, very pretty. We stayed during the week, so the campground was not as busy (many empty campsites) as it may have been if we stayed during a weekend. But, there were still a lot of adults/kids biking/walking around. I prefer to stay away from the crowds, so we would probably not stay during the weekends or on popular holidays.
Tip – Many people brought bikes to ride around, so if you like riding your bikes you may want to bring your bikes. Since the campground is so big and spread out, bikes help get you to where you want to go faster. We also saw people carrying rafts and other inflatables to the river, so you may want to bring your own if you have them.
We rented a full hookups campsite. Some campsites that offered partial hookups (electricity and water only) were more secluded than our full hookups site. And, my wife said that she saw in the welcome paperwork that they have a sewer truck that can visit your site to drain your tanks for an additional fee. So, we may try the partial hookups campsites on our next stay at Casini Ranch because we prefer to stay at sites that are more secluded.
The campground beach (Russian River) was pretty busy during the day with people laying on the beach and kids playing in the river. So, we typically visited the campground beach early morning and at night to go fishing when it was empty.
My kids continue to try their hand at fishing, but because they’re so young they typically don’t fish for very long. They’d rather try to catch minnows or play with rocks.
I caught two largemouth bass on the first day I fished on the Russian river, none on the second or third days. Check out my Russian River Fishing Review, click here.
Since the campground beaches were too crowded for my preference during the day, we drove to nearby ocean beaches. There are a ton of ocean beaches that make up the Sonoma coast state beach. Our kids really enjoy the ocean beaches, dodging the incoming waves and digging for sand crabs. I tried doing some surf fishing, but no bites.
We visited Goat Rock Beach first. It has plenty of parking, but no bathrooms, so keep that in mind. We visited in July, but it was still very windy and cold at this beach. So, we didn’t stay long.
We also visited the North Salmon Creek Beach, a little further away (south) from Casini Ranch, but well worth the drive. The beach has public bathrooms and parking. Bathrooms aren’t the nicest, but better than nothing. This beach was much more mild and kid friendly than Goat Rock Beach. It wasn’t as windy or cold. To get to the beach, you have to go down some steep stairs that have been carved into the side of a cliff, but we made it down okay. Just take it slow going down. It’s much easier on the way up.
So, because of the river access onsite for fishing and because of the close proximity to the ocean beaches, we would probably stay again during the week (not on the weekends) because it’s not as crowded. We’ll probably try out the more secluded partial hookups RV campsites on our next stay.
I hope you enjoyed my Casini Ranch Campground Review! Happy camping!
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About Author
KEVSDADHACKS
I’m just a regular dad and I created this blog to share my dad hacks (tips) with families like you on a variety of topics like family activities, food, reviews and more.
