Clear Lake SP

State Park

Clear Lake State Park is on the shores of California’s largest freshwater lake. The area is popular for all kinds of water recreation, including swimming, fishing, boating and water-skiing.

Anglers can catch large mouth bass, crappie, bluegill and channel catfish. The park is the nesting place for waterfowl.

Hikers enjoy the Indian Nature Trail, a self-guided trail that shows how the Pomo people, who lived in the area for centuries, utilized the area’s resources. The trail passes through the site of what was once a Pomo village.

The park visitor center features displays about the area’s natural and cultural history.

The Clear Lake area has a rich and interesting Native American and early settler’s history. The Northern Buttes District has a list of several books and other references it could provide park visitors. For more information about this fascinating history, please contact the District at 530 538-2251.

California State Parks is excited about the soon-to-be-installed rustic cabins. To plan your trip if you want to stay in one of them, we recommend you call Clear Lake SP directly.

Location - Directions
The entrance to the park is 3.5 miles northeast of Kelseyville on Soda Bay Road, north of Calistoga in the wine country.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.0094 / -122.8106

More about the park
Several thousand years ago, a landslide blocked natural drainage from a valley into the Russian River. The water rose until it found an outlet through Cache Creek into the Sacramento River to form Clear Lake, the largest natural lake entirely within California. Most of the water comes from runoff. Some comes from springs in Soda Bay.

Fishing
The bass fishing is so good that the professional bass fishing organizations, such as U.S. Bass, Cal Bass, Western Bass, have designated Clear Lake as the number one bass lake in the nation, based on numbers of fish caught. There are also catfish, blackfish, Sacramento perch, hitch, crappie and bluegill.

Wi-Fi Service
Clear Lake State Park now offers AT&T Wi-Fi Service!
This service enables park visitors with wireless enabled laptop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the Internet. Park visitors will be able to gain Wi-Fi access when they use a wireless device within about 150 to 200 feet of the Visitor Center located in the park. For more information about this service please see January 19, 2005, News Release.

January 19, 2005, News Release (pdf)

Other parks with WiFi access...