Our first camping trip and I gotta say, it was pretty sweet to be right on the lake with our private entrance! Zero issues with geese (we had read that in other reviews) ... would be nice if the ground were flat ... but overall, it's a great lil spot! The diner staff ... 10 outta 10 ... great group of people! read more

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Great beaches and nicely tucked away. Great campgrounds. I will go again for sure. Getting ready to go to the lake today, The lake is beautiful. read more

Beautiful desolate location. I hope you like the noise of Toads, because they are CONSTANT all night long. Bring earplugs or earphones to drown out the noise. The stars at night are Gorgeous. Especially walking to the bathroom at 3:00 am. Beyond that, It's peaceful and quiet. Clean restroom, and sanitizer available. My only wish; That they could trim or mow down alot of bushes, trees and debris in the walking passages. High brush and dead limbs make it difficult to pass through with children and pets. Otherwise, nice location. read more

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Came to Finnon Lake to pick up discarded fishing line and lures that gets left behind and poses a danger to wildlife. The volunteers and the diner staff at Smoke on the Water were all so friendly. The only negative is the road is scary as hell, very windy with hair-pinned turns, in some places not wide enough for 2 vehicles and has a single vehicle bridge, yikes. Just drive really slow and make sure to stay on your side of road. read more

Finnon Lake Recreation Area - Campgrounds Near Me - Placerville, California

Such a nice serene place to camp. Right on the water and there is a disc golf course right there. It's a small lake but big enough for everyone read more

This is one of the nicest i have ever went camping at! The bathrooms are VERY clean. And theres a tiny little beach area and the lake is HUGE. The review for me would get a 5/5 but the only con is that the store were you buy ice and food at franks diner , is only open on Wednesday threw Friday and not Monday and Tuesday. But this place has a-lot of wildlife! Theres lots of fish and lizards , frogs , grasshoppers and snakes but be careful . read more

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What's not to love about this place! Peaceful, clean and family friendly. Lots of wildlife,including red eared sliders,rainbow trout and a pair of bald eagles! Two beautiful sand beaches and even a disc golf course. Not to mention the amazing Frank's Diner to fill you up with delicious food! I recommend it for all families big and small! read more

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A small reservoir near Mosquito with camping, catch and release fishing, and disc golf course. The campground is clean with large sites. It's not flat and is not good for the mobility impaired. There are tunneling critters leaving sinking hazards, too. There's an unpaved boat ramp for human powered vehicles but we launched our kayaks right from our lakeside site. Restrooms have flushing toilets, a sink, soap, and paper towels. There is a day use area, too. We saw a bald eagle hunting and were told there's a breeding pair with three eaglets nesting nearby. At the entrance there's Frank's Diner for great food in generous portions. All only about an hour from Sacramento! read more

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We just left today, it's very nice quite place for tent camping. The lake is very clean and nice. Bathrooms are clean and the staff is friendly. Thank you for a nice time! read more

Finnon Lake Recreation Area - Campgrounds Near Me - Placerville, California

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Can not say enough about this beautiful campground. We had 8 families come up to camp for the weekend. This campground was not only naturally surrounded by the beauty of Mother Nature, spotless and kid friendly atmosphere. We were greeted by our host Becci Calderon, I truly cannot say enough about her eagerness to help and make all of our 8 families camp experience to be the best experience as possible. With her hospitality and nature's beauty, can honestly say all 8 families are looking to make this an annual trip every year. We are all looking forward to another great weekend in our future. Thanks again, Julie Hall read more

Finnon Lake Recreation Area - Campgrounds Near Me - Placerville, California

We had a wonderful 3 days camping here. Bathrooms were clean and the grounds were well maintained. All of the campers that we met there were very friendly. I do wish there was a shower on site though. We had so much fun swimming, floating paddle boarding and kayaking in the lake, the water was clean and the perfect temperature when we were there the first few days of August. I would definitely recommend for families. read more

My husband and I stayed with two of our friends (another married couple) for 1 night and we will never be returning. The camp hosts were completely unprofessional and made us feel unwelcome the whole time. This camp site is very strict about their rules, especially quiet hours after 10pm. I would not recommend this camp site to anyone. read more

Beautiful lake, clean with a hiking path around the lake. Great restaurant also!! Campsites are not level but you can get sone right at the water for easy access with kayaks or other non motorized floating crafts. Geese are loud!!! Tons of frogs that croak all night long. Clean well stocked bathroom but no showers We hiked around the lake one afternoon and there was a mama black bear with two cubs!!! She treated her Cubs and watched us as we went by with one big dog and four people. She was about 150 feet away. Walked for a couple more minutes in a huge deer ran by and then came across a turtle and the path. I never neither were bears in Placerville ! Truly the only negative is the shower situation and the bullfrogs. read more

Nice Area, Really loud Geese and Ducks all Night Long On the positive side - I spend this weekend night here (late October) and its a beautiful place (a total of 19 campgrounds of which only 6 were taken this weekend), and nice large campgrounds, nice lake to look (more like a pond really, and probably just as dirty). The negative is that the place has a ton of water birds during the fall (not sure how long they stay); a ton of Canadian geese, and other fowl - which to my surprise don't settle down and go to sleep at night. They fight, honk and are active all night long along the shoreline. The only time they finally quiet down is in the morning. Even with earplugs I was woken up frequently by the geese and ducks. But, a beautiful and remote place. read more

We found a hidden gem. Although I remember being here once before, but didn't realize it until we pulled up to the deck and diner. It was closed when I was there in 2001-'02 time frame. Lots of history here. We came 4th July and it was very quiet, they had their 4th BBQ we got some of it then went to lake to paddle around. Campground was quiet too, few campers but not much. Nice to beat the crowds for holiday. Met some nice locals too. Glad it's only 30 min from our home. Drive Mosquito Rd over the Mosquito bridge, that was fun, a little creeky. read more

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I was pleasantly surprised with this find and will come back again. It is relatively close to the Bay Area, pristine nature, great for non-motorized boating, and just a very peaceful, inexpensive place to camp. The only downside is no showers...and my hair did feel pretty icky after swimming in the lake. Perhaps you bring a large enough bowl to wash your hair that way? Nice restaurant at one end of the lake. Crazy steep drive in on Mosquito Road, but we like those kinds of roads. Beautiful suspension bridge en route. read more

The people who work here, which I believe are volunteers are very very nice!!!! The campground itself was a tad dry and it was very hot the whole 4 days we were there. Extremely dry thin air, alot of algae in the water, overall very nice layout and we even came across a beautiful horse, but would never return in those extreme temperatures, no breeze whatsoever!!! read more

Finnon Lake Recreation Area - Campgrounds Near Me - Placerville, California

Immediately after we arrived we were approached by a camp host who did not identify himself as such and rudely told us where he wanted us to park. If you are trying to have a private getaway with friends and family we do not recommend coming here. We were harassed multiple times by this old dude who they had apparently appointed to be the camp host. Telling us to leave and threatening to call the cops when we were abiding by the rules and trying to have a peaceful time with our friends. Definitely will not come back here ever again and I advise you do the same. read more

So we decided to go on a last minute camping trip over the weekend and picked Finnon Lake as our destination. We figured we would start there and keep searching until we found an open spot. The roads were SUPER curvy once you got up and out of placerville, but the cool bridge made it all worth it. Once we arrived we were amazed to find several open campsites on a Saturday or Father's day weekend (should have been our first clue). The lake was small but looked nice and there were some geese and ducks swimming about. We picked a spot and unloaded. After we unloaded we headed back down to the cafe/entrance area to pay for our spot. We saw on a sign on the way there that there was no wood gathering, so we decided to go ahead and buy wood at the cafe while we were there. The staff were nice and offered to deliver the wood to us later. When we got back to our site we walked down to the lake edge and the smell left something to be desired. There was also lots of vegetation and algae growing and the water and both kids said there was no way they were going in. The lake is catch and release only so we didn't bother to bring our fishing poles. So now we were at no swimming and no fishing. Should have brought a row boat to explore the lake. The area was also mostly grasses and oak trees and the grasses need tried as there were no real trails to the lake's edge or even a place cleared to enjoy it if you wanted to. The wood was delivered a time later and they actually delivered more than they said they would, which was a win. The spots had NO privacy and were super close together. It was also quite warm there and not a lot of tree cover. It was only about 80 this weekend, I can't imagine if it had been much warmer. Also, the women's restroom ran out of toilet paper around 6pm and it was not restocked prior to our departure the next morning. One campsite had music playing which was loud enough for the whole campground to hear. Not really our choice of music but with the lack of vegetation between the sites and the proximity of all the campsites we didn't feel like we had a lot of choice in the matter. We enjoyed our dinner, some games and time around the campfire and decided around 1030 that maybe it was time to call it a night. There was still loud music coming from our neighbors and the music continued on through the night. The neighbors were loud and it sounded like the host had asked them to keep it down at one point but they chose to not respond and the music and obnoxiously loud conversations continued well into the night... the last time I looked at my clock it was 2:38am and they were still going strong. We felt like further action should have been taken as they were disrupting the ENTIRE campground. If they chose to not listed to the staff, we felt like the sheriffs should have been called it and ask them to leave. We will not be back, nor would we recommend this location to any one. read more

I have to say I am 52 years old and have camped a lot in my life but have never had a better experience than at finnon lake campground. It is beautiful. Well kept and the mwva who own it are some of the nicest most welcoming people I have met. They went out of there way to make sure we were comfortable. I would personally like to thank Dave, Tom, Nick and Karen for making it such a wonderful experience. I can not say enough about what a wonderful place it is and will definitely recommend it to anyone that would like a peaceful getaway! It is a 5 star campground for sure. Kim read more

Finnon Lake Recreation Area - Campgrounds Near Me - Placerville, California

Beautiful and not over crowded. I do recommend waiting until the rainy season is over before camping.

Beautiful tranquil spot. Clean fresh air, lots of critters and space to relax. Staff is friendly and the campgrounds crew are amazing. Security keeps the undesirables away. Franks Diner is a sweet downhome style cafe with mouth watering menu items. The adventure of driving up the mountain is half the fun!! Highly recommend this as a family gathering place. Love can grow here. read more

What a hidden gem we found. Absolutely the most peaceful place. Campsites were clean, lake was clean, and they have a place called Frank's Dinner. Which was amazing food. The host Karen and I believe his name was Gary were great camp host that weekend. Brought our firewood to our site for us...really? How cool is that. I had explained I have gsd pup that barks alot and we needed a site where we would not bother anyone and Karen suggested a site right on the lake and by ourselves. We found our new camp spot, absolutely beautiful. I hope next time I come I will be hosted by Karen again, her and Gary were so great and made us feel at home. Also the wild horse that roams around was so cool. FYI if you forget ice or wood you can get it at Frank's Dinner or if your last day there and don't feel like cooking swing in and grab a bite. Thanks Finnon lake for a great experience. read more

Karyn was nice on the phone and during a heat wave holiday weekend, let us know we could get a shadier spot when there was a cancellation - so the folks running the place are great. However, after an extremely windy 9 mile drive you arrive at Finnon "Lake." The lake was definitely not something for swimming as the shore is muddy, with algae, duck poop and lots of dead frogs. The campsites themselves were adequate. I'd be interested to talk with Kristen M. and Kimberly T. - as I've camped a lot in my life and would have kept looking if we had the chance. read more

This campground is a slice of HEAVEN!!!! The folks that work there are so friendly and went above and be our expectations. I highly recommend this campground!!!! You won't be disappointed. read more

I gave it three stars for these reasons: the lake is a nice place to swim and kayak, the lakeside campsite with immediate water access was really nice, and it's pretty there. Our first night was awesome. Even with that said, I will never go camping there again for these reasons: drunk campers partying literally all night after a huge domestic violence blowup our second day/night there. Their DV episode was in front of my toddler as we swam, then they kept him awake until three a.m., and I was awake hearing them all night. They broke multiple campground rules - people coming in after the 10 pm quiet time, and loud partying and dogs barking (three dogs when I believe there's supposed to be a two dog limit) well into quiet time.There's a camp host who lives in the center of the campground and she never attempted to enforce any rules. If that's the kind of camp experience you want to experience - this place is probably five stars for you. read more

I recently went and stayed for a few days with my sister, and our children. We had a wonderful time. Our site was shady and located near the restrooms. The site had a fire ring and picnic table. The kids really had a good time playing in the water. We had s'mores and good camping fun. The price is very good. They deliver the wood right to your site and they're very generous with it. We even got to bring our dogs. We love this spot. read more