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