Lake Berryessa: The Tijuana of California Car Camping
We stayed at what I think was the Putah Creek Resort, I can't be entirely sure because the only identifying marker was an old, falling over sign that appeared to be a relic from previous ownership. Anyway, the address was the same, so this must be the place.
We arrived around 5pm on a Saturday to join friends who had arrived earlier to secure a spot. There is no quick way to get this spot from Sacramento, a 70 mile drive took us approximately 2 hours due to narrow, winding roads (about 15 miles or so) and driving behind boat trailers, plus a short stop for bait and snax in Winters.
The woman who greeted us at the gate (look lively because it is not clearly marked and we drove past it the first time and over a bridge), was friendly and charged us for parking and sent us on our way. The pleasantness ended there.
It took a while to find our friends because this privately owned campsite is not what one might call "conforming" in its layout. It fact, the term "Clusterf*ck" comes to mind. There are driveways that lead to nowhere (don't drive off a cliff!) and torn down building foundations from buildings past with jagged nails or bits of concrete sticking out of the ground.
The major (only?) attraction of the site is the boat ramp and the ginormous parking lot for storing your truck and trailer.
We finally found our friends, who had a decent site, considering, relatively private and with access to their boat, moored just offshore below. Now come the downsides:
WEEDS AND BURRS: entire campground was covered with burrs, we had a dog and three children (2, 5 and 9) with us, which were little burr magnets. misery ensued.
NO RUNNING WATER: despite evidence (networks of exposed rusted plumbing and a long defunct irrigation system were a mere taunt at the potential or history of the campsite). Luckily we had enough water between the 9 of us to survive, but little extra for washing dishes or bodies. I nearly tripped over exposed piping and jagged twisted metal on several occasions. Not sure what used to occupy this space.
DANGER! Some sites were absolutely LITTERED with broken glass. In one camp site I counted more than 7 distinct types of broken glass. Not a great thing when flip-flopped children and dogs are running around. I still can't tell if the glass was a testament to the number of different cars that have been broken into while innocent campers were out on their boats, or whether drunken campers had been shooting bottles, or both.
NO ACTUAL TOILET FACILITIES: portapotties only, and not enough. By the time we left around 5pm on Sunday all toilet paper was gone and the potties were in BAD need of servicing. I won't say more.
SECURITY ISSUES: when we arrived there was a young (20?) security guard on an ATV who was patrolling the campground. We commented among ourselves that this was sort of odd and perhaps should have warned us about what was to come later that evening. We saw him often, but only because he gave a joy ride on his ATV to each of the 6 20-something drunken girls who were camping a few feet away from us.
DRUNKEN GIRL FIGHT: Same girls, around 10 or 11pm got into a raging, profanity laced argument which echoed across the campground and was not successfully broken up for several hours (by same said 20 year old security guard). About 3 hours of screaming and crying eventually gave way to the guard telling the campers to leave or else he would call the (real) police. They finally did heed the eviction notice, which may not have been a good idea to send them all out on a dark, narrow, curvy road at 3 am after consuming large amounts of alcohol. Wow. So kid friendly! You can bet those kids learned some new words that night.
Believe the other reviewers about this place being dangerous and gang-ridden. Amidst the girl fight we also heard three other campers threaten to beat up the poor security guard for no apparent reason other than to direct their alcohol-fueled machismo angst at someone.
SITES: Many of the sites, probably a result of being poorly marked, were actually in parking lots. There were NO PICNIC TABLES, GRILLS, or FIREPITS. Luckily our fellow campers called us ahead of time so we brought a weber to cook our meals.
TRASH: trash littered the grounds, empty bottles, tampons, cig butts, a shower head? etc.
This place was literally like a demolition project where they only removed the larger debris after going through and tearing down buildings. And then the very next day they opened up a for-profit campground.
Camper beware. This place gives a whole new meaning to "unimproved campground". read more