Alpine Lake offers an idyllic retreat for outdoor enthusiasts seeking tranquility and stunning…read morevistas. The surrounding terrain boasts incredible natural beauty and a serene ambiance, making it a popular destination for paddling, relaxation, and wildlife viewing. What many fail to realize is that the lake's true splendor is best appreciated from the water, where visitors can immerse themselves in the serene landscape. Nestled amidst the mature coniferous forests along the shores of serene Lake Alpine, the Lake Alpine Campground is one of five scenic camping destinations within the larger Lake Alpine Recreation Area. It is a superb place to paddle and camp! FOr more info: https://www.paddlingcalifornia.com/Alpine_Lake.html

Beautiful Lake at 7300 feet! I came up to this lake to go kayaking. The water was clear and…read moreperfect for paddling around in Mid-September. Probably a little chilly for swimming, though. There was plenty of irregular cloud cover, and the temperature was in the seventies with a slight breeze. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and PFD and felt comfortable. My paddling companion was wearing a t-shirt initially, but felt cold and had to add layers partway in our circumnavigation of the lake. There are some nearby structures that I guess are privately owned residences nearby. A few others were also kayaking around. I saw one motorized craft tooling slowly around, so it is allowed. Parking was pretty crowded for the number of available parking. Day use parking is $5 available at the store in the lodge building or at the little shack near the boat launch. $10 fee to use the boat launch. The campground host of the Silvertip campground also oversees the camping at Lodgepole campground, about a mile east of the lake where we camped. According to him(Thom), he also patrols the parking in the day use parking and along the shore. If you are staying at the campgrounds and have checked into your site with the host(Thom), the additional $5 day parking fee is waived (wish someone had told us that. We had already paid at the store earlier).

What a terrific place!!! First time staying here. I rented the Zen cabin for 5 nights. It was the…read moremost relaxing vacation ever! Quiet well kept grounds. The cabin was perfect for me. Just a bed, sink and toilet. And it did have electricity. Campsite also includes a built in bbq, a fire pit and table and two chairs on the deck. Was able to park my car right next to the cabin. Cabin also included a table top fan which was very helpful, as it was a very hot week. As someone who wanted to camp, but didn't want to sleep on the ground, these little cabins they have were perfect! Showers were coin op and just a quick walk from the cabin. Showers were .50 cents for 3 mins. You can add more quarters for more time. The communal bathrooms and showers were VERY clean at all times. Very well kept. The pool was terrific! Perfect temp and was very nice to hang out down there and read a book. Just a 5 min drive to big trees state park. Also a quick drive to Lake Alpine, Stanislaus river, Columbia state park, some terrific restaurants, and the moaning and Mercer caverns. The staff was super friendly and very helpful! All in all I had an amazing trip, and I will definitely be back!

We booked an overnight at this place a few years ago to attend a wedding. It is a smaller…read morecampground and feels a bit tight with 22 full-hook up sites and only 30 amp service. They have one site with 50 amp. They do have 6 pull-through sites for larger rigs. They allow tents on pull-through sites only. The sites are dirt, but fairly level. Anyone with a large rig and tow vehicle should avoid this place or call to ensure you will fit. There are several large trees in the park that can make backing your rig difficult. Most of the sites are fairly small. If you are trailering another vehicle, they recommend renting another site to accommodate that tow vehicle which is a bummer. They do have a pool, showers and bathrooms. For me, it was cool to experience this place one time, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Run!!! Don't walk to an amazing family experience not only are the staff friendly and helpful but…read morethe park has so much to offer from full open kitchen to playground and IN GROUND POOL sports area w equipment available washer and dryers as well as showers/ restrooms extremely clean and well kept firewood delivered to your site and a charming general store we will definitely be returning!!!

Went here for a quick weekend trip and really enjoyed ourselves. This is a boutique camping RV…read moreplace. There's lots of really close together so noise travels pretty fast. We learn the hard way when we were making too much noise because we were so excited to see each other and had some complaints from one of our neighbors. This place is very clean and comes with almost everything you need. Also the staff is pretty nice, and make sure you had what you needed or was able to help you get what you needed. There's a nice pool but it is not heated so just beware. We went when it was pretty warm, but that pool was so cold yet it still felt refreshing. We stayed in the premium Lodge that has a microwave and college size freezer fridge raider situation. There's a coffee maker in there but everything else you will need to bring yourself. There is one full service lodge that is on the ground however, that is located closer to the RV part and there's literally only one of those, so they book up pretty fast. There is a common outdoor kitchen area that has Stove to cook from however, there was one party there while we were there that it was basically camped out there the entire time. We could probably have gone over there and made meals, but it was a bit awkward because they literally were taking up all the space. We enjoyed ourselves and we like that we could all of our food outside and everything was so close together. We really love that the kids could just go and play at the playground and it was super close. Everything is just very close to each other. It was a really wonderful weekend and also this place doesn't seem to have any insect or bugs. Even though they mentioned that it was tarantula mating season when we came, we didn't see any tarantulas or any bugs in the Cabins, which is a good thing cause I'm terrified of tarantulas. I definitely would come back and looking forward to our next trip here.

Campsite#47 I was planning to stay 2 nights and 3 days…read morehowever just stood for one day & one night, left the next morning....... The camp grounds are beautiful, pine trees everywhere and each site has its own table with fire pit and a box to store your food overnight. It's about a 3-4min walk to the river ( it was freezing temperatures). We had to drive to the day use area so kids can get in water because the stream was too fast on the campground side. My kids tried to have fun as much as they could but their skin would get red on how cold the water was ( we were there July 23-24 2023....a lot of site were empty and most people were leaving Sunday on our arrival.Restrooms smelled and were not as cleaned as I'd hoped, there was toilet paper on the floor. Mosquitoes were the reason we had to leave even tho I had thermacell it was nothing to these savages we were eaten alive. Ps, NO CELL SERVICE if you care to know.

We lived our stay here. We arrived Saturday morning hoping to find a site. & there ware many sites…read moreavailable. We took 33 which was away from everyone & close to the water. Was a lite scared but the sound of the water is so relaxing. Beat part was catching fish. Everything was great except the disgusting bathroom. & they smell outside! Also when we arrived We grabbed two bags & had to collect all the garbage. Hos doesn't do anything there.

Stayed here 6/25 in site 21. Nice camp grounds. The pot holes on the road in are very big so it…read moretakes a long time to drive the last 5 miles. The trash dumpsters were full when we got there and were over full when we left. For having valt toilets they were clean. We will go back again.

The campground was great in many ways, the good: The campsites were a decent size and all good…read morelocations and access to the creek. The first come first serve sites were almost all empty Sunday-Wednesday mid July when I visited. The creek is beautiful and there are lots of good swimming spots. We stayed with friends in a group site and several single nearby sites. There was plenty of space and fallen trees and meadows for our kids to explore! The bad: Idk why but checkout and checkin are both at 2pm, so the sites aren't being cleaned fully between uses. There was a bit of trash at ours and we almost overlapped with the group there before us. The dumpsters were full the entire time we were there. So many yellow jackets and mosquitos, but that's summer in California near the water for you. The worst, there were several bears that made the rounds scavenging every night. We heard them sniffing around tents, banging around coolers, and people generally letting off foghorns and screaming and dogs barking all night long. The campsite is not equipped for bears. The hosts are doing their best, but this is their first summer with this problem, and they aren't receiving support from fish and wildlife. There are no bear boxes at the campsites and very little signage anywhere alerting people to store all their containers and food out of reach at night. People are also not helping. We talked to one family with their food out and said to pack it up as there were bears out the night before. They said they had been coming to the campground for years and never seen a bear. They didn't pack up their food at night and the bears got it all, and they had to leave the next day. The stupidity was astounding. Overall, I would recommend it except for the bears! Hopefully the government steps up to give the host more support before something serious happens!

I would say that David S from Stockton (3/2014) review is very accurate. Fabulous place for…read morefishing and camping. It's a Small remote campground - driving down/up a dirt, unimproved forest route road with lots of switchbacks creates limits to cars and RV's (don't even try unless you want to scratch/dent or get stuck). Highly advise no children and keep dogs on leash at all times. The river is swift and deep all year. If you fall in, you're a gonner - there is no swimming/floating. This is just a good hiking and fishing stream, but is not a family (kids) fun type campground because of the water hazards.

Nice spot. To many people and no drinkable water. Fish are getting smaller also. Road down is quite…read morea journey, don't try it at night.

So we go camping once a year, and every year we try something new. This year we found Cherry Valley…read moreCampground. It's about 29 miles past Sonora, Ca, but forewarned the drive is very curvy. But...once you arrive...OMG...the campground is amazing. There's a manager on site for any help, they sell firewood and have Potable water if you need it. The bathrooms are super clean and smell good, which is not normal for a campground. Now one thing you must know is that the lake is accessible at multiple points, but it's all rocky. So no matter where you go there's no real beach. However if you drive to the boat launch area which is like 5 minutes away, there is some sand and rocks to enjoy the water. We took some kayaks and we're able to explore the water, even saw a Bald Eagle. The scenery was great. Camping here was awesome, we will def be back.

The camp host was great! Made sure we were okay when a snow storm hit. The location was beautiful.read more

2021 Camping Trip #2…read more I was soooo lucky to get a weekend reservation here! They must have just opened up reservations as there were still sites available when I booked in May. We camped here the last weekend of June, and from the looks of it, the snow must have just all melted as the ground was still soft and damp. This meant we had mosquitoes of course, but it wasn't too bad. They were around in the morning and at dusk. However lots of wildflowers were in bloom, and lots of butterflies. It was also damsel flies mating season, so they were flying around, landing on people and rocks to mate. Lol We also saw a lot of trout jumping! Saw lots of stars at night and the sky is definitely bluer and cleaner up at this elevation! This campground is located at 7300 ft elevation. We did not feel the elevation which is nice. This campground is on the East shore of Lake Alpine which is the less busy side of the lake. Pine Marten is just past the Backpackers Campground and the beach is only a few minutes walk from Pine Marten. There is very limited parking for Day Users (maybe 10 cars?) so it is better than the West Shore. Site 32 was great! It was spacious. You can easily fit 3 tents on flat ground. There is a bear box which has a nice easy latch system, and a picnic table. It's about 2 sites away from pit toilets and water. The fire ring is very low though. Just make sure you don't build too big of a fire. The campground hosts were so nice! They would always wave and say hi when they are making their rounds. The campground was pretty quiet all weekend. Maybe coz it gets so cold at night. Friday night temps got all the way down to the high 30s, but Saturday night lows only got down to the 40s. Lake Alpine Resort is only a little over a mile walk away, so we walked there to rent kayaks in the afternoon. So much fun kayaking the lake! They also have a general store so you can buy ice, sundries, food, souvenirs, fishing stuff and drinks. Bear Valley is less than 4 miles so you can always drive there if Lake Alpine Resort doesn't have what you need. We will definitely camp here again. The Lake is gorgeous, the people friendly, and it feels secluded. Lots of trails, and lakes nearby too. Ebbett's Pass is also nearby. We loved our camping here so much, we are returning in another week, albeit at Silver Valley Campground which is adjacent to Pine Marten. I had reserved a campsite near Nevada City, but I happened to see an availability at Lake Alpine for the same weekend. Someone must have just cancelled their reservation. Can't wait to return! :)

Spaces are to small. And access to Lake is only via boat ramp and it is 300 yards away. Bathroom…read moreare not maintained very good

Beautiful views Nice calm waters for stand up paddle…read moreboarding The only reason not a 5 star was due to the swarms of mosquitoes Definitely will go back