This was such a great campground for families and people looking to unwind. We booked campsite #43 that had tons of extra space, a large driveway big enough for 3-cars, close to showers and bathrooms. There were six of us with 3 tents, but we could have easily fit three more tents. There were multiple bathrooms nearby, plenty of water spigots, and showers nearby. The showers are pretty expensive; $4.00 will only get 3-minutes of shower time and it only takes quarters. This campsite is on a peninsula that's technically over a reservoir, not a lake, but it does not feel like reservoir. The body of water itself is huge and the surroundings are gorgeous. My family and I did multiple hikes around the lake and saw all kinds of wildlife like hawks, squirrels, tadpoles, and lots of coyote tracks. One day we went fishing and saw what it looked like bear scratchings at the base of a tree. See my pictures. We even caught a glimpse of a few eagles near our campsite. A handful of spots were blocked off because it was a nesting area for the eagles. Our favorite spot by far was hanging out on Fashoda Beach, which is a man-made beach area. They've removed all the sharp rocks and put in sand and buoys to keep boats out of it. It's essentially like a giant bay that's kids safe for swimming. I am more of "glamper", but I really enjoyed this campsite with all of its rustic features. I could definitely see myself coming back here with my family for annual camping trips, and I highly suggest coming here at the beginning of summer because the weather was perfect with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Plus, there weren't many people out here for the summer yet. Did I mention I still had 5G access to my phone, score! read more

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The campground itself is really nice, most of the sites are in the trees so there is lots of shade, some sites have a lake view and you can walk right down to a few small beaches on the lake. But this is not a good choice if you are looking for peace and quiet. The leash rules are not enforced and dogs are running around making trouble, people are being pretty loud until around 11-12 at night and the steel bathroom doors are slamming, and there are lots of loud jet skis on the lake during the day. It might be worth a try in the off season. read more

Katie the hostess was super welcoming. I came in a group of 8 one section was enough room for 4 tents.

I recently visited the shady loop campground site 1 at Union valley reservoir, the camp hosts Terrie and John were not following the rules and would only enforce rules onto certain people. When I arrived on the night of the 24th of July my campground, as-well as the other campgrounds were filthy and I didn't see anyone cleaning them the entire time we were there. On July 25th After some other campers left rather than doing their job and cleaning up and putting out the leftover fire, one of the camp hosts John instead walked down from his campsite and yelled at another camper to put out his fire as-well as all the other smoldering fires before leaving (4+ fire pits around him), he made no effort to do his job or clean up the campsites and left them dirty for the next campers. They told us we could not have a fire on the morning of July 25th while they told all others who came in they could not have a fire on the next day but could have fire that day, until fire restrictions were actually officially in place on July 26th. On the night of the 25th at 22:00 he came out of his camp and stood in the darkness beside his camp and began to threaten me for having a small fire, saying "You better put that fire out soon" "I didn't tell you you could have have a fire" "If you don't put it out soon I will damn well do it for you". He also sounded intoxicated. This was after watching all of my neighbors start a fire and also watching one of the host himself building a fire.(This was blatant discrimination aswell as haramsment). I watched him allow his dog/s to roam free off leash both in and out of the campground as-well as the roadways and other campers un-neutered large dogs roaming, but they would go on to tell us to keep our dog on leash. (which is understandable because it's the rules but if the camp hosts are flagrantly disobeying their own rules it's hard for others to take them or the rules seriously) you cannot pick and choose rules to follow yourself when you're there to enforce them. Also many campers did not follow the quiet time rules and kept playing music drinking, screaming and yelling. The camp hosts did not patrol the camp at night at night to enforce the rules and rarely enforced the rules period. We had a group of people who rented camp site 3 and 5 who came out at 00:00 on the morning of July 26th to start drinking whiskey and beer while smoking cannabis from a bong, playing music, and joking about profanely inappropriate vulgarities, (one of the very classy lady's said her ideal Friday night would be "one with white gold and sucking d***.") this went on until 03:00 when they finally went to bed. It was the same situation the night before. This was happening directly across from the host and I know they were aware. Also the camp host has at least 8 tents set up in his campsite (also against the rules and is a fire hazard, tents are very flammable.) and I believe he is renting them out on something like air bnb for additional personal profit he is also crowding more then the allowed limit of people and tents into his site.He seems more interested in tie dying T-shirts and his VW Beetle rather than his job. The garbages were overflowing as well as filthy toilets and bathrooms. This campground and the camp host need to be investigated, they are not upholding the standards that I came to know from the Royal elk. I was honestly appalled at my last visit and by the camp hosts and will not be returning. read more

Sunset Campgroud - Campgrounds Near Me - Pollock Pines, California

Wanting a weekend away, and out of the Valley heat, my boyfriend and I made our way to Sunset Campground located on Union Valley Reservoir. We got lucky - a managed to get the last reservation on the government website for a Friday check-in (2 PM) and Sunday check-out (1 PM). And the spot we got was rated "one of the best" (on camping blogs). Anyways, we loaded up our gear and headed for the wilderness. Located off Highway 50, before Kyburz, you turn off for Icehouse. Past Icehouse Reservoir about another 15 miles and you're there! The camp sites were spacious (you didn't feel like you were on top of your neighbors). Ours had great access to a sandy little cove - our own "private" beach. We launched our kayaks from there. The bathrooms were nearby and clean (for the most part; they started to get a little funky by the time we left on Sunday afternoon). The fire pit was large and there was plenty of downed wood to gather and burn. They have bear boxes large enough to store a ton of food/coolers/stuff. Lots of stars, fresh air, and reservoir fun. We will definitely be returning. read more

Let me preface this with the fact that I have been coming to this campground for 15+ years and have never had anything happen like this. Me and my group paid thursday- Sunday. I arrived on Friday around 5pm after the rest of our group had been there for a day,upon checking in the host Ginny handed me money back for Saturday saying your campsite has been reserved for one day Saturday-Sunday and we need to be out at 1pm Saturday even though we payed through Sunday already. After talking with her multiple times and even her boss Rocky we were told to pack up and leave because we were being disrespectful, however we didn't raise our voice once and we were just trying to figure out why our campsite was able to be reserved if we had already paid through Sunday and we were given less than 24hours notice to leave. Any sign you see posted is wrong they claimed the rules were changed a year ago and the signs haven't been changed,also they don't have any communication with the website that people can reserve campgrounds on. Overall horrible experience and I know they don't give af because they're gonna get paid no matter what and nothing is gonna happen from this. Just be prepared to leave whenever the host feels like renting out your spot no matter how many days you paid for. Will not be coming back to this campground ever. read more

I thought I had a good spot, with lake front views at the edge of the lake, but I was so wrong. The campsite a cross from us away from the lake had a group site I believe and arrived before us. They took the beach spot directly next to our site for days with a number of chairs and inflatables left there all day and night, not allowing room for anyone else to sit or get in the water.The camp host said that was allowed. The whole point of going was to hangout at that area. There are other areas, but they are all full and taken just the same. Also mosquitos are a big problem, especially at dark. Do not recommend. The closest showers were closed, we had to drive a ways to shower and it takes a lot of quarters. read more

This campground has just been opened (early) after a massive renovation. Here is what you will now find: They have added lots of double restrooms peppered throughout the three major areas and specifically in the Meadow (middle) Loop three sub areas of this large campground. Every campsite has at least one large new modern bear box colored brown (to keep the contents very warm?). I made a custom silver tarp tent for such boxes to keep the boxes at air temperature and the ice lasting for a long time. Double and triple campsites have two and three bear boxes respectively. All the parking areas for the sites have been enlarged and have fresh blacktop. One double site across from mine had room for two tent trailers and a massive total of five SUVs, etc. The literature on Recreation.gov is totally erroneous for this campground--desperately needs to be updated. It still says there are no bear boxes and has all the campsite numbers off by five over or under. The renovation changed the numbers of all the campsites. This was to our advantage since we happened to end up with the best site in the campground (number 53 - formerly 58). If you like hot sun, a tiny paved area right next to the road and across from the huge double site (with 5 cars and 2 trailers in your face) then you want site 51-formerly 57. That site was vacant most of the busy 4th of July weekend likely due to its totally undesirability. Sadly the map offered at Recreation.gov has the numbers for the campsites varying from 5 over to 5 under, etc. A new large shower building is completed for this campground across the street from the Meadow Loop and is merely awaiting usage approval from some form of bureaucratic regulatory agency (of questionable value to society?). If I get around to it I will post a map with the correct site numbers and locations of the new restrooms. About a third of the campsites are walk in. Sunday afternoons are recommended for arriving to obtain a walk in site as so many clear out that day. It was a mad house for the 4th of July weekend with frequent toilet paper shortages and the dumpsters (empty at the beginning of the timeframe) now filled to the brim. Some groups greatly exceeded the maximum supposed limit to the 12 person double campsites with perhaps 20 to 40 in these sites. The massive number of campers in the double sites combined with their attitude of dumping their trash everywhere made it a challenge for the campground hosts. Absolutely NO rangers were ever seen at this campground for the entire 6 days we were there to perhaps address the overcrowding issues and those same folks throwing bear bait (food and trash) all over the campground. On numerous occasions some of the campers failed to make it to the restroom or were returning to acquire emergency toilet paper (or Kleenex boxes when they discovered the frequent outages) and had accidents half way back to their campsite. We witnessed such an event with one camper calling for his mother to rescue him after such an accident. Bottom line is this is a good campground but if you are there on a busy weekend you might want to always carry some emergency toilet paper since the toilet houses only have room for three rolls of toilet paper and this is quickly exhausted with the "Massive" numbers of campers in many of the double sites. When they allow up to 40 folks in a double campsite (and don't kick a few out) then they need to have a whole lot more toilet paper rolls than a mere three rolls stocked once a day. I would say everyone there had a good time with one exception. The huge numbers of campers at the double sites created quite a job for the poor campground host trying to pick up after them so as to not have bears attracted to the campground. At Yosemite National Park these kind of trashy folks would be fined and kicked out for throwing food and various edibles around the campground. Again absolutely NO rangers ever visited the campground to address the folks overloading the double campsites and throwing food, etc. all over the place. read more

Pros: large and spacious campsite, our site lead to the water and sandy area, the trees provide a lot of shade, a lot of areas to travel near by, sort of bike friendly, good sized fire rings and wooden tables, double-family campsites. Con: vault bathrooms were nasty, not all sites are flat throughout, no bear boxes, some areas blocked off for eagle sightings, showers were closed since no one was at fashoda (even though it keeps advertising showers at the neighbor site.) We arrived an hour before arrival time and began setting up, there was many other families since it was the Sunday after Memorial Day. A little after 2 a guy/lady will come by and check the sites when people are checking in or leaving but we didn't see any ranger our second day.. if you want to buy wood they have an honest box that you can buy $8's worth of wood that sits out in the rain.. just try to find some cheaper wood in Freshpond, if you can... One large family was kinda loud but left the next day. However soon after that each family left one by one.. until only us and one other family on the whole other side were the only ones. It was quiet and we got a relaxing vacation. We tried fishing in multiple different areas however no bites. We understand why it's called sunset because if your lucky you'll get to see the amazing sunset that lasts about 45-60 minutes.. The only reason I took one star was because the toilets were awful, they should be checked and cleaned a lot more often.. the other one reason would be that anyone can just come into the campsite and not have to have a site and just hang out there so don't leave your site for to long unattended. I wish the check in system was more secure. We stay for 4 days and 3 nights. It cost $80 read more

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There is a ranger here who is actually belligerent. We asked about open campsites and he said there were none, but we found one after driving around (and the grounds are not that big). He also was not wearing a mask and getting very close to people as he questioned them about their reservations. We even talked about him with our neighbors--none of us have ever been treated like this at any campground before. Totally unprofessional and unnecessary. read more

My family and friends have gone to this campground for several years now. All of the campsites are near the union valley resevoir which the kids and adults swim in and flow around and kayak. The outhouses are okay. I've smelt worse. There is a shower facility as well. Not a lot of bugs as I have experienced in other campgrounds. I saw very few flies, bees or ants. The trees are beautiful, the forrest is beautiful, and there are hiking trails. read more

Went camping with about 20 people we had 3 camp sites next to each other. Area is nice. But OMG those bathrooms were gross and smelled so bad. Have the time one was out of order. Spoke with person in charged and alleged they cleaned restrooms times a day. Our group was next to restroom and there cleanings were sweep and mop. Not scrubbing those nasty toilets that had splatters all over the inside. We had other campers gaging inside those restrooms. Some one needs to teach the employees that maintenance those restrooms how to pressure wash. We also felt some type of discrimination due to the fact about 1015 pm we were listening to Spanish music and the older man (Host) came over and told us to turn off our music and said " I know you speak English. How rude. read more

We really enjoyed this campground. Very spacious and quiet. The campsites are close to the water and there are decent beaches when the water is low. The lake was awesome, clear with not much boat traffic. We have a 30ft 5th wheel and I BARELY made it through the campground without destroying my camper. The loop is very tight with lots of boulders, trees, and bollards. I wasn't too happy as once your in the loop, there's no turning back. I realize I've got a big trailer, and I try to find out accessibility before we make reservations, but this campground had no indication on a recommended size limit. The camp host joked about people getting stuck and tearing up their trailers getting through. Once we made it to the site (site 151) we were good. But I had inches to spare trying to maneuver through there. Great campground, just not for mid to larger trailers. read more