I got married at Camp Sylvester in April, 2023. It was a wild winter, and there was more snow than expected. We originally planned to get married outside in the amphitheater, but it was buried in snow. We ended up using DeBoer Hall for the ceremony, and it was magical! Our guests had so much fun, and everyone said the cabins were warm and cozy. Everyone embraced the feet of snow surrounding camp, and it made for a unique experience. Our camp wedding was everything we hoped for, and we are so glad we found Camp Sylvester. One of my favorite moments was watching our guests having snowball fights and building snowmen on the morning of the wedding. Ken was incredibly helpful in the planning process! All the Camp Sylvester staff were kind and responsive throughout the wedding weekend. I highly recommend you plan an event at Camp Sylvester! read more

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Spent the week here for camp and have to say it was a very nice, well laid out camp. The camp as you might expect has the hub for the leader/director to set up shop. Dining hall, bathrooms on both sides of the camp, amphitheater, activity room and of course cabins all named after trees, mine being the "Oak" cabin. Amongst all that are plenty of places to pitch tents all within the boundaries and not to disturb the residents who live around the camp. What I really liked about the camp are the other activities that available like a basketball court (not a full court) but enough to shoot some hoops and a volleyball net. Also the staff who run the camp (outside of our program) were accommodating if we needed additional supplies or had questions about the site. There are also plenty of trees to set up some hammocks and pits to have a fire. The camp is within walking distance to Pinecrest lake which of course is a plus. I enjoyed our time here, my only critique is the bathrooms could use either some ventilation or air fresheners. It was painful to my nose every time I had to go in there. We even tried to keep it clean but the smell was just too strong. Fun camp site otherwise though. read more

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everyone be careful about this place it has been abandoned for years the rooms are old no pillows or blankets some rooms the heaters don't work ! the staff there are really bad they deliberately don't provide cleaning service and make our group do it ! our group is a church and rented over 10 rooms here when we returned the staff went through every room and said the floor was dirty when it was cement they provided us with mops and made us clean each room and when we cleaned they wiped the floor with their hand and it was still dirty this is crazy when it should be cement when we cleaned and they checked by wiping the floor with their hand and it was still black ! we had to do everything they asked us to do cleaning the dining room the auditorium the basketball court and also cleaning the restrooms we did all of the above including picking up the trash but they were not satisfied and they asked for a cleaning fee of $150 per room and for the restrooms they asked for $300 they kept our deposit which was over $2,000 and we could barely do anything when we started worshipping God early in the morning at 7am they wouldn't let us use the speakers! After 10pm when we were still singing worshiping God they always showed up and were annoyed always trying to stop us! I advise everyone to consider carefully when coming here because when we returned the dining room to them they came and counted every spoon to find an excuse to deduct money and asked us to leave before 1pm but at 12:30 they were still there to check every dish they always found every way to deduct our money we had a very bad experience here. read more

Camp Sylvester is another place that is home to a million and one of my childhood memories. My brother and I grew up going to 4-H camp here and I wouldn't trade the weeks I spent up there for the world! Strangely enough, I had no clue that my future career as an Ag Reporter for the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau would lead me back there. The Stanislaus County Farm Bureau has owned Camp Sylvester since 1927. Sylvester, like the Farm Bureau, is a non-profit camp that hosts a wide variety of youth groups year round. Since Camp Sylvester's original dining and mess hall was left in ruins after high winds toppled a 130 foot fir tree on it back in December of 2006, campers have had to depend on a portable kitchen. Being thatI had so many memories vested in this camp, I have written several articles since the accident trying to spread the word for donations. Just today, we broke ground on the new hall which is costing in the range of $1 million to construct. You can imagine how nearly impossible raising that amount of money can be for a non-profit group. But, on the brighter side, it is finally being built (not that we couldn't always use more money), the new hall will be state of the art for camp standards and other improvements will be made to the rest of camp as well. I was actually there this morning to take photos of the ground breaking and the place I am happy to say, other than the bulldozers leveling the area for the new hall, is just as it was when I started attending camp as a 9 year-old in 1990. Words do not describe the wonders of this camp for children, It's just a half mile walk from beautiful Pinecrest lake, and a bout three miles from Dodge Ridge Ski Resort. If you know of ANY youth organization that is looking for a camp to attend, look no further that Camp Sylvester. They will accommodate groups as large as 220 year round at incredibly low rates. I think the rates are $25 per camper, per day. Church groups, boy and girl scout groups, 4-H groups, FFA groups, and many schools attend every year. Several groups that used other camps while the camp was closed because of the Tree incident have already reserved Camp Sylvester for next year because they said the other camps didn't come close to the quality and convenience of Sylvester. For reservation and more info: (209) 965-3172 read more

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The manager onsite when I was there was Ken, he was extremely responsive to any concerns or needed repairs I mentioned. For example, my repaired screens were on my porch by 11 PM that same night! The bathroom door was repainted within 24 hours so it didn't reflect the dirt stains on the flat paint from kids there the previous week, etc. And those awesome trees, clean air, and NO BUGS!!! The industrial kitchen was a real plus, we loved it! read more

I want to recommend Camp Sylvester to anyone looking to have a large get together in a beautiful setting. We stayed at Camp Sylvester and had our wedding there this summer. Camp Sylvester was an awesome place and Ken went above and beyond to make it a great few days for us even in the midst of a major fire nearby. The caterers were very impressed with the kitchen area and said it was the best place that they ever had worked in, our guests were impressed by the cabins and the outdoor space, and they keep improving the space! read more

WOW! We had our wedding at Camp Sylvester on 9-19-15 and just wow. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I knew I specifically wanted a summer camp and let me just tell you, if you are looking for the same look no further! I've already done all the hard work for you... I literally called nearly every camp in the north state, and no one could come close to what they offer at Camp Sylvester. Camp Sylvester is affordable... a camp actually wanted me to pay 10k a day to use the facilities, that was on top of the per person per night fee, seriously CRAZY! Camp Sylvester is scenic... what a beautiful place to be married, we booked it site unseen and couldn't believe how lucky we got. The camp itself is adorable, little wooden cabins nestled in the Forrest, hanging patio lights over the picnic area, rustic amphitheater, it's just perfect. We had our ceremony in the amphitheater down by the lake and took a little canoe-I-do ride after, the lake is picturesque, and only a 10 minute walk from camp, but also ample parking for those that couldn't walk that far. Camp Sylvester has a dream kitchen... so many camps I called wanted us to eat camp food that they would prepare while we were there, I have a foody for a husband and that was absolutely not going to work. Camp Sylvester has everything you need to cook for a crowd! Walk in fridge, multiple stovetops, ovens, industrial dish washer, industrial coffee maker, ice maker, etc etc... our whole group pitched in all weekend and we had a great time making our group meals! Ken made everything so easy for us, he gave some great recommendations for vendors that they use regularly for kids camps. We rented bed linens for the bunk beds from a company they work with closely. He answered my 845 questions quickly and happily, he was a great help throughout the entire process. All of our guests raved and raved about the location, many commented on wanting to have family reunions, company outings, their weddings there! It is truly a magical place and I count myself lucky to have had our wedding there! If you're thinking about having your wedding at Camp Sylvester I would highly recommend it! read more