I was looking for a primitive campsite close to the lake. When I arrived and saw that it was a…read morepacked campground with the stalls you pull into and have just a limited space and the lake was about three-quarters of a mile walk though a trail I was a little heartbroken. However the BEST part of the Silver Valley Campground is Nick the manager. He kept that place cleaned watched out over all the campers and was professionally cool. Nick is the greatest asset to this campsite. And if you speed going trough it he very much puts you in check! If you're looking for a nice place for a family go here!

This is such a beautiful campsite! Here is a little video that shows our stay!…read morehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQqOLs4o9Nc

Looks like it once was a nice campground but now it's trash!! NO amenities..porta potties look like…read morethey haven't been cleaned in years and the water smells horrible!! Boat dock is falling apart!! NO store ! Bugs are horrible !! This was a 1 and done!

We had the perfect camp ground with the access to the water. So you could sit out in The River on a…read moreraft and float. Had a great farmer in the fire pit and the company was fantastic and the house of the campground was super.

Camped at Ironhorse #17 and kayaked and fished in New Melones Lake…read more Ironhorse Campground: While #17 was chosen because of its close proximity to the bathroom/shower, the dangerously steep decline/incline from the parking pad to the tent/fire pit/picnic table will keep me from renting this space again. Trekking heavy gear from the car to the tent was ridiculous in that you had to carefully watch your footing. Going back and forth to unload and then doing it all again when it was time to leave was a precarious total body workout. As for the amenities, the bathroom was clean and had two toilets plus one shower. Although previous reviews said that the showers were coin-operated, the machine has been removed, the one shower is free and has a hand held shower head which pleasantly surprised me. Due to the lack of grading, the shower water does flow into the bathroom stalls. Initially, it didn't look like the bathrooms had any hand soap as there was only an empty bottle left; however, on the day I was leaving, maintenance replaced the empty bottle with a full bottle. If you wash your hands, bring your own soap and towel. On the wall, there are two precious outlets which I really appreciated. Throughout the day, I enjoy having a cup of tea and use my travel electric water kettle to boil my water. Speaking of water there was a water spigot on either side of our camp site which was convenient. If it wasn't raining, I would have used the fire pit which seems to be a rarity these days in CA as many places do not allow them. Camping fee per night is $44 per night plus an $8 booking fee. Due to the wind and rain, my partner and I had the whole campsite to ourselves. Even the RVs left. For next time, I will choose the more flat #13 or #14 to avoid the steep hike to and from the tent. Marina: For boats, there are two ways to get into the water. 1) 30 day quarantine by the Marina, or 2) Hot Water Decomtamination with an appointment with the Marina which will cost around $90. If you're a camper, then parking/launching a boat is included in your camp fee. Glory Hole Launch is open Mon-Thurs from 8am - 4p and Fri-Sun from 6:30am - 8pm. Tuttletown Launch is only open Fri-Sun and closer to the fishing action. As for kayaks, they do not have to go through the quarantine nor the decomtamination. However, the hull needs to be dry which is tough when it's been raining. Moreover, the boat ramps are not kayak friendly as the ramps are VERY steep. To avoid the steep ramps, I used the marina to hand launch my kayak which was slippery and muddy due to the recent rain. Fishing opportunities abound as I witnessed people limiting out on Kokanee and catching nice sized rainbow, small mouth bass, and even blue gills from the shore. If you're into birds, there are lots of varieties, especially turkeys and blue herons. Although I will return, I will make better choices like a flatter terrain for camp site and not camp on potential rain days, if I can help it.

Beautiful place. Friendly people. False advertising..... I walked about eight miles to every…read morebathroom and couldn't find the area's namesake. Oh well. Still had a good time.

As a family we had decided to change our camping site after 15+ years. Someone recommended this…read morecampground to us. I can say there are only two things going for this place, the amount of shade and the fishing. Everything else was pretty bad. Coming here it was a good easy ride. The person at the front gate was very friendly, unpacking wasn't too bad but the leveling of the ground sucked. Everything was at a slant, things kept falling off the tables we brought and even our beds we crooked. The water was low, which is expected but it was pretty clean and there was actually fish caught. Going towards night time maybe about 7:45pm we encountered a very upsetting incident. A female park ranger working on Friday night on August 14, we were bombarded with an onslaught of yelling. No warnings like, Hi group or Hello all, just need a word, she straight up came up to us and was yelling my brother's name and camp site because she had to "warn" him because he parked wrong. My brother is a permanent disabled person and he did park in the wrong spot but the approach of the the park ranger could have been nicer. She passed by our speaker and said our music was way to f***** loud and we had small children around, but it really wasn't. Then when we asked questions she got really aggressive. My husband mentioned that he thought quiet time was 10pm, she pointed her finger at him and said there is an ordinance where I can site you now for day time noise citation. Everything she threw at us always..I can give you a citation. I think I understand that maybe she has to be a little tough because there are some who do not follow rules, but we have been camping for a long time with our kids and we have never been kicked out or humiliated like this. I think there needs to be a better way to communicate without coming off like it is a power trip or upsetting visitors. I do not like giving bad reviews but I just could not pass this by. Unfortunately we will not be coming back but I hope those who do will have a better experience than us.

I was on a summer weekend drive around Calaveras County. We were near New Hogan Lake. It's off…read moreRoute 12, 26, and 49. So I had a bright idea to drive by and visit the lake to check it out. I e never been before. On hindsight, probably a hot valley summer day is not the best time for my first ever visit, especially for an impromptu one. We drove to the Lake overlook. The overlook parking lot had lots of spots. It's right next to the park headquarters office, There is no fee to view the overlook, use the children's play area, walk the nearby trails, or access the shoreline by foot. There is a picnic pavilion but not sure if it's first come, first serve or by reservation. The website has no info about that. The overlook did have some big beautiful stately trees, that gave off smoke shade where some benches were placed. The overlook looked down onto the lake and valley. Spectacular views. There are some trails leading to the lake and surrounding areas. The trails have no shade. The shoreline has minimal shade as well. The shoreline is jagged rocky not soft sand. And did I mention it's HOT in the summer. Mentioning it again because it's worth mentioning. Was it worth driving specifically to look at this overlook? Probably not. But if you happen to be in the area, why not. Another thing that caught my eye was the overlook's large wood sign with carved lettering. The sign provided info and history. But since the sign is painted all in one color, the letters were not easily visible. It was difficult to see the lettering to read the sign. Possibly they have not gotten around to painting the letters, and it's not intentional to be left like that. Painting the engraved words in a contrasting color would make those letters pop. New Hogan Lake was created in 1964 with the completion of the New Hogan Dam. The lake contains 50 miles of shoreline. For recreational use info on boat launches, camp grounds, day use beach access, trails, etc, check out this site...https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/projects.cfm?ID=L212390

Beautiful spacious tent site. Be prepared for the steep and frightening 20-25 min 2 mile drive the…read moresteep narrow winding dirt road down the mountain to get to this hidden gem. preferably make your way here during daylight as driving down the mountain is dangerous with no barricades and light. Emily and her husband were gracious and informative host and gave us a brief know how about the history of this gold mining association camp site. The river is beautiful and there's truly nothing better than to be around the serenity of nature in this place. Water is river water so be prepared. Mosquito flourishes here so if your prone to bug bites bring repellent and necessary comfort and their very active beginning dusk till evening. During our Memorial Day unplug weekend with my husband we truly enjoyed waking up to the river as our view and white noise sound of the river at night. Butterflies were abundance and so many critters. Bathroom with shower is at the base camp which isn't that far, a lot of great nature walks and they host prospecting for gold by the river if your into that. We enjoyed our weekend and Thank you Emily for checking on us!

Always a great place to go to get away from pretty much everything. River is still super high so…read moreprospecting is limited in some ways. Still fun detecting up the sides of the hills and gulches. Blaine and Emily are great caretakers. Super helpful and they work their fannies off maintaining the facilities which is no easy task. The LDMA should provide them with a quad if only for the trip into town. I'll bring that up to the powers that be in the LDMA.

We stayed here for one night while passing through. This seems to cater mostly to long-term…read moreresidents, and the park certainly has no shortage of rules for guests. Unfortunately, the same attention doesn't seem to be given to basic cleanliness and maintenance. The public restrooms and showers were unacceptable. A paper towel sat on the bathroom counter from the time we checked in until the following day, making it hard to believe the facilities were cleaned during that time. The showers themselves were dirty, but the worst part was one of the rubber shower mats. It had been flipped over, exposing a thick layer of black mold covering most of the underside. Seeing something like that in a shared shower is both disgusting and raises serious questions about how often these facilities are actually cleaned. The park does have some positives. The grass is in decent shape, and compared to many RV parks in the area, there were relatively few stickers for our dogs to pick up. Unfortunately, the overnight sprinklers ran long enough to soak not only the lawn but also my outdoor mat, even though it was sitting completely on the concrete pad outside our RV. In the end, what I remember most isn't the rules or the grass--it's the dirty showers and moldy shower mat. If management spent as much effort maintaining the facilities as they do enforcing park rules, this would be a much better place to stay

very hard to find as Google maps screwed up in the area and signage is minimal turn left right…read morebefore the 99 south on-ramp you'll see the only rv park on French Camp Rd. Large park, we have 43ft class A. they said they'd give us a large pull thru but it was almost $80 for the night. spot not big enough tow vehicle barely fit! Too many large trees so DISH satellite didn't work. Wifi didn't work, no cable so no TV during bb playoffs! Husband had to get out his ladder to cut said trees as they rubbed top of motorhome.

This is a day use only park where one can hike, watch salmon spawn, see historic exhibits, and…read morepicnic. There is no camping here. There is a primitive campground or two on Rodden Rd.

Great place to get in the water. Or watch a civil war action! The bridge is neat and it was built…read morehere, not somewhere else!!!

Camped here during August and we reserved the Primitive sites, our party had 8+ guests. We…read moreappreciated that the location was away from the other groups and it almost felt like a private area. One major down side is that there is not enough shade. One area had trees but it didnt not give enough shade. Recommend you bring plenty of canopy, sun block, hats, and fans to keep cool. So many geese all day! The honking was gine during the day but they also made noise at night. Loved that the lake was just a few steps away. We brought floaties and snokels. There were little to catch and release. The kiddos enjoyed the fire a built out of rocks. The staff were helpful and really friendly. They checked up on us daily and picked up trash. You have to pay for parking I think it was $18. There are porta potties but no running later faucet.

If you're coming here to relax and have fun, I'd recommend looking elsewhere. This place has become…read moreoverwhelmed with rules and restrictions, and the rangers seem more focused on policing campers than creating a welcoming experience. I used to come here every year, but after this trip, we'll never be back. Don't try to sneak alcohol, they do check and they will walk around your campsite every 10 mins. The rangers constantly patrol campsites and frequently show up unannounced, making it hard to enjoy your stay. We were kicked out of our campsite because they found a beer on our table. (Yes, we were aware no alcohol, but cmon we're camping)! Then we were told to be out by 8:00 AM the next morning. We were already packed up and actively loading our vehicle when a ranger approached us at 8:01 AM and immediately accused us of trespassing. Instead of handling the situation professionally, he told us to "hurry up and pack your stuff, and get the fuck out" and stop "lollygagging." We were literally in the process of leaving. These american rangers were on a power trip, super entitled, thinking they're above the law and talking to us like we were animals, if not worse. So in other words, they must really love their jobs, or they're unhappy with their lives. The entire experience felt unnecessarily hostile and aggressive. Being nice will go a long way. We were super nice and respectful and didn't argue back. Wish we got the same energy back. There are plenty of other campgrounds where visitors are treated with respect.