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    Union Valley Reservoir

    5.0 (7 reviews)

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    Camping facility
    Kenneth K.

    It's been over 30 years since I visited this beautiful lake in El Dorado County (Crystal Basin), just 20 miles Northeast of Placerville. Union Valley Reservoir is much larger than the other two lakes in the area (Icehouse Reservoir & Loon Lake.) These lakes were created by SMUD as part of the American River Project. Which are a series of hydroelectric power plants in the Crystal Basin. Through careful planning with the Forest Service, recreational facilities were built all around the lake. SMUD and the Forest Service provide land and water recreation opportunities for everyone to enjoy ! There are at least a dozen camp sites around the lake. All campsites have toilets, picnic tables, fire rings, grills. A few even have piped water and showers. There are also 3 boat ramps on the lake. Activities around the lake range from camping, fishing, boating, hiking. For those that enjoy the great outdoors but don't want to travel to far from home, Union Valley Reservoir is the perfect spot ! Enjoy ! Live / Love / Travel

    Union Valley Reservoir

    My little slice of heaven and best kept secret hidden away from the rest of the world.

    Perfect Kayaking day

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    Ghost Mountain Ranch

    Ghost Mountain Ranch

    3.1
    (130 reviews)
    12.7 mi

    We decided to check this place out and go camping for the weekend. I love the drive up to Pollock…read morePines. I was not really impressed with the property. I felt that it was really run down. Although they do have a small ghost town, ice shop and food you can enjoy. They also have horses you can ride, I believe some sort of kids club and a pool. The bathrooms looked like they needed a little updating. In my opinion the property needed to have a little up dated. They also have a few cabins, tent camping and RV camping. The Ghost Ranch also does a presentation to buy into their "" timeshare. We however did not p purchase it. The staff is amazing as we pulled up April was happy to help us with what ever we needed. Brain did an amazing job talk to us about the presentation for the time share but it was just not for us. If you have kids this maybe a place to check out. It just wasn't a place for us.

    Pro's 1. RV sites were reasonably placed far enough apart…read morefrom each other that 2. Food is cheap if you plan to eat on the premises 3. Pollock Pines is nice with all the trees 4. Guy checking us in was very pleasant 5. Brian the person doing the presentation was cool Con's 1. None of the attractions advertised were open 2. Our site had old charcoal still in the bbq pit 3. WiFi was extremely HORRIBLE. Even in club house it was spotty 4. If ordering food, bring cash or you will have to walk to the check in station to use your CC 5. Clubhouse had a bar with no liquor or beer. it was being used for storage space. 6. could not pick up local over the air channels 7. campground was not the cleanest and seemed old. Nothing like what is shown on the website Conclusion: If we paid for this weekend stay, i would have been highly upset. Dont let the website video's and photo's fool you. I would never pay to come to this place. Glad we got it free from our purshase of a new RV. Stay for the presentation and collect the $200. Brian was okay to listen to about the CR membership perks. $10k is not worth it for us as we are only weekend campers. Do your homework before booking. I would call them directly instead of trusting the website. 2.5(barely) out of 5 stars.

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    Ghost Mountain Ranch
    Ghost Mountain Ranch
    Ice cream sundae

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    Ice cream sundae
    Wolf Creek Campground

    Wolf Creek Campground

    3.4
    (11 reviews)
    11.4 mi

    We love it here. We have booked both the group sites and individual sites over the past 6 years…read more 2014 was tough because of the drought. The camp sites are good sizes and are clean - very well kept. I agree that the vault toilets are smelly - but what can you expect? Fairly quiet during the day and at night can be a bit noisy depending on what kind of neighbors you have. However, out of our last 6 trips we only experienced 1 rowdy/party neighbor. Very scenic and calm camp ground. We love it.

    My boyfriend's family and I showed up to camp on the first come first serve sites. The sign said it…read morewas full, but we parked in a parking spot (away from the campers, right before the entrance) to check the place out and see when people's reservations were ending so we could come another day. However, we were yelled at for no reason by this old lady with braided grey hair. She was so cranky, you would have thought we personally parked in her driveway! Anyway, she cussed out a minor in the family, giving this passive aggressive tone the whole time. We were just waiting for a family member to use the bathroom. She didn't believe us and started recording us immediately! When we were all together finally, she said "unbelievable". What?! It's unbelievable someone returned the way you were told they'd be? How is that unbelievable, lady?! She also cussed out this pair, and shooed them off in a really rude way when they were just trying to scan the QR code for the app to reserve a spot! Do you want visitors, or not, lady? They should call her Cranky McGee!! Geez Louise!!! The people who were here last year were MUCH nicer!!!

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    Wolf Creek Campground
    Wolf Creek Campground
    Union Valley Resevoir

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    Union Valley Resevoir
    Stumpy Meadows

    Stumpy Meadows

    3.6
    (57 reviews)
    9.8 mi

    1. THE LAKE ITSELF is wonderful and we truly enjoyed kayaking in it and loved seeing a bold eagle…read moreflying above and diving for his meal in the lake. That said boats in the lake are limited to 5mph and this was not enforced. The noise and waves from (slow, yet motorized) boats, and the music from their speakers compromised our experience of being immersed in nature. 2. DISPERSED CAMPING: we were planning on dispersed camping but absolutely couldn't find a good spot! We tried different dirt roads according to the official description but gave up. 3. CAMPGROUND: we ended up camping at Stumpy Meadows campground. The host, Dexter, was wonderful. However, the campground is sloped and the campsites are not well designed. Also, the campground may be remote but it isn't quiet. While located in a beautiful forest, it is close to the road and we kept hearing noise of fast driving trucks. Bottom line- next time we drive to a remote lake we'll look for a quieter lake with better camping options.

    This year my family & I camped here & we reserved 4 & 5 which was right by the entrance next to the…read morecamp host. We enjoyed how shady this area was, & how large this area was for our group. We were able to place 5 tents in this area, two tents which were large tents for families of 6. Each site has a fire pit, picnic table, is near a rinse of station and bathrooms. There are bathrooms and well maintained but they are the definition of out houses. Bring a flash light at night as there is no lights inside. No showers here. The trail to the water is not to long, id say its half a mile, very do-able if your not bringing much or have little ones. If you dont take the trail, you can always drive 3 minutes down the road to the boat launching area & park there for a day by the reservoir. The parking fee there is $10 in cash. By the water it's very rocky, so do bring good water shoes. There was a bear cub that roamed this campground, the host let is know it has been around since April , and that there hasn't been sight of momma bear since, meaning either momma bear abandoned him or was left behind, he really doesn't want anything to do with human interaction according to them. From our experience he comes around mostly in broad day light and not at night but still kept us on our toes especially because our group had littles ones. This is the only reason I am ranking this campground to be a 4/5 stars.

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    Stumpy Meadows
    Stumpy Meadows
    Gorgeous view

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    Gorgeous view
    Pipi Campground

    Pipi Campground

    4.2
    (46 reviews)
    31.6 mi

    October 2017: I wasn't aware of PiPi Campround's existence not until, my first born daughter, Joy…read moretook me camping reserving a campsite not too far from the Cosumes River. The entire Federal Campground consists of spacious campsites intermingled underneath massive canopies of sugar pines, Cedar of Lebanon, and other deciduous trees: The Cosumes River softly babbles, emitting soothing water sounds in the not too far distance from our campsite which evokes a sense of calmness, peacefulness, and exuding a meditative quality not too many campgrounds comparatively possesses especially, CA State's Folsom Lake's Beals, Peninsula, Donner Lake, and Lake Tahoe Campgrounds which are disappointingly raucous, obnoxiously loud music blaring from portable boom boxes, and egregiously inconsiderate with the utmost abandon, people partying all night. Sad. Despite the fact the CA State Parks has its incessant noise pollution, PiPi Campground is directly the opposite: It's so quiet, you can hear your heart and blood pulsating, you can hear insects buzzing and whirring by you, you can hear the soft breeze echoing surrounding the PiPi Campground while the deciduous trees offers wafting fresh, sweet pine scents lulling you into the deepest REM dreamland possible . . . This IS PiPi Campground: Solitude where you can hear yourself think in peace.

    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.

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    Pipi Campground
    Pipi Campground
    Pipi Campground

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    Sunset Campgroud

    Sunset Campgroud

    3.0
    (14 reviews)
    0.9 mi

    This was such a great campground for families and people looking to unwind. We booked campsite #43…read morethat 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!

    We came by the camp grounds Friday morning, it was our first time there and we were a bit confused,…read morewe found an area that was empty and no reserved ticket on the post , I ended up calling the office to ask for more info, they told me to pay for the overnight fee and attach the ticket to the post. That's what we did, we then later found out that, the spot we had was reserved, we were a little bummed out, we ended up leaving, tried finding a new spot, no luck, we then found a spot on the boat ramp and parking space that specifically said "overnight parking allowed" we asked a host, an older man. He was very nice, he told us we are allowed to pitch tents, we unpacked, every one was tired, and a woman in her 50-60s pretty short with curly grey hair. Pulled up on a golf cart and started yelling, that tents are not allowed, and she proceeded to yell "if you don't move, I will call the ranger here, he will take all your kids, you will all go to jail, and get fined 2000$ per tent. Per adult" she was extremely rude, we tried to reason with her, she was flat out rude, we were leaving, she started throwing in some cuss word, all my kids were crying, we then talked to a few neighboring rv owners who also experienced a similar issue with this old lady, she needs to be investigated, I read a lot of bad reviews about her. Camp ground and lake was awesome and beautiful, it's the fact the hosts don't know how to act

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    Sunset Campgroud
    Sunset Campgroud
    Sunset Campgroud

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    Union Valley Reservoir - lakes - Updated July 2026

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