Fallen Leaf Campground - South Lake Tahoe

Large campground. Some sites very spacious. Fallen Leaf Lake is accessible within campground. Bike trail from campground to Lake Tahoe bike trail. Ten min drive to Emerald Bay and 20 min to Stateline of South Lake Tahoe. Many excursions and hiking trails. Breathtakingly beautiful.

My wife has had family memories here and now we started our family memories. The stars are my favorite to watch and to actually see the Milky Way is incredible.

Camping spots are spaced out enough that you are not right on top of your neighbor. The lake is a 5 min walk away not to mention near the start of many hiking trails in desolation wilderness.

The spots were so beautiful! And you were not so close to the others. The showers were perfect. Toilets clean. Close to the lake - 5 minutes walking - Well there is a lot of bear activity But we loved it here

Beautiful, quite and clean campground. A few minutes walk away from the Fallen Leaf lake with stunning view, where you can do water sport.

Gosh what a nice campground. Paved walking/biking path to Lake Tahoe but you’ll want to spend all your time at fallen leaf lake. Flush toilets, drinking water, camp store, HOT coin showers. Really nice facilities, incredibly clean. Beautiful spot. Heads up though, the bear warnings are no joke- I saw 4 during my stay, mama and some cubs by the lake and one in camp.

The whole Lake Tahoe area was packed during our weekend trip. The campground is a mile from one of Tahoe's dog friendly beaches "Tallac" kiva parking lot. It's just across the 89 from the campground road. Fallen Leaf lake was amazing. Get a spot closer to the lake or you will be hauling paddleboards and other toys . The downside was the crowds and generators. We will come back though.

Desperately looking for a site for one night during July 4th weekend we popped in here to ask and they had a spot that had just opened up from the reservation list. Staff was so nice! Hot showers worked great while we were there, buti heard they can be down from time to time due to the drought. We were not in a spot with hookups but the campsites are just lovely with the ponderosa pines for shades but still lots of open space. Nice fire ring and table in every site. South Tahoe with all the amenities just 5 minutes down the road. We were just passing through but want to visit Tahoe for a week or more in the future and this is the campground we will book at.

Nice campground. Easy access to Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe. Sites clean and well maintained. Lots of campers, yet quiet. Only downfall is that it's popular. Off season best option.

Fallen Leaf Lake Campground is a sweet spot to get away. It is just south of South Lake Tahoe, and generally won't be as crowded. Weekends get busy for sure. We have been several times and my 3 boys loved being near the mountains, out of the heat, and so close to an awesome body of water. Hopefully next time we can get a site next to the lake. Either way, the campground is clean, and the sites are large.

Great October stay here. Scenic spot nestled in the woods and yet conveniently close to town. It’s a big campground though and many of the sites seem to be tightly spaced. Seems the outer rim sites are more spacious than inner. Suspect our experience would have felt differently on that inner rim.

Access to the lake is convenient and super scenic to mention nothing of canoeing and kayaking and swimming opportunities.

Great campground. Nice location. Only complaint would be generators running most of the day from all the RV’s. Other then that it’s a great family friendly site

This is a really nice looking campground. I was lucky it wasn’t too crowed and the people staying were all respectful. There is a cool lake right there on site just a short walk to it. They have bathrooms and showers. No cell service, but close to a main road where service can be found.

Fallen Leaf Campground is located on south lake Tahoe about a mile from the beach. It's a great staging campground to all that south lake Tahoe has to offer to include, hiking, paddle boarding, swimming, fishing, gambling and much more. 

The campground is large but most of the campsite are spread out. However there are a few that are right on top of each other so be wise in choosing. There's a path to the actual Fallen Lake which is beautiful. 

Cell Service: Bad

Great family campground!! The lake is absolutely beautiful. Bring paddle boards, kayaks, fishing, floating rafts. The campground is big, if you want privacy, fund a site by the creek. Ours was perfect. Heard bears growling at night. Use the bear box!!! There's another lake about 1,500 feet up called Angora Lake!!! Very small but a total must see. Go early, parking lot is small and fills up fast. Don't bring too much. It's a 1/2 mile hike from the lot. They have paddle boards there. Falling Leaf lake has bathrooms with .25¢ showers, very nice and flush toilets. I really liked this campground!!

We really enjoyed this place. A short walk to Fallen Leaf lake and about a mile walk to Lake Tahoe. They have a trail that takes you there. The camp spots were spacious and was fairly quiet at full capacity. There is a very active bear population and there are bear boxes for coolers etc. We had one at our campsite around 1 am but a flashlight quickly scared it off.

Beautiful place in the middle of pines. Spots are big, sanitary are clean. Hot showers, drinkin water, no place for dish. Calm and you can see bears!! Hosts are very kind.

Fallen Leaf Lake and its campground were really beautiful and felt remote despite being pretty close to the development of South Lake Tahoe. Our spot (84) was not very private or great for a tent, but it worked for our overnight. The bath house was nice and new/clean. The hosts were super super friendly, but they called it a day pretty early (5?) so we missed out on buying firewood onsite. They did warn us about bears in such an admiring way, it was really sweet. However, we didn't see any bears, just poo about 20 feet from our tent (!). Fire ring, giant table, bear box, water, all as expected.

The lake itself is stunning. Seriously. Dusk was perfectly still and calm, but early morning was also beautiful. Would absolutely stay or visit here again.

Nice bear boxes and bathrooms. Tent sites were big

Great campsite with trails to hike and explore.  Close to Lake Tahoe and also the Taylor Creek Watershed that has a beautiful trail to explore.  Done both tent and yurt camping, both great!

Gorgeous NF campground. Sites are varying sizes but plenty of RV size sites. Water spigots and bathrooms around. Not on the lake but walking distance away. Taylor's Creek and Valhalla nearby too.

The scenery around the campground and lake was just beautiful. We loved our stay here and wished we could stay longer. It provided some needed peace and solitude during the very crowded 4th of July holiday at Lake Tahoe. Make sure you follow directions and use the bear boxes. We woke up in the morning to one nearby. Luckily the park ranger was already in the process of scaring it off.

We got a last minute cancelled site at the Fallen Leaf Campground, and thought we’d truly lucked out. We stayed at site 87 which is nestled among towering native pine trees on the South end of the campground and one of the few sites which doesn’t have neighbors on all sides. The sites have the standard standing BBQ's and fire rings at all sites (but we couldn’t utilize them because of the fire ban), old picnic tables and various amounts of space for RV’s/cars and the tried and true bear box. In this campground you NEED to utilize the bear boxes. They have signs everywhere about the mass amount of bear activity and how there is a mother and her 2 cubs which have been terrorizing the campground for some time this season (2018). Again, you need to keep everything (food, toiletries, etc.) in the bear box at all times. The sites are reservable, and on top of the $35 (nonelectric) per site there is a $7 fee for a second vehicle, Yurts go for $86 which do have power and a nonrefundable $10 service fee…. While the campground allows dogs, they aren’t allowed in the Yurts.

There’s lots of bear proof dumpsters around the campground, lots of potable water in strategic spots and a number of decent restrooms, and it was nice that at some of them they provided hot (pay) showers (at $1 per 3 minutes) and while the ADA has some control the standard one has no control over the heat or pressure its simply on or off. Also, the restrooms have no soap, paper towels, or hand dryers, etc. Which was a little disappointing for the cost.

My biggest disappointment in the setup of the campground has to do with the bears and cleaning your dishes. There is no dish-washing area in the entire ~200 site, ~14 bathroom campground. They specifically ask that you don’t wash your dishes in the sinks or at the water spigots as they don’t want any food particles going down the drains. So, when I asked about disposing of the dish water they said to just toss it at the base of a tree, as it’s dry and the trees would appreciate it. This doesn’t help keep the bears away… While we scrapped and collected every bit of food waste we could and tossed it into the dumpsters, ff you’re just tossing food scrap-soaked water at the base of the trees the bears are going to come for the smell… I’ve stayed at other sites in bear country which have setups for disposing of the waste water and food scraps to detract bears and Fallen Leaf definitely is lacking and this is possibly part of the reason they’re having such an issue with bears.

While, our site (87) would probably normally be a great location with the Fallen Leaf Lake being the only thing behind you and no neighbors on at least 2 of your sides, we happened to somehow book the same weekend that a corporate event was taking over the vast majority of the campground with almost 200 people….

While, not entirely the campgrounds fault it was a little disruptive to have this mass number of people come directly next to us in site 88 for their meals as they’d decided to make that site the meal prep site for breakfast (they started prep at 5:30 am) and dinner (we actually had to ask the drunk group to stop screaming at midnight) these were both well outside the “quiet hours” and definitely surpassed the “6 people per site” rule.

Otherwise this campground is in a great location to see the area as it’s only approximately one-quarter mile north of Fallen Leaf Lake. The trail from the campground was only 3 sites over from us. The Taylor Creek Visitor Center is directly across Highway 89 and is a great location to talk to the Rangers about other potential hikes in the area. They also have interpretive programs, guided walks on the Rainbow Trail and to the Stream Profile Chamber (which was closed because someone decided to break it. Although it should be repaired now… end of September 2018). Also, nearby Baldwin Beaches or Pope Beach, which cost $10, or you can go to the Tallac Historic Site with tours and events at its historic buildings and grounds and the free (dog friendly) Kiva beach which is exactly the same as the other pay access beaches….

There’s also a really nice paved bike trail that runs 3 miles along Highway 89 and can be used to access all of the above. You have access to excellent day hiking and backpacking in Desolation Wilderness via the Glen Alpine or Mt. Tallac trailheads which are also nearby.

Great camp spot near Lake Tahoe.It is refreshing to be surrounded by trees and a short walk to a creek and a lake.

It has showers but have to pay and the like a bundlow that you can rent and even has power but only thing I would say that make sure have travel time because the resort that near there always has traffic back up into lake Tahoe and they lake there at resort is great for swming and nice beach

This is a huge campground, with a variety of camping sites, near enough to Lake Tahoe for activities but far enough away to avoid the massive crowds of east Lake Tahoe. The spots appear to be large enough to comfortably give you space, but close enough that if you come with a group you can hangout easily. Reservations, early, are a must as it does fill up.

Our family loved this campground so much that we agreed we're only interested in going back to Lake Tahoe when we can stay here! There are a bunch of cul-de-sacs, so everything is spaced out and it's great for walking the dogs around. We backed up to a meadow but still had a lot of trees for shade. There were picnic tables, water, good fire rings, bear boxes, and flush toilets.

We walked to Fallen Leaf lake, which has an awesome trail. We had a bear wander into our camp in the afternoon, and the meadow was struck by lightning. All in all a great trip! Just note: cell reception is spotty but it's a good excuse to put down the phone and enjoy the scenery!

The campground itself is beautiful, walking distance to Fallen Leaf Lake and short drive to South Lake Tahoe. My husband, my pup and I liked the campsite a lot. The only downside was our campsite was pretty close to our neighbors' on either side. When walking through the campgrounds, other sites were more spaced out and secluded than ours. Overall the ease of location, along with beautiful Fallen Leaf Lake walking distance made the campsite a great spot for a visit to Lake Tahoe!

Nicely spaced and maintained campground surrounded by wilderness and beaches.

We arrived late and were pleasantly surprised to see many open campgrounds. All were equipped with a decent size lot, picnic bench, and fire pit. Perfect to complete our #Questival challenges while enjoying the beauty that surrounds us in Tahoe. I will definitely be back here in the future.

our site was further from the lake but it's not a bad walk. There are fire pits and charcoal grills in each site. Sites are a good size and have trees for hammocks.