Camping near Lake Sonoma

Beautiful location, campground was easily accessible going up Elk Mountain Road. Camped in Site 11, pull through, no hook ups, nice picnic table, grill and fire pit. Vault toilets, no showers. There is potable water close to the campsites. Very quiet during the week, it did get noisier on the weekends, but everyone settled down for the evening.

Came up here in September of 2024.  There were about 3-4 families around the main campsites, seemingly set up to have a whole bbq! Was able to find a bit of solitude a bit deeper into the campsite.  

Not sure how much of a lake view there really is here, but that could have just been my campsite. The weather was nice around this time of year.  Good cell service too!

The road getting to it was definitely a bit sketchy for my Rav4 AWD, probably wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't dry.  Large vehicles likely won't be able to make it up there. 

Overall, I'd come back if I needed a spot to crash when in the area, but otherwise a little bit lackluster and would consider other options in the Snow Mountain Wilderness.  Worth checking out though!

Beautiful campground in the woods with an beach opening. The host Tracy was very nice and attending. Some spots have water only and some have power and water. The Ocean view is beautiful here. Toilets and showers were clean. Perfekt

We only stayed here one night. Beautiful spot in nestled in trees. ! We stayed in an RV Bay with Power Hookup. Clean toilets and bathrooms. The showers were hot and had decent water pressure.

Perfect!

Bodega Bay CA. On the water. Grounds well maintained. No toilet paper in men’s bathroom. First place in CA where no recycling offered. No signs to direct you to office. Full hook ups over $100. Dry sites for $65. We were not informed about dry sites. Place nearly empty.

Great spot off of Hwy 1 to camp! The site has access to the beach as well as hiking trails through the beautiful redwoods! Dog friendly for a charge of $2 each dog per night. Full electric hookups optional at specific spaces. Water access on site as well. Would definitely recommend to any camper or someone wanting to stop by for the day use area.

I remember this when I was a kid my parents would take us my two brothers and my sister and we can't go crabbing just enjoy the whole day the whole weekend awesome.

This campground is dry and built primarily for HOV people cuz the Elk mountain area is very much a dirt bike and four-wheel Haven.

It's got dropped toilets and it has potable water. Problem is that the spigots don't have any hose fittings, so you can't hook up, which I think is a good thing to keep people from taking over water for an extended period of time.

There's no other water anywhere else, no showers, no sinks or anything like that so prepare to come fully dry.

If you come with that in mind I would say this place is really really nice. It's very clean. If it's in a beautiful location and if you're into four-wheeling or dirt bikes, you're going to have a blast.

There there's a small town not far, 15 minutes or so, that has gas, a market, pizza places, and a few other stores. So there's plenty of access to food and gas when necessary.

This has nothing to do with the campground. Just keep in mind that Elk mountain road, especially the part leading up to the top of the mountain right as you leave the campground is an absolutely terrible road, it needs a lot of maintenance..

This campground is great. If you're looking for a coastal place to stay that has showers and bathrooms readily available. There's no hookups but there's water spigots that are potable all over the place which is great. But it still is definitely very much dry camping.

The hard part about this campground is the weather potential, there's a lot of fog, a lot of wind, but that should be expected anytime you're spending time near the coast.

Doran Beach is great, especially during the summer for kids because it's a well protected cove and the waves don't usually get very high.

One thing to mention is that this place is very not dog friendly when it comes to them being off leash. They're very aggressive about protecting the wildlife in the area and it can be difficult if you have dogs that want to be off leash and want to run.

There's a market not far away that has just about everything you could possibly need, lots of restaurants not too far away as well so there's plenty to do and see.

The campground itself is kept really clean by the staff, patrolled heavily by park service, and there's a lot of fishing opportunities and crabbing opportunities. Plenty to do with kids!

This was a nice place had a good time the site was a bit small. I would say you can’t really tell how big the site is the pictures are a bit hard to tell. They are taken sideways from the road not straight on for all the campsites. It was nice and quiet and beautiful area and not far from the beach. But if you aren’t careful you can really get a super small site.

Overall the campground was good. Close to the water and relatively quiet and not busy. However, when booking online they don’t do the best to describe how your site is set up. Based off the picture I was expecting the site to be fairly spacious, with a large driveway for parking and area for setting up tents. I was wrong. The parking for most spots is a small pullout alongside the road barely big enough for two relatively small vehicles. The usable space on the site was pretty limited as well. There was almost zero level area to set up a tent, and sites were really small. With that being said, if you do your research and know what to do expect/plan accordingly I’d say it’s worth staying.

Visit was for 11/19/2024 found the gates locked, no entry. Seasonal? No signage to tell.

we used to go hunting up there in the 8os, you should have seen the campground then. really nice, had picnic tables fire pits great place to camp. i was up there a few years ago still looks kind of the same but they took all that out of the campground years ago.. road going in still looks the same..there is an old tree in the campground, people who have neen there will know the tree i mean, looks old low hangin branches, thats where we used to camp..more trash atound now. in 1987 it was clean.. still nice place

We visited this park earlier this spring. Yes it was wet, but we didn't mind. Liked the spaces and layout so much...we are going back this fall. Plus we love that whole area.

However, DYRT got some info wrong. While there are plenty of full hookup spaces for RVs, there are no pull thru sites. Only back in for trailers and drive-in for coaches. Many tent camping spaces and RV spaces w/just water and power. The folks are friendly and helpful.

M.R.

Great (and big) park in Bodega Bay with several separate campgrounds. We got lucky and snagged a last minute spot for 2 nights in August. Easy access to the beach, lots of day use areas all around this park, and bonus: a dog beach that was available on a trial basis when we were there- dogs got to run free on this little patch of enclosed beach- wonderful. Hope it becomes a permanent feature! 

Showers were $2 for 5 minutes, there’s recycling here (a separate bin for propane cylinders too). 

This campground has a lot of in and out traffic and day use visitors and overall more activity than the Westside campground across the way. We enjoyed both of them.

This is a mellow, low key, beachy Sonoma County campground in Bodega Bay. It’s got that vibe that so many beach campgrounds do, a little run down, no frills, open layout, and happy friendly campers. We stayed here for a couple of nights and had a great time. 

There’s hiking all over this area, lots to explore and see. Cell service was good. Showers here are expensive at $2 for 5 min, quarters only. There’s a host on site who’s been hosting here for something like 15 (maybe 30) years. There’s a boat ramp adjacent to this campground, lots of boats in and out for fishing. 

There’s a dump station for a $7 fee (though the website says $10, so maybe it's actually $10), honor box at the station to deposit your money. Water fill available here as well. 

Recycling available, as well as a separate bin for green propane canisters. Camping is $35/night, plus $2 fee per dog per night (boo), plus whatever online reservation fee ($8?). Reservations must be made online. Hosts obviously do not handle that and there was nobody in the entrance shack when we arrived- though a ranger swung by later to collect the dog fee (that fee can’t be paid online when you make the reservation). Anyway, confusing process but just go with it and have a great time.