Best Glamping near Tracy, CA

I wanted somewhere not too far to go and stay when my 5-6 year-old had 5 days off from school. This was perfect in so many ways.

Positives

- Amenities! I love how everything was themed, from the street names to the signs. Two nice playgrounds, ball courts, pool and hot tub. Watching your kids play red light/green light on the jumping pillow put a smile on every parent's face.

- Seasonal programming (weekends only). For October, we did an outdoor movie, magic pumpkins, costume contest, trick or treating, hay ride, and haunted house. My daughter loved everything except the haunted house, which she said was "too scary!"

- Clean, comfortable facilities. Lots of ways to stay. We car camped and found the hook ups really easy to use. Water, drain, 3 types of electricity, picnic table and firepit at every site. We used their bathrooms and showers and was impressed by how clean they were. Most of the time we had them completely to ourselves and they were even climate controlled.

- Restaurant. I cooked breakfast and lunch most days at the campsite, but for dinner we splashed out at the kid-friendly Waterfront Grille. Friendly staff, good food (lobster and prime rib, yum!), amazing views of the sunset.

Negatives

- Water park was closed. Call ahead to see if it is open when you want to go. I heard that it is never open because of some issue with permits or drought. If so, the promotional video is misleading and I almost deducted a star for this.

- Expensive. For camping, it is expensive, but think of it more as a theme park/resort, than true camping. We saved on the cabin and RV, and spent on the optional activities and the fancy meals.

Bottom line, I would totally go back and stay as long as I could. I hear it is super crowded in the summer, but it would be worth it if the water park is open.

It was a nice campground to go to. Lots of wildlife and hiking. Dogs are allowed. The lake is closed to any and all water-craft because the water level is too low. It is very clean and well maintained for the most part. Cell phone service for Xfinity/Verizon is spotty at best. There is weak wifi.

However, here's where it loses a star:

I arrived on a Friday late afternoon. Set up my tent. People were fairly loud until about 11pm. Bathrooms were really nice and clean…at first. Saturday, in came the crowd. Loud, obnoxious, and inconsiderate way past midnight. There was no reinforcement of quiet hours past 10pm. The toilets were clogged by 9pm at both restrooms. Men's restrooms have ONLY ONE STALL. And they were clogged beyond belief. I cannot understand why people do not know how to flush a toilet in public. Do they do this crap at home? Anyway, Sunday morning past 9am, still clogged up. Lines waiting to use the compromised restrooms as well. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, that's what ruined my experience. People just being completely selfish in a public campground and staff not be able to keep up with their antics. Maybe there shouldn't be so many sites for so few facilities. Just a thought.

For SUV tents, check out campsite pics on other sites before booking. SUV tents are usually limited to one entrance/exit point on the tent. Usually the driver's side. Each campsite is different. The one I reserved had only one pic that basically showed me nothing. I only could back in to set up my tent on the grass. Both the picnic table and firepit were facing the passenger side way far from the parking spot (as you can see in the second pic) opposite the entrance to my tent. So something to consider.

These were quite decent campgrounds, kind of close together but decent sized sites. We were lucky to have a spot at the dead center of the top of the mountain looking out at the lake (site 13) with a big shade tree. Since we got there on a Saturday night, we were surprised to see that the campsite directly to our left and directly to our right were empty. By Sunday night, every campsite within sight was vacated so we had a lot of freedom to do what we wanted without having to worry about disturbing other people. Deer are fearless & majestic, several “packs” walked through our campsite all throughout Sunday night when everyone else was gone. They walked up to us to smell our campfire & our food (we were making s’mores). There’s a campfire spot, a water source, a picnic table, & a grill set up at each site (for the most part), with trashes nearby. 

The Lake was nice! We went swimming in the swimming area and there were a surprising amount of people there via Covid. We went in the little shop briefly but from what I could tell they had a lot of useful things campers may need varying from firewood, ice, snacks. fast food, alcohol, & camping/fishing supplies. You can have 2 cars at your campsite but we only had one, the second would be an additional charge. You can bring pets but also for a charge. If you have campsites like 1-20 you’ll have to walk clear across the campgrounds to get to the water or make a quick drive down with your party. We just drove which was better for us after having swam. 

Only complaint is the porta-potties. We went from Saturday to Monday & by the end of Sunday there was no more toilet paper, high-piled waste, & when I called to try to inform them to restock the toilet paper no one answered. I brought my own toilet paper so that wasn’t the worst situation but definitely bring some just in case! Master that sumo squat to hover over that thing!

This is a great spot for people looking to get away and camp but not trying to drive for 3-4 hours to do so.

Made a reservation night-of on a Friday, wasn’t going to make it there before sunset, so I called and they gave me a gate code in case the gate is closed by the time we arrived.

There’s 25 camp sites, and some are quite close together. We camp in a roof top tent and wish we had been more selective on our site, as parking space and the incline at each site are different. We were on a bit of a slope and quite a ways away from the fire pit and picnic table at our spot. The bathrooms, shower, and water access are great. Garbage cans will be super close by your site no matter which spot you pick.

If you have a roof top tent, we scoped out a few sites which are more flat, and also have the picnic table near the parking spot. They are: 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 12.

I highly recommend the Creek Trail by the campsite if you are here in Fall, it’s magical!

Getting there: From San Jose it took me about 40 minutes. The road is windy, narrow, and not for the car sick. Be prepared to pay $6 for parking.

Campsites: The campsites are nicely maintained. Plenty of area to pitch a tent, all the sites have a BBQ, fire pit, and picnic table. The sites are close together to maybe bring ear plugs in case you have loud neighbors.

The Park: Really pretty, really small. I would say in 1 full day you can explore 100% of this park. No need to make an entire weekend out of this place when you can do all of the pretty stuff in just a few hours.

What to do: Go see the waterfalls. With the current California drought all of the falls were at little more than a trickle but still something to see. To hike to each fall it's about 6ish miles with just a few hundred feet of total elevation gain. The trails are large and well defined for an very entry level experience.

Gorgeous place to camp and tons of dragonflies,butterflies and bees. We did a lot of kayak fishing and relaxing by the lake. We were able to walk the kayaks down with no problem. The only 2 down falls are...... you can’t read the tiny sign that says your campsite number. I think it should be on both sides of the sign and bold. Also they’re sooooo close together. It’s great for families and they can buy a couple next to each other. Tho we were celebrating our 1 year anniversary and we would have wanted more space between campers. Other than that it was a lot of fun and perfect weather. They don’t have showers so heads up. We just got naked and did it cave man style in the middle of the night. It was warm enough and made it that much more special. They do have water spouts to wash your dishes and bathrooms walking distance. A picnic table, bbq and fire pit at every location. Make sure you get water shoes because the lake does have sharp rocks and the local CVS has them. It was really nice and convenient and worth the money. It did get really hot , so my fiancé and I went to the local ice cream parlor. It was about 5-7 minutes away from the site. It’s a cute little mom and pop ice cream shop and the customer service was amazing. We went their Friday afternoon when it was over 90 degrees and it was the best ice cream. It’s called Country girls ice cream shop. Look for the pink picnic table and red corner sign. I recommend this place and also right near buy is a little gas station to get gas, bait, firewood and etc. Well hope this helps future campers and have fun.