Anthony Chabot Regional Park Campground

This park is up on top of a hill overlooking Anthony Chabot Lake and San Francisco valley. We used this location as a base camp for visiting San Francisco. There is a BART station in Castro Valley that you can take the train into the city for about $10 one way. There are hiking trails in the campground and around Anthony Chabot Lake. Our site was one of only 12 full hook-up RV sites, in the park, the rest are tent only sites. Beware of ticks when hiking - our dogs both got them during our stay.

Beautiful campground in the middle of the city with a very remote feel. High up in the hills of Castro Valley. A few RV sites, many tent/dry camping sites. The approach to the campsite is up a long, windy, curvy and sometimes slightly steep roadway. Watch out for cyclists as Redwood Road is a popular cycling route for those who love climbing big hills. Access in was easy, many sites were suited to our 32ft trailer, most relatively level. Online reservations only and its a very busy place on weekends so plan ahead. Services are 20 minutes in either direction back down the long and winding road. Campground roads are narrow and steep but passable. Many miles of hiking/biking trails, but don't be fooled. These are wicked mountain bike trails which pretty steep and rutted routing. The day I rode the trail down to the lake I ended up doing alot of walking. The paved trail along the shoreline of the lake is also a bit challenging if you are not ready for it, it does not run along the edge of the river all the time.

Within the full hookups we did find that the water pressure is pretty low. Several times we switched to our internal pump when the water pressure was too low for the task at hand. The sewer hookup was up on a slight pedestal which made it a little extra work flushing the tanks but it worked.

We spent five days with full-hookups and in deciding to extend we had to go to a dry camping site. Site 51 was equally nice, and right across from the bathrooms and showers.

Awesome campsite so close to the city. It a huge eucalyptus grove forest surrounding beautiful Lake Chabot. The campground sits on a ridge high above the lake so if you want to hike on over, keep in mind its about 400' down....and then up again. No elevators. Lots and lots of hiking trails. Perfect for Mt. or gravel biking too. The bike loop around the lake is about 12 miles with 1700' of climbing.

The camp sites are large and shady. Plenty of RV hook ups available (water, electric, sewage) plus lots of tent sites too. Bathrooms are clean but sparse. The one in the RV area does not have showers. Good cell coverage. Our verizon had 3 bars. No wifi.

Rangers were very friendly and got us situated. They lock the gates at night (not sure what time) but you can drive out anytime. Now that we found it, will surely be back.

We loved our stay here. It was beautiful with all the eucalyptus trees and vast hillside views. The rangers were very nice and helpful. The sites are far apart from each other and everyone we were staying with at the time was quiet around us. The only issue we had with this site was backing in. We stayed in site 12 which probably had one of the better views of all the sites. However, the only way we were able to get in to the site was with the help of a fire fighter friend of someone visiting the campers next to us. It took about 5 times pulling out, driving around the loop, and then repositioning before we were able to get into the site. Now this was my husband's 3rd time backing our trailer in so there definitely were some newbie level issues here but it was also a tight spot to get into. One side of the road is lined with trees and the other side of the site has two small poles to protect the hook up but also add a challenge to getting into the site.

All in all I would go back to this park to camp again. We had good cell signal and were both able to work and take Webex meetings, but the getting into the site was definitely memorable.

We came here to escape the brutal inland California heat. Weekends were full, so we did 2 days in site 43. Eucalyptus forest views and steep walk to picnic table. The showers were free and nice, as were the bathrooms. Rangers were friendly and we decided to stay longer. After the weekend we had spot 73 (very difficult to get level, as we ran out of blocks) with a nice view over lake chabot for 2 days. Then 4 days in beautiful spot #70, with a stunning view over the lake— definitely one of the best and we didn’t even need to use blocks to get mostly level. Lots of beautiful hikes! We opted for non-hookups as there is a free dump for campground patrons anyway, and readily available potable water.
As others have said it is a ways from town, so come prepared! Good Verizon, at&t and t-mobile. There is noise from far away freeways and trains which is a bit odd, but nothing too bad (& thankfully generators are not allowed). Gorgeous scenery and trails.