Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area

We have camped here every Summer the last three years for one night as a layover as we work our way home down south from NoCal. Unfortunately, we have had some bad experiences here. As you can see it could be quite the oasis off the 5 fwy. Three years ago "day trippers" were parked in our reserved camping spot for about 40 minutes before they showed up off a boat to remove two of their cars. At that time, staff was not sure what to do to help us. This year, our spot was even more dirty then previous years. Trash was everywhere in our site. For $48 for the site (including reservation fee) and $5 for the puppy, there should be an attempt by staff to clean up the sites. We tend to arrive around 4 pm so timing should not be an issue. I can tolerate a bit of trash but, after ten solid years of camping this is by far the worst. 4.0 stars because of the lake and mainly because the awesome sunsets we have had here. A very low 1/2 star for cleanliness, which weighs heavily. Too bad...

Surprised to discover that even without a reservation we were charged the $8 reservation fee. The attendant said during "peak" season this is their policy. Dogs are an additional $5/dog (limit 2) but they did not charge us for ours.

All the sites are u-shaped pull throughs and the outer ring sites border the lake and most have unobstructed views. The sites are MASSIVE and each has a couple trees, not much shade in most however.

It's worth noting they have a "no swimming" policy and dogs must be kept on a 6ft leash at all times. Big centrally located playground and basketball courts.

This is a well run county park with full hook up and beautiful waterfront views. There is lots of space between sites and they are all pull along sites for easy in and out. Even the non waterfront spots have water views because the sites are staggered. Full hook ups and each site has its own trash bin. Nice. We have always been here on a weekday, off season. I imaging on the weekends in the summer it can get quite noisy. There is no swimming allowed, but there have always been a motorized watercraft or two buzzing around. Fishing is allowed. Cell service was strong for AT&T.

The first impression of the campground was very good, lots of space and plenty of greenery. However, the restrooms ruined our total experience! We dreaded each time we had to go to the restroom. toilets seats were missing as well as locks but that wasn't the worst of it. Flies and insects everywhere and that even after it was "cleaned", which just meant hozing down the floor with some water I fear...
The showers were in the same state and really disgusting, we showered in swimwear in record time just to be out of there.

While you could swim in the lake, the water didn't look very appealing. Good for people with big RV's with their own facilities to have a place to take out your boat but certainly avoid at all cost with small campers or with tents....

They add an additional $8 fee to EVERY campsite, no matter if you actually reserve it or just pull in on an empty Monday on the off-season. They call it a reservation fee, but I'm not really sure how it can be when I never reserved anything.

The place is a ways outside of town on a road riddled with grand canyon like potholes, dusty, trash everywhere, bathrooms a wreck and several of the park crew just stood around an empty camp site for 2 hrs. Don't waste your $ on this place when there are so many BETTER options.

And OMG the DOG poop! Ugh!

We stayed Friday through Tuesday over Presidents day weekend. It was quiet when we arrived early afternoon, but filled up rapidly. It was a bit noisy with kids running around and lots of groups in their campsites and around campfires. By Sunday afternoon though it quieted down a lot and by Monday evening it was dead quiet. This will never be a destination stop for us, but if we need a stop while traveling through, we would definitely stay here again, especially mid week.

We were really pleasantly surprised with this campground. If you get one of the waterfront sites, that's where it's at. We were here during the winter months, so I can't comment on how busy or noisy it is during the summer months. Based on the number of sites and the sheer size of the overflow parking lots, though, I can imagine during the summer it is a different experience.

Our site was $25 a night with an $8 online reservation fee. Turns out there's also a $5 a night charge for each dog you bring with you so our total ended up being $30 a night. It's not super clear on their website, I only found a mention of the charge in their frequently asked questions section (after the fact) and it's not an option to select when making the reservation online.

In general the site was pretty clean with a nice park bench and a small fire pit. All of that sits on a circular concrete pad that is a short distance from where you park your RV. Sites are full hookups, but should note that our spot (#49), on the sewer connection, there was no threading available for the elbow so I ended up weighing it down with some loose pieces of asphalt blocks so that it didn't pop out when dumping tanks. RV parking is on asphalt turnouts along the road.

There was a medium-sized playground in good condition, and a few sand volleyball courts.

From our site along the shore, we saw lots of waterfowl every day: many coots, some gulls, terns, grebes, ducks, and a few pelicans. Migrating blackbirds overnighted on the lake's islands and sang like crazy at dusk.

Your site cost also allows you to fish in the main reservoir (Lake Webb), no CA fishing license required. If you want to fish in their "stocked" trout lake on the property (Evans Lake) it's $6 a day per person. You can buy just one day whenever you decide to go over there. We fished for about 5 hours at Evans, which had been stocked 3 days earlier, and didn't get a single bite and neither did any of the folks around us. We were all commenting on whether their idea of "stocking" the pond was tossing a fish or two in there. Don't expect crazy fish action.

All in all though, we had a really pleasant experience. Would certainly recommend coming here during the winter/early-spring/late-fall months.