Loon Lake Campground

We arrived Sunday and the host was at the entrance sitting at the checkin tables and were friendly and helpful. The lake is clean folks swimming, boating, fishing and just sitting by the shore. It is a popular day use area. The hiking is great. The sites are pretty shaded so solar can be an issue, but we made it 3 days with no issues. The weekends are very crowded, the tell was the heavy exit traffic, the full dumpsters with a dozen or so trash bags piled around them. It all was hauled away that Monday afternoon. Zero Verizon bars. No fires allowed. Cal fire drove through a couple of times. We would have gave it 5 stars but the bathrooms were very stinky. A couple made your eyes water. It was a complaint shared by other campers. There aren’t any amenities close so come supplied. The road is great and well maintained.

This campground due to Covid has opened up its group sites 2 and 3 on a first come basis These are well spaced sites along with the other FF though out the CG. Best to come Sunday through Thursday if you have no reservations. The parking lot by the day use and boat ramp has 12 sites for large rigs and most are FF. The Equestrian and Group sites in the campground can accommodate big rigs also.
Any kind of water sports can be done along the shore and by the boat ramp. There are numerous hiking trails from the CG and close. The rubicon hiking trail leaves from the CG and goes along one side of the lake.
The CG on the other side of the lake is FF and has an area for tents. That side is where the Rubicon four wheeler trail starts.
There are camping sites for kayakers and boaters on a few islands in the lake.
The price is $28/day but we had our senior pass and paid half. They just installed a credit card machine to pay for your stay.
No cell service in the CG but approximately 2 miles outside on a pull out we had excellent Verizon 4G 3 bars.
There are some free camping sites if you know where to look but only accommodate tents.

Spectacular lake, bring your kayak!
And nice hiking trails lead to neighboring lakes.
Site 4 is the closest one to the lake that is big enough for a trailer and tow vehicle without unhitching, back in.

No hookups, but a $10 dump site, no wait.

The whole place was super clean, with large campsites. You’re not by yourself, but it’s a long way from crowded. The pit toilets were very well maintained, no showers. The host sell firewood.

Dark enough for dark sky star viewing.

The downsides were the mega mosquitos, but it’s a lake in springtime, gives the fish and bats something to eat.

There is no phone service, which was a plus for a getaway weekend, but could be a problem for remote workers.

Another one of my favorites. Stunning lake with campsites right on the lake. Also right near the trail head of the Rubicon Trail which goes into Desolation Wilderness, a great hike. Beautiful sunsets over the lake. Excellent for kayaking. The two older loops could definitely use an upgrade on the pads. Worn out asphalt, often need significant leveling. Newer loop, not on the lake, has nicer pads. Plenty of water, CreditCard dump ($10), pit toilets. Camp hosts Wayne and Will are excellent. Fishing is often quite good. No cell in the campground but walk a mile back up the road coming in to get good cell. Open from June to October. No reservations required after labor day. Many sites are really only good for tent camping so if reserving be sure the site is large enough for an RV or trailer.

We love, love, love Loon Lake. We've been here twice in the summer in a large group so we opted both times to pay for a site in the designated campground, but there is free dispersed camping throughout the area for tent campers. It would be hard to disperse camp with a trailer, spaces large enough to drive through into the woods have been purposely blocked off.

Best way to describe this place is like going to Tahoe, but less crazy crowds. The water is beautiful and great for kayaking, fishing, and swimming, and the sites are all very close to the water. And being close to the entrance of the Rubicon Trail, it is so fun to walk around the area and see the insane offroad vehicles that people bring in to rock crawl. We also spent some time hiking around the granite bowl and found some beautiful small waterfalls to enjoy.

The only issue we ran into when we came up at the end of July last year was a lot of bees - so much so that cooking outside attracted swarms and made a sting or two unavoidable. This prompted us to add a portable screenhouse to our camping gear!

All sites have a picnic table and fire pit. Some are pull-through and some are back-in. There is a dumpster and a pit toilet for the campground. We were warned of bear activity and kept our food locked up.

No Verizon or AT&T service at the campground, but we were able to get enough signal of AT&T to send out a text or email when we hiked up foothills a bit.