Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area

Was in space 25 which had a paved parking space that could hold two cars. Slight slope so wish I hadn’t forgotten level blocks. Bathrooms and showers next to site. Had flush toilets and sinks with blow dryers. Showers used $2.00 to $3.00 in quarters. Was a very quiet night with lots of stars. Our spot had shade on parking in afternoon and combination of shade and sun on rest of site. Stayed on Tuesday after school started so park was fairly empty. Had one neighbor. Took Mali the Corgie on a 2.5 miles walk on bike trail that starts at site 13. Paved trail with switch backs toward lake. The bike trail changes to an accessible trail that runs another .45 miles to day area. The accessible trail was really nice. I added pictures of the bridge and trail. Will return for sure.

We chose this location for our first full-hook-up experience with our Escape 19 travel trailer. (30 minutes from home) The site was a little short to fit both the trailer and TV. But the hookups worked really well and the campground was pretty quiet. Other sites are better than ours as we had to walk down a steep slope to use the picnic table and fire ring. We ended up not using them for the stay.

They were very kind and honored our reservation even though the campgrounds were shut down due to stay at home order. Was a little eerie having a 170 site campground to ourselves but made for good biking races with the kids. This campground is fine, sites are ok, infrastructure is a little weathered. There is no lake access here, you have to drive down the road a bit. It would be a great place to paddleboard in the summer and the beach is big, I bet it is quite popular.

We stayed here late December, 2018 on the way to Arizona - left work early to add another night to our trip. It was cold so we opted for a hookup site. $50 was a bit much... short sites, so we had to un-hook. Old asphalt and just spots sort of next to each other. No lake view, so it's just asphalt square spots... I did like the walking and that the PCT comes through, but it was more like a $25 a night spot. We still enjoyed ourselves however!

We really enjoyed our stay here, both in the months of October and again in July. The sites are clean and well maintained. They are back in asphalt pads with the exception of the ADA accessible spots which are concrete, back in pads. We never had a problem with the full hooks ups. There are clean restrooms and showers as well.

There are some decent, easy walking paths and some more strenuous hiking paths throughout the park. The lake is beautiful and it's an easy walk to it from the RV campsites.

The park is a 10 mile drive up the mountain to Crestline and Lake Gregory where we went for breakfast one morning as well as laundry and coffee another day. The daily temperatures in July were pretty mid, in the upper 70's to mid 80's but it cools down very nicely at night.

The main roadway, 138 off the 15, is a mostly one lane slightly inclined and winding in places. Take your time and at speeds you are comfortable with. The 25mpg curve sign isn't lying. There is a gas station half way up that had cheaper gas then the exit on the 15. There is also the only restaurant we saw, Silverwood Sushi and Grill, a Sushi-Japanese fusion-Korean BBQ place just up the road from the gas station. Looked popular, wish we had stopped.

The good:

The entrance to the park is staffed, at least the weekend I was there, until 9pm, which is nice for a change. Wood can be purchased either at the entrance, or there is a mobile store with an Ice Cream sounding music that goes around late afternoon with wood and any camping supply you can think of, and yes, they have ice cream.

We dry camped as the hook up spots were all taken. The spot we picked (47) was pretty private, although not all of the dry spots looked like that. We did drive by the hook up spots and noticed there wasn't much room for those. The dry camping spots were much larger.

There is a RV dump with fresh water for RV dry campers.

There is a path (bike path?) that leads down to the marina not far away. It goes through a picnic area with tables, bbq grills, bathrooms, and a stream. The road was closed off to that area for some reason so it was mostly empty when we went. Kids had a great time playing in the stream and it felt fairly secluded. It might not when the road to parking in that area is open. The marina has a small store where you can buy water, snacks, beer, essentials. You can rent boats, Kayaks, and possibly fishing equipment? No real food to be had though.

The bad:

The weekend we went, and from other reviews on google that included most weekends, was a party weekend. Ranchera music was blasted all day long, every day. It switched to modern rock around 6pm, which was nice, but that went until 11pm. The next day, we got battling Ranchera from two different sides, both being blasted. I like music as much as the next guy, but I would be def if I listened to it that loud at my camp all day long.

The staff do not patrol the camp or enforce any rules that I have noticed. I did see them clean camp spots after ppl left and clean the bathrooms. Other than that its a free for all. The cops did drive through the second night and I noticed that the music got quieter after for about 15 minutes and then blasted again, so someone must have called them?

There is a nature is also a nature center that, but it was closed and looked empty while we were there.

No free wifi by us, but our Tmobile LTE signal was surprisingly great!

A little pricy for a state campground but we had full hookups which ended up being key as the showers were not warm so we showered in our airstream instead. Beautiful views on the mountain and the lake. Spots were wider than deeper and paved and pretty level. We unhitched and parked next to our rig. We did see a few bigger RV's fit into the spots. The road up to here was really windy but longer RV's should be fine. Great cell service and escape from everything. I believe they have dry camping spots but unsure of the cost.