Sugar Pine Point State Park

We have stayed at many campgrounds around Lake Tahoe. This is a favorite so far because it is located in a quiet area. Everything around here can be so busy and crowded. But not Sugar Pine. Peaceful & quiet. At least in late Sept, mid week. The shower and token situation was working fine at our visit.
Some sights are too close together and some spread apart nicely. So check out the map before you book. We booked our reservation thru "Campnab" a couple weeks before we wanted to go. The reservation system says there are no openings, ever. While we were there several " no shows" open spots were indeed free and open. We had a great visit.

Also the bears were out of control with boldness scaring people 2 of the 3 nights.They would come right into your site with no fear. People would scream at them, bang pots and pans together, and honk their car horns. It barely phased them. Kids were scared. Tahoe has an out of control bear situation.

Location is awesome. I mean pretty much any campsite along the Lake Tahoe rim is great location by default. But the campground itself isn't great and I would definitely go elsewhere if possible.

First, the way the sites are next to each other doesn't offer much privacy. Site 45 isn't too bad because there is only one neighbor but the other sites look really bad.

Second, the shower token machine was broken. After a long, hot, sweaty day was looking forward to a shower. But the token machine didn't work. Luckily a really nice gentleman gave me 3 of his tokens (for free!). After my shower I was in the van getting cleaned up and could see others having issues with token machine as well. Imagine hiking all day thinking you'll get a nice shower at night to not have the token machine working. I actually think they might have turned it off! It's smart, maybe to prevent non-campers from using the showers. But there was no signs or anything about getting tokens.

Finally, don't let the cell rating fool you. You're not getting much service here. True, my Verizon was showing 3 bars, but Google's homepage wouldn't even load. So I'm actually putting a 1 bar, because that's what it felt like.

Of all the campsites around Lake Tahoe, this one is hands-down THE BEST. It is large - over 170 sites. Campsites are spaced very generously. Very peaceful and incredibly beautiful surroundings. Everything you need for a great dry camping experience. They even have showers. There is no water at the campsites, but there are potable water spigots spread conveniently throughout the camp. There is a dual-space dump station with potable water located separately on the opposite side of the dump circle. The spigot has threads, so if you need to fill your rig's water tanks, you can. There are lots of warnings about bears, and sturdy steel bear lockers are provided at each site. You are required to use them to secure anything scented, or you may face a fine (or bear attack, take your pick). I read some complaints about being next to a neighborhood. We had no such concern. I only saw one house the entire time, and that was only when I really tried hard to find it. Otherwise, you are on your own with other campers in the middle of a beautiful pine forrest. Highly recommend this campground.

Spaces in sites 1-75 are a bit longer and mostly flat but you park in the same driveway as your neighbor. Sites in the higher numbers are single driveways but some are pretty short. Even with shared driveway sites do offer privacy.

We were told that bears would try to get into cars if any seated food items were left in them so we moved items into the bear box. What we were not prepared for is when we were cooking dinner outside on the first night a bear came to our site. We grabbed almost everything and went to the trailer but he got the bottle of oooking spray and tried to open it. He then sniffed the bear box and the truck before going to the neighbors site to grab any dinner they were having.

Beach down the road is amazing.

I was compelled to finally create an account just so I could review this park. I see so many little rinky-dink campgrounds get 5-star ratings on this site that I was floored to see Sugar Pine Point only get 4!

Okay, admittedly, the first loop (of 3) is only good in off-season when the place is less crowded. In this loop, most of the spots are grouped together like a parking lot in groups of 4... so if you're in an RV you could be right next to your neighbor - although beyond the asphalt, you have your own traditional site in the trees with a picnic table and fire pit. So, yes, if I had to camp in Loop 1 when the park was more than half-full, I would not be thrilled with this park. Typically, this is the only loop they keep open in winter, presumably because it is the easiest to maintain. One the plus side, Loop 1 is closest to the AWESOME day-use area and beach (although it is about a half-mile walk along paved bike trails. If you stay in the back loop, add another 0.9 miles.)

So, that's the downside - Loop 1 when crowded - no good. The middle and back loops are gorgeous - with 3 being the best. The sites are on the large size and there are lots of trees, boulders, and hiking and biking paths. We never go in summer, so your experience may differ, but the sites are large enough than it won't feel as crowded as a lot of parks. In off-season, we've never had a noisy fellow camper. Very peaceful.

There aren't many sites that will accommodate monster rigs, so you might want to keep it at 30' or less. Although the site we just had swallowed our 26' motorhome with tons of room to spare, but it was one of the larger pads. Our neighbors had a little trickier time getting their 30' Airstream around the boulders, but still managed to get the trailer and diagonally-parked F-250 in there.

As I mentioned, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better day-use area (which you can park in for free if you're camping there). It's about a mile from the camp. A half-mile of beach, huge expanses of lawn and trees, a historic mansion, kayak/SUP rentals, trails, visitor center, ranger-led walks, and a long dock to jump into the cold water from! Just no food concessions (although the shop might sell ice cream bars and drinks when it's open.)

If you can go in off-season, I think this will be one of your new favorite parks as well. And there's so much to do in Tahoe. The TART (Tahoe Area Regional Transit) bus even stops at the park if you don't want to drive or unhook your RV. I think it's even free now, but not sure.

I liked this campground but couldn’t quite love it. Maybe it was the many trees making our site shady and cool. Or it could have been the large sites leading to occupation by big family groups (seemed to have more than the 6 people that regulations allow).

We did enjoy the hot showers, the great bike trails and the beach area. It also wasn’t too far to drive into Tahoe City although the traffic was a little crazy at times.

This review is from the last week of June which we spent camping around Lake Tahoe. Due to some change of plans, we ended up in three different campgrounds - also see reviews for Emerald Bay SP and Nevada Beach. Sugar Pine was my least favorite but still a very nice campground.

This state park is located on the west side of Lake Tahoe and is about a 15 minute walk down to the water. The campground was less than half full while I was there and it was incredibly quiet and peaceful. While the sites do seem awfully close to one another, no one was camped near me.

The toilets are well maintained and there are tables and fire pits. I didn't use the showers. Paved sites that are pretty level. There are lots of paths for getting around and hiking. The path down to the water is lovely! There is also a bus stop (Tahoe regional transit) just outside of the park for getting around the lake, if you don't have a towed like me.

The only downside was that the AT&T cell service wasn't great. I had one bar and sometimes no service. So it was spotty. Definitely not dependable enough to work if you really had to. But the town of Tahoma is just up the street a mile or so and I'm sure you could find wifi or better service there if needed.

I really enjoyed my stay and would love to return!