July 18-19-20, Lawson's Landing

I've been to Lawson's Landing many times.  The first time was about 2010, when I took my two dogs and had a meet up with the Aussie activity group.  I've been with a tent, with a truck camper shell, and with my motor home.  I think motor home is best based on their weather but there are always a lot of tent campers and they don't seem to mind.

Lawson's Landing is family owned and on the Tamales Bay.  It is a very short walking distance to Dillon Beach, which is an awesome off leash dog beach.  There are two places you can camp at Lawson's -- the seawall or the meadow.  I've camped at both places but have been leaning toward the meadow lately.  The seawall is awesome if there aren't a lot of oyster fishermen but otherwise, recreational campers don't really fit in.

I've heard that Lawson's is a party place and can get noisy but they do have quiet time after 9:00 p.m. and when I've been, people have respected that.  I try to go during the week when I can.  If you are a longtime Lawson's Landing person, you will notice a huge change this year.  2016 was the 5 year deadline for monthly trailers being moved out.  The coastal commission said that the family could no longer have long term residents due to environmental issues in this fragile environment so you will see a lot of vacant lots as you walk around.

There's plenty to do, whether you want to relax, take long walks on paved roads through the dunes, hike across the dunes to the beach (strenuous), go fishing, walk into the town of Dillon Beach, fly kites, bird watch, or just enjoy the ambiance.  I like the little store that is down by the pier and boat shop and always buy a bag of saltwater taffy -- kind of a tradition.  They are very dog friendly and well-behaved dogs can be off leash everywhere, including in the store and on the beach.

There are no hookups and many of the former restroom buildings are closed, but if you have a self-contained RV, it's still perfect.  There are new walk-to camping spots but they seem really close together to me so a less crowded time of the week is probably better for those.

July 8-10, Lake of the Springs

I fell in love with this resort.  I hope I can return many times in the future.  If you have a Thousand Trails membership that allows you to pick sites in California, you should definitely go here.  If you don't have a membership, it is a little pricey, with the cabins starting at $120 a night.     There is a lot to offer, over 500 sites, a boat dock, a swimming pool, playground, lodge with meals, store, miniature golf, dog beach, kayak and paddle boat rentals, etc.  But, it didn't feel like a "club med" type place to me, retaining a rustic "cabin in the woods" kind of feel.

There are walking trails that are paved and there are also trails through the woods and around the lake.  People that didn't want to rough it, didn't have to and people who prefer wilderness were right at home.  I like rules when it ensures my peace and quiet and two rules that are strictly enforced are (1) speed limit 5 mph EVERYWHERE in the resort and (2) no wake lake.  It reminded me a little bit of those summer camps you were sent to as a youngster but in a good way.

This is the only campground in all my travels that has a dedicated dog beach.  We went down there three times and met great people each time.  The dogs could walk the whole area unleashed as it's all fenced in, including a nice trail through the woods.





Although the campground looks full, I discovered that many of the RVs, including those next to our site, were in storage and had no people currently.  This made it really nice.

If there's a downside, it might be that Wifi is very iffy and there's no phone service but maybe that's a good thing.  Many of the families used walkie talkies with kids riding their bikes down to the beach or the playground and still being able to keep in touch with the campsite.   If you walk or drive over to the little store, the lodge, or up to campground section I, you can get service.  I just typed my emails and Facebook posts and then when we took our daily walk, we sat on a bench by the store for a few minutes while I sent and received my media.

I'm looking forward to booking more reservations at this resort in the future.

4th of July -- Beal's Point

Beal's Point is on the west side of Folsom Lake.  I decided to go here because it was a last minute reservation and it was a holiday weekend.  This is only about an hour's drive from the North Sacramento area.  Normally, we camp on the other side of Folsom Lake, which is more remote and a longer drive.  We arrived on Thursday and planned to leave on Saturday.  Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned and we left Friday evening.  More of that story to come.

Thursday and all day Friday was just wonderful.  Although this campground seems to be set up for tents and not RVs, it was so empty these first 2 days that we just had a great time.  As you know if you have an RV, ideally, you want to back in, have your camping area to your left as you face the site and have the hookups on the right.  Well, as we were taking our walks around the sites, I noticed that only about one or two would accommodate an RV in this respect.  All the others had the facilities to the right of the parking area.

In fact, I had to pull out, back up, re-maneuver two times in order to be able to open up my awning without hitting any overhead trees.  As it was, I did take out a few branches with my AC.  The sites are not made for vehicles that are 12' tall.  Our picnic table and most of the site area was to our right and behind us so it didn't really get used other than to let the dogs walk around to go potty.  Once we got settled though, it was very nice.

Sacramento is very hot this time of year so, for the comfort of the dogs and myself, it's important to have a generator for AC and to have battery operated fans.  We used both.

There is also poison oak everywhere.  We did hike some of the trails and I came home with a case of poison oak but it didn't amount to much, thank goodness.

Two of the more interesting walks were a hike down to the beach area and a hike along what is called the "memorial trail."  Several times during our stay, we took a little path from the campground out to the American River bike trail and then over to the public beach area.  The dogs appreciated being able to soak in the cool water on such a hot day and we didn't have to deal with any people.

Friday evening, it started to get crazy with people pulling in left and right.  As we were taking our evening walk, I noticed that all other campers were tenting.  We felt a little awkward having the only RV.  All was good until the people who reserved right next to us started setting up camp.  The kids were throwing snapper fireworks on the ground and I just didn't feel that was safe or legal.  I called the forest ranger but they didn't really do anything.  Just came out, said one sentence to one of the adult males and left.  Then it got worse.  There are only allowed two tents per site and they had already set up about five and were still setting up.  I decided it was going to get too noisy and crazy for me so we went ahead and packed up and went home.

Otherwise, it was a pleasant two days out in nature where we got to get some exercise and the dogs got to play in the water.  However, I probably won't be back.  I feel $35 a night is too expensive for what you get.