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Lopez Lake
Categories: Active Life Rafting/Kayaking Active Life Boating Rafting/Kayaking, Boating [Edit]
6800 Lopez DrArroyo Grande, CA 93420
(805) 489-1006
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
16 reviews for Lopez Lake
16 reviews in English
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Review from Allison H.
Whittier, CA
9/28/2011
Spent 3 days here and had a real nice time. We stayed in the Toro area at site #5. It's tent & electricity only but the view is AWESOME and it's got a nice big tree for shade. The site is a bit slanted but it wasn't all that bad. Really laid back campground which was refreshing - all of the staff we interacted with was really nice & helpful. We rented a pontoon boat for the day to fish and had a blast. Bathrooms are pretty darn clean too! Will definetly be back in the future.
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Review from Andrés Z.
San Luis Obispo, CA
6/7/2011
Even locals love to come to Lopez Lake. That says a lot about the place!
As of June 2011: The water has risen, so DEFINITELY CONSIDER taking your boats! -
Review from Mike S.
Glendale, CA
6/27/2011
We spent the weekend at Lopez Lake and were so pleased to get away for the weekend. The Lake is beautiful - 22 miles of coastline and plenty to do - boat rentals, fishing, water park (really just some pools and a water slide), playground area - basically all you would expect from a large campgrounds.
We stayed in the Squirrel campsite which was one - if not only - 'primitive' sites where there are no RV hookups. It was fairly secluded and quiet, although i've stayed in the Couger campground before as well and the views at Cougar were much nicer as it is on higher ground. But the squirrel site was decent for what it was.
We saw some great wildlife, ate some good food and had a great time.
A few items to note though:
1) Coming from L.A., three and half hours is a long drive with two kids - there are plenty of closer campsites that we might consider in the future, just need to book earlier.
2) don't forget anything!! The marina store is well equipped and you can always drive into Arroyo Grande but be prepared to pay 50% over what you would normally have paid at a normal store.
3) The water park is WAY overpriced. It's open from 11:30am-5pm and kids 42" and higher are $15, kids under 42" are $8 but have to stay in the kiddie pools and adults are $20. I'd rather swim in the lake for free.
4) We were almost at the end of the Squirrel campground and the closest toilet was a port-o-potty that looked like it hadn't been emptied in a couple weeks. The regular toilets were back toward the front of the campground - which makes it hard for women who might have to use the facilities in the middle of the night.
5) Two shower stalls for the entire Squirrel campground. $1 in quarters for 3-4 minutes of water.
For a weekend getaway, I think we'll look for closer sites in the future, but if you don't mind the drive or plan to stay for 4 or more days, it is really a beautiful place.Listed in: kidstuff
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Review from Katee L.
Los Angeles, CA
6/24/2010 9 photos
This is perfect for family camping and for beginners! we stayed at beaver 1 and 2 so we had electrical outlets in our camping site. boat rentals are cheap but not always available. make sure that you rent the boat that you want early in the morning if you don't want to end up with a kayak instead. the people here are hospitable except for the guy on the dock who gives out rentals. the staff except for that one guy, just want you to have fun and a no hassle getaway! the shower rooms are clean enough as to a camping site with a lot of people and also for the restrooms.
to summarize, we had a spectacular weekend!
prepare your phone, there's no signal. their coffee and hot chocolate are good, too, by the way. -
Review from Karen D.
Fremont, CA
8/11/2011
Don't waste your time at this place.
Planned to send the day at the swim area of the lake. Paid the $9 day use fee. So disappointed to see the lake covered in green slime. Do not be deceived by the pictures on the website. Will not be back.
Left with the impression that if you were going to fish, ski, or paddle board, this would be an ok place to visit. But know there is no place to play by the shore. -
Review from J T.
Stockton, CA
4/23/2011
Went to this lake in April of 2011. Upon using a brand new GPS unit which we got at Costco, it tried to route us from the north side of the lake by using a unpaved road, went back to US101 and drove for a few more exits then the GPS was correct. Got checked in a found that the jackasses camping next to me decided to use my spot for overflow parking.WTF!!!!! After the GPS incident this is the last thing I wanted so after 10 minutes they were able to move their cars. Got set up. Lake was filled to the brim, campsite looked clean, had a fire pit and table bathrooms were normal for a campground. If I travel down this way again, I would stay, but I could understand some of the rowdy party's that could be held there when the weather warms up, it was otherwise quiet for the weekend. I would have given 5 stars but I did not see a park ranger the entire weekend
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Review from Peg S.
9/25/2007
Great big campgrounds, especially good for groups who want to party camp. Full amenities like bathrooms and hot, strong showers ($0.75 for 5 mins). Didn't see any bears, but deer, turkeys, and birds ran rampant through our campsite (nature really comes to you here). If you wake up at 3 a.m., do not be surprised to see tons of green deer eyes staring at you in the night . . .
There's a bit of hiking and lots of fishin'. What this campground has that others don't are WATERSLIDES! They hype it as "wet & wild" fun - two 600 ft curvy waterslides and this thing called the Stampede, where you sit in an inner tube and do a 38 ft drop. Fun! -
Review from JAM J.
Charlotte, NC
10/13/2009
Just recently visited this lake and only camped for one night. I highly DON'T recommend this area as a place to go camping. It was boring. The campsites are too close to each other both tent and RVs. We camped at Cougar. We only camped for one night because there seems to be many bikers who camped on this lake. I have nothing against bikers at all, but the people who camped on 10/10 are the most inconsiderate people I have ever encountered in any campgrounds I have ever been to.
They are loud, riding their loud motorcycles, and they partied till like 4 AM in the morning. There are no Camp Administrator patrolling the area to make sure everyone is observing the peace.
I thought paying $21 + $3.00 (dog) is worth it. It's actually a waste of money and will never camp here again. My number 1 favorite is still Shaver Lake. I can't share the name of the campground because I don't want to expose the serenity, beauty, and peace of the campground to some unruly, inconsiderate people out there. -
Review from Kelly K.
Temecula, CA
7/2/2011
It was an overall good experience. Be aware of the very brave deer that come by daily for handouts. They are not afraid of people and made us very nervous but always move on if you don't feed them. Also, wild turkeys would invade our campsite while we were out for the day so make sure not to leave trash out. FWI, the bathrooms down by the marina store are much cleaner and bigger than the ones by the campsite. Very much worth the drive daily to shower with two little kids. The marina bathrooms also have free hot water running from the sinks so it's nice if you just want to wash up and not use cold water.
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Review from Erik A.
Thousand Oaks, CA
8/24/2009 6 photos
This was a decent place to camp. Loud at night time with alot of the campers blasting stereos or laughing their butts off until all hours of the night. Rates are reasonable and the fact that they have the waterslide park there is pretty cool.
We didn't do any fishing or went on the lake at all since we don't have a boat and had our toddler with us... but it looked like fun. Water levels looked REALLY low.
All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who wanted to camp on the cheap. Our site had electricity and we paid $27/night. Well worth it. -
Review from Rod M.
Tulsa, OK
7/20/2010
I had not been to Lopez Lake in about 20 years since moving away from the Central Coast but it was the first place that came to mind when I wanted to get some family together for a fun camping trip.
We wanted to find a spot close to the restrooms and with as little car traffic as possible. After speaking with a very helpful person while making a reservation, I decided that Squirrel Campground was the perfect spot for us. We had a total of 6 young children in the group and not having to worry about car traffic was a major factor in the decision to camp in this area. We reserved sites #2 and 3/4. Site #3/4 is a considered a shared site and from what I can gather there doesn't seem to be a boundary between them. These sites are as close to the registration office as possible as is only a short walk away. Another big reason for reserving this site is the proximity to the restrooms. The restrooms were clean and had hot showers. There were two showers that cost .75 for 5 minutes of water time but they were private with locked doors. The Squirrel area is considered a primitive site and perfect for tent camping. Each site comes with a fire pit and a picnic table. Water spigots are available throughout the area and there was one at site 3/4 for us to use. The only thing this area does not have is a view of the lake but we knew that fact before making a reservation and for our group, the positives outweighed the negatives.
Our sites were all dirt with plenty of trees. There is a slope to the sites we occupied but I did see some flat areas across from us. We got plenty of sun in the morning with lots of afternoon shade from trees. We got to see plenty of the local wildlife from our site including turkeys, deer, woodpeckers and blue jays. One down side were the flies and wasps that hit you when the sun hits the site. Luckily they weren't active at night. A screen house is recommended during the summer months.
The store at the Marina was well stocked and had plenty of fishing gear for any level of angler. It also had plenty of wood including pine or oak for BBQ. I took some of the kids fishing in Cottonwood Cove at the dock next to the swimming area and was able to catch a few fish thanks to some helpful tips from Mike Spence who teaches a kids fishing clinic at the lake.
Some features that the lake has are a number of hiking trails, a water slide area and boat rentals. There are also several large group day use areas with huge BBQ pits for all the tri-tip you can handle.
Lopez Lake is a great place to take the family. It is easily accessible from any location on the Central Coast making you feel closer to nature right in your own backyard. -
Review from Melissa L.
Arroyo Grande, CA
7/13/2008
Lopez lake is a fun place. There are campgrounds, hiking trails, a boat marina/general store, and of course, the waterslides.
The lake water is sort of murky, and honestly swimming in there creeps me out. But it's fun to go out on boats. This is a manmade lake, so the water is not warm. It's also pretty deep.
The campsites, there are loads of different ones. Personally I like the ones off to the sides more. The middle tends to attract the super annoying people who think it's perfectly okay to get raging drunk.
When my family camped here, there were people kareok-ing at THREE AM. They were so loud and annoying it was ridiculous. The rangers did absolutely nothing.
It was horrible, and that's why I hate camping there in the summer. Annoying tourists who have no respect or consideration for the area ruin it.
But thankfully most people are really nice.
There are firepits and restrooms. The general store has practically everything you could need, but at expensive prices, of course.
The waterslides are really fun though, and I love them. -
Review from Mike P.
Sunnyvale, CA
6/10/2010
"Family Fun Camping"
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Review from cecilia b.
Sylmar, CA
8/7/2008
Lake Lopez is the Best campground I've been to. I use to come her as a child and recently came as an adult with family and it was a lot of fun. There are tons of deer that come right up to you and turkeys at night.. The park rangers are very friendly and helpful. I stayed during the week and it was pretty slow, which was nice. the camp site we stayed as was also very nice, in the squrriel section.
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Review from PETER D.
Arroyo Grande, CA
4/3/2010
In this small area us locals call "the five cities", is just a 20 mile jaunt to a beautiful lake. The ride there is in itself, awesome. There's something for everybody...hiking (beginner to advance), mountain bike riding, camping, a little waterslide for the kids, lots and lots of tame deer, and of course the lake. Some waterski, but I like being pulled on a big tube. You can spend the day there, go for a weekend, or 2 weeks or more. It's just amazing that 25 miles out of town is this gorgeous lake. It is a very small fee to get your pass, but believe me its worth it.
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Review from m c.
Arcadia, CA
6/4/2010
We go to Lopez lake to camp at least 2 times a year. Just got back from taking another family with us. They are hooked like we are. I read others reviews and I have to say..it really depends on which sites you pick that determines the amount of noise and how "packed" close you are to other campers. We use to have a problem when we camped next to the group camps and booked other sites. Some sites have plenty of room. Also, I have to disagree about park rangers not being around. We saw one driving around at least once an hour throughout the day and night the entire 3 day weekend. I'm wondering is it because it was the holiday weekend? There was also highway patrol who drove through the park giving out tickets to those who had a little too much to drink after the laker game :) It is a safe park. Love the deers that roam around and the sounds of the turkey's early in the am to wake you up. Great fun for kids. Generally I am able to catch some fish (least 20). This last time, we saw the fish but they weren't biting! If it wasn't for this, I would have given the campsite a 5 star!
