Lake Oroville State Recreation Area

This review is regarding the floating campsites on Lake Oroville. I saw some reviews about these campsites on Unilocal and knew that I had to check these out. Camping on a lake in the middle of nowhere? Count me in. I managed to find 12 other people who thought they could have fun on a floating platform drifting on a lake, and together we spent 2 nights and 3 days camping out on Lake Oroville (literally camping on a lake). Those have to be 3 of THE funnest days I’ve had all summer.
I’m having trouble thinking of how to structure this review because all I want to do is tell stories of my time on the lake. It was just an absolute blast and stories are really the only way to do it justice. But nobody wants to read a 5000 word essay on Unilocal and some of these stories probably shouldn’t be told (what happens on Oroville stays on Oroville) so I’ll just settle for discussing what these platforms are and give some suggestions for activities.
The campsites are pretty simple– two story 20×24 platforms scattered around the lake. Each has its own bathroom, grill, and sink without running water. The second story is empty and can easily fit enough tents to hold 15 people. There’s a platform to dock your boat and a table with bench to eat. You’ll need to bring your own food, coolers, drinks, and shelter. It’s a pretty good idea to tie down your tents upstairs in case the wind picks up.
Daytime is the perfect chance to swim, eat, and drink to your hearts content. There’s still a lot of water in the lake too so it’s always fun to take your boat out for a drive. We rented a ski tube with our boat and had fun with that too! When night rolls around, you won’t want to boat because of the 5 mph rule but the water is warm enough that you can still swim. The best part, though, is the stars. There is no light pollution so you can see the stars, the planets, and even the Milky Way. If you get lucky, you can even see the occasional shooting star! Absolutely breathtaking.
I couldn’t find any comprehensive list online on what you need to do to this trip happening so I’m laying it out here:
1) RESERVATION– You will need to make a reservation for the floating campsite at
. Campsites come out to $ 175/​night. You will need to check in at the gate to Bidwell Canyon Marina at 4:00, where you will also receive the password to open the bathroom and storage closet of the floating campsite.
2) TRANSPORTATION– You will need a boat to get out to the campsite. If you don’t have your own, Lake Oroville Marina rents boats out. As of the time of this review, Bidwell Canyon Marina was not renting out boats which was unfortunate as it was closer to most of the floating campsites. We got a 26 foot deck boat from Lake Oroville Marina and it suit our needs perfectly. It can legally hold 8 people so we had to make several trips to get everybody. Note that the Lake Oroville Marina is located at Lime Saddle, which is about an hour away from the dam by boat. However, you can pick people up at the dam as there is a courtesy dock there. After renting the boat, my party members just met me at the dock. This greatly reduced the amount of travel time needed to get everybody back and forth
3) SURVIVAL– The campsite only comes with a grill, sink, and bathroom. Remember to bring enough water for everybody to drink and clean themselves with. If you find that you didn’t pack enough to drink, the Bidwell Canyon Marina provides all this but it’s a good thirty minute drive away by boat and only open 9 – 5. Bring a cooler to keep your food cold. A lantern is useful at night once the sun sets, and a GPS is handy for boat navigation. There is a trash bin and recycling bin provided but you will likely overflow them so bring your own bags. I went in August and it was very warm and there were no mosquitoes so go light on the blankets and mosquito repellent. So warm, in fact, that I ended up sleeping on the boat where I could see the stars.
4) FUN– Alcohol is GREAT for a trip like this. That’s all I will say regarding that. Life jackets are required, but can also increase your fun on the water. I saw jet skiers and water boarders out on the water– we had a ski tube and were zooming around the lake with two people in tow at any given point in time. All of these activities are ridiculously fun and highly recommended.
If you’ve read this far into my review, you’ve read nearly 850 words. Why are you still reading? Go reserve yourself a floating campsite. I can’t wait to make a reservation again myself.

I’ve been to a lot of campsites, loafer creek campground at lake oroville is so clean and it’s a beautiful campground with lots of tall trees which makes for a great amount of shade. We stayed at the Quail group site, this was my first time staying at a group site anywhere and I will be staying at group site from now on. They are huge sites and the bathrooms/​showers are literally right in front of the site. There’s a huge sink that runs strong pressured water and the sink is just for your site which is awesome. There’s a huge fire pit and about 8 picnic tables just for your site. The group site allows 8 cars at no additional parking charge. There is so much room for a lot of tents here, and it’s all flat surface, no hills or slopes!
The bathrooms and showers were so clean! They were big and well kept throughout our stay. There’s also huge dumpsters right in front of the site to throw away all trash.
The cons: the lake access is pretty bad due to the drought so a lot of them are closed. You have to drive 20 minutes out just to enjoy a decent swimming area or launch any boats/​jet skis, etc. We ended up driving to the spillwell launching area to enjoy the day at the lake. Another good one is Bidwell, but they were pretty packed for the 4^th of July weekend.

Love the Loafer Creek campgrounds! Very spacious & clean. Good bathrooms with showers! The group sites are amazing! The Rangers are nice and helpful too! Unfortunately the last half of our last trip was ruined by loud campers who came in the middle of the night to the site right next to us with a million animals & «lived» there. Hopefully we’ll have better luck next time… And there will be enough water to come back again this summer!

–We camped at the group site.
–This is an amazing group site w/​space for 8 vehicles and has its own sink and half a dozen picnic tables. Very spacious.
–The park ranger was very friendly.
–There is a shop nearby that sells firewood and groceries.
–On an Off, you get cell reception.

This place is really neat! I have to take my son here every time we come to Oroville. My Grandpa used to take me here when I was a young girl.
The Salmon run is amazing to see. If you look down at the Feather River right where it meets the spillway you will see thousands of Salmon trying to get upstream. They come here to spawn.
If you have never seen this before, make sure you see it at least once.

Too bad the water this year is very low. But we still had a great time on the lake and the floating camp site. Wish more water next year. Definitely we are coming back!!!

I am so MIND BLOWN.
I go camping few times every summer, but never have I ever been to a floating campsite before. SUCH AN AMAZING WEEKEND.
I went with my friend’s family. We had a total of 7 people. We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. I believe each night costed about $ 200 each, but it was so worth it.
You are literally camping in the middle of nowhere. Of course you need to own or rent some kind of boat to get you to the campsite. I am seriously reminiscing about this place as I write this review. I want to go back already. It was like paradise.
You are only provided with a two story campsite. There’s a sink but no running water so make sure you bring your own! Bring generators too so you can have electricity. Reception is pretty bad but if you don’t have tmobile you should be okay. There’s one bathroom but no showers. We brought shampoo and body wash and just washed in the lake, hahaha. Bring tarps, clamps, and zipties to tie down your tents. It get suuper windy at nighttime. Weather in the daytime is like the perfect hotness.
Swim, eat, drink, repeat. I even got to try wakeboarding for the first time! SO MUCH FUN.
People come here to fish, but my friends only caught a few really tiny minnows.
Oh, and because there is no light pollution, star gazing was amazeballs. I fell asleep on a hammock under the stars.
TIP: When on your boat, please drive 5MPH around the campsites. Waking up to the whole island shaking was not cool.
I’m too pumped to go back again. THANK YOU LAKE OROVILLE!!!

great place to hang out and excellent place to camp. what a large and beautiful lake. we rented a boat and hit the lake and it was on and popping. kids love to go tubing and swimming.
The campsites are super nice, with bathrooms and showers nearby. yes some of us are still citified and we need our showers. lol lol
On the other side of the Dam is the Feather River and it happened to be Salmon spawning season. so they kids were able to see the Salmon jumping trying to get back to their birth place. The salmon were huge, no serious HUGE.
I can’t wait to go back and hangout and camp. such a nice place. Prices are very reasonable. Location is easy to find…

Fantastic camping, warm, beautiful lake!
Only complaint: $ 250,000 bus campers with BLARING music & no reprimand from camp management. And their music always sucks, too. :/​At least be a good DJ with some music variety that fits the outdoors, you noise polluters!

Beautiful, quiet, shade, grass, calm waters, tree branches you can float on and roped off area, picnic area close to the water so you can watch as family and friends swim, clean rest rooms, plenty of trees and great parking… really need I say more. Very nice place to visit glad I made the trip!

This is a great recreation aree. There are several parts, places you can hunt, fish, and shoot. Help if you have a truck for some of the dirt roads. It can get crowded at times

swimming, boating, fishing, camping, and even floating toilets! this is a great place to spend an afternoon (or a week). the water is warm, the toilets are clean, and the bald eagles are magestic.

We briefly stopped here after our drive over the dam. Plenty of parking, open grass and trees for shade. Not to mention gorgeous views of the lake.
You have to pay if you’re are planning on boating or staying for a long period of time. We had no intention of staying for very long so the ranger let us just go in and take a look around for free.
If my dog was more adventurous we would have taken a walk on the trail head that starts in the rear of the parking lot.
I have done my research and found out there is camping and even Fireworks on the 4^th of July. It made me really wish that I had a boat right about now.
Oh and I even drove on the boat launch. Its ginormous! Plenty of room for bad boat launchers to over correct then get it right.
Im looking forward to coming back again. Future family fun spot!