Dumbarton Quarry Campground on the Bay — Attraction in Fremont

a review from @amom2kidsandapark

The newest East Bay Regional Park site to open comes equipped with 63 camping sites (rv and tent), a store, a playground, an amphitheater with fire pit, and picnic areas. Although it is ready for campers, the site has only implemented Phase 1 of opening. Phase 2 will incorporate more neighboring land which will in turn create more exploration opportunities. The campsite is located on the former Dumbarton Quarry which was active for nearly 60 years. Quarrying took gravel from a 190 foot hill to build local airports, bridges and highways. Quarrying the hill created the deepest human made pit in North America at 22 acres across and 320 feet below sea level at the deepest point. The pit was filled with clean debris from local constructions projects and is now one of the few “urban campsites” for miles. Although this doesn’t give the typical escape from the city camping vibe, it does offer traveling families an easy stop over when driving through the bay or local families the chance to give camping a try while being close to home. If all goes to hell you can literally load your kids in your car and drive home. Just return the next day to try again 😅 If you need to add nature to your camping visit there are trails that connect to nearby Coyote Hills and the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The play area has a low structure with double slide, steps, short climbing wall, jumping pads, music maker, bridge, and shoot allowing a toy or ball to travel from the top level to the ground. There is a three person teeter totter, climbing logs and rocks with small hiding spots mixed in, and a swing set (hard plastic standard swings). Behind the playground is a large grassy area. There is a bathroom and parking lot near the playground. You may notice there’s basically no shade. The running comment with other parents who were also there on opening day was “this is gonna be a great spot in like 30 years when all the trees grow”. Not an ideal spot for a hot day 🥵 As it is a regional park there is a parking fee to access the grounds (even if you want to just drive around to...

This is a gem of a campground in the Bay Area. It’s close to plenty of restaurants and stuff. It is easy to get into San Francisco for tourist activities by hopping on BART where station was a short drive or uber away. It’s a good base to launch tourist adventures to lots of activities like the coast, pinnacles, San Francisco etc. The campground itself is in great condition. Sites have full hookups and 50 amp power plenty of length for big rigs. The have boulders on the sides of entrances to sites but just have to pay attention backing in wasn’t hard. All sites seem to be back in. Plenty of grassy areas for dogs and kids to play and the park connects to a nature preserve and a regional park. There are a ton of trails to hike on, be aware that many trails are dog restricted but still awesome. Our only issue with this place is the bizzare gate situation. They close and lock the gate at 10pm daily and if you aren’t inside Cinderella you are out of luck and would have to park on the quarry road and hope you don’t get a ticket or towed. They should do what most other places do and issue a gate code. As tourists we were going all over and it was always a race to get back before being locked out and really added unnecessary stress. They really need to change...

WORST CAMPGROUND EVER!!!!

First, let me say after many years of being full time RVers this is our first negative review of a campground. The grounds of the campground are unkept, trash blowing around and overflowing the dumpsters, dog feces at our site. Described as a new campground with paved sites, we still had to place blocks under the tires of our Class A to get level. The neighboring camper looked like they were having a yard sale and the entrance gate to the campground closes at 10pm and you cannot drive back into the campground until 8am the following morning. The staff did inform us that we may park our car outside the gate and walk the half mile to our site, but the police may tow our vehicle as they have in the past. When I called to request a level, feces free site, Karen in the Reservations Dept. stated absolutely not, no changes to our reservation. When I explained I only was requesting a different site not adjusting our reservation, she explained I would have to pay for the new site in addition to the site we were already assigned. Karen was/is the rudest person I have dealt with in many years, horrible customer service. Do yourself and your family a huge favor and stay very far away from this...