Lahontan State Recreation Area — Attraction in Silver Springs

We live in Reno and just got a boat this year for the summer. Went to Tahoe a few times, but the drive takes a while and climbing the hills into the mountain with a 24' cuddy cabin can be brutal on gas and your transmission. Tahoe is beautiful, but the water is SO cold!

Lahontan offers a closer alternative for boaters and campers. It's a desert-terrain campsite, so don't expect pine trees and bear lockers. Think sand and sagebrush. It's about 45-50 min from Reno and the water is considerably warmer than the snow melt of the Alpine lake. The open campsites are great: find a spot on the beach and it's yours. There are even a few spots in the lake that are deep enough at the shoreline to allow you to pull your boat right up to your campsite. Vault toilets are located around the perimeter of the lake and indicate beach numbers and there are showers on the Northern beaches (odd numbers).

And now for the bad: to say the lake gets windy is a HUGE understatement. We tent camp and almost got blown away on day 2. The water becomes choppy and it's not fun for anyone when the sand is blowing in your face. The water in the lake is, well, brown. Mud swirls and (I'm guessing) a lack of adequate fresh water exchange keep this body of water pretty murky. Definitely not the crystal clear lake that is Lake Tahoe. And fisherman, have fun catching fish, but you CANNOT eat your catch. The fish (a la warning signs) contain Mercury and should not be eaten, unless you're into birth defects and neurological conditions. And the boat launch for V-bottom boats can be rough to load back onto the trailer. You have to have some mad skills and really good guide rails. Otherwise, you're getting blown sideways off the trailer in the loading dock.

So, for a weekend get away to dunk your boat that's less than 1 hour from Reno, Lahontan is fine. But I'm not looking to invest in property in Silver Springs,...

This used to be our favorite place to go in the Fall due to the quiet and serenity, as well as great fishing. How sad and disappointing this place has become. We usually stay in the developed sites which overlooks the lake. When we arrived this time, there was a large sign at the gate starting there was a burn ban in effect and campfires were prohibited. We even gave the Park Ranger our wood. So the next two nights a guy is running his generator all night. Quiet time starts at ten. So we politely ask him to abstain for the few nights we are here. Nope. He needs to have his TV on all night and the 3 weeks he's been LIVING here and working during the day that's what he's been doing and will continue to do. Wait...there is a 14 day limit. But they let anyone stay for as long as they want apparently. I was told by the Ranger so long as I have the stub in the windshield nobody will bother me. You can tell people are living here. So I am on the shore fishing and a car pulls up and a guy and his lady friend take a swim...and then start fornicating on a blanket by their car...in broad daylight. Tonight with the fire ban there are three fires on the beach, lights everywhere and very loud music. I tried to phone the Ranger but you get an answering machine. And the best news is that they are hoping to put in hookups and let people stay on a monthly basis. So come and live here in your trailer leaving no sites for anyone else. How sad that these kinds of places are being overrun by rude and thoughtless partyers who have no respect for anyone else. Other people like to have a good time by being in...

I like that you can camp and launch your boat from the beach. Really neat. Plus there's cemented boat ramps as an alternative option, but they are very steep.

I would like to see a hookups option.

I didn't like that a large portion of the lake was green with a thick algae explosion (which may be a seasonal thing, but it took some time and effort to wash it off the hull later at home). We did find a cleaner place to swim on the north part of the lake and would go back there.

Also, I did not enjoy getting stuck in the deep sand for 5+ hours in the middle of the day, then paying $600+ to get my tow vehicle and travel trailer towed back to safety. Heed the deep sand warnings on the southern areas of the lake!

I've decided to not complain about the standard northwestern Nevada afternoon breeze blowing up huge clouds of...