Don Pedro Reservoir — Attraction in Sonora

The Don Pedro Reservoir is located in the western foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada mountain range. Communities located nearby are Moccasin and La Grange. It is the sixth-largest reservoir in California. Properties and ranchettes here often have magnificent lake views and many have horseback riding trails adjoining the open land. Don Pedro Reservoir takes its name from Don Pedro’s Bar. Pierre (“Don Pedro”) Sainsevain was one of the first prospectors after the discovery of gold in 1848 that began the California Gold Rush. When full, the reservoir’s shoreline is approximately 160 mi (260 km). The reservoir submerges some 26 miles (42 km) of Tuolumne Riverbed, and has a surface area of about 13,000 acres. The 2,030,000 acre·ft stored here comes from a watershed of over 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2), and is used for the irrigation of several hundred square miles of San Joaquin Valley farm land. Some of the water is treated and used as drinking water in Modesto.

The Don Pedro Recreation Area is operated in and around the lake by the Don Pedro Lake Recreation Agency. There are drive-in and boat-in campgrounds, houseboat areas, fishing, water skiing, and mountain biking—hiking trails. There are three public boat ramps on the shoreline, in the Blue Oaks Area, Moccasin Point Area, and Fleming...

update -- they also never responded to my email about what happened. I emailed them 2 weeks ago the day we left. They don't care and just want your money.

I never leave reviews but felt inclined to. We were supposed to go for 4th of July weekend, but only stayed one day because the rangers did not enforce any of the rules. Loud music playing past the quiet time and first thing in the morning, then the campsite directly next to us had 25 people on an 8 person campsite. They left us with hardly any room, no parking and with their 7 boats lined up my kids had nowhere to swim. When we brought it up to the front entrance they seemed new or confused and nothing was done. On top of it, we were close to the marina near the houseboats where it was 5mph, but of course jetskiiers were going way faster than that. The only time I saw a sheriff on the water, was when we were picking up our jetskis at the launch and there was some sort of accident with a girl so sheriffs and ambulances were involved. I booked here because of their regulations which aren't enforced what so ever. We had a much better experience at Camanche a few weeks before so I would recommend going there before...

We have been camping at Don Pedro Reservoir for many years. This is the most water we've seen so far. Our campsite was perfectly located near the lake across the house boats. We had just enough tree cover to survive the 90+ weather. We actually had enough flat areas to pitch a few 3 person and 6 person tents. The fire ant population continued to pester our camp through the duration of our stay despite our meticulous cleanliness. Bugs and mosquito swarms came at dusk and early morning. Close access to the lake gave us plenty of entertainment and opportunity to cool off. One thing at our site that was annoying: the fire ring was too close to our camp table. Other than that, we enjoyed our stay and will return again next year. We hope the water line will...