Lake Solano County Park — Attraction in Vacaville

This is a review of the Campground, specifically the behavior of the campground host, Mike. Lake Solano is actually a great local place other than this person.

So I have lived in the area for the last two decades and have paddled the river for years.

As a member of a group of friends who are doctors and nurses, we are quite stressed during these times of covid and appreciate some nice calm time to decompress. So we were all looking forward to a nice, relaxing paddle after work.

And that's exactly what we were doing as the sun passed over the hills and we turned around to paddle back to our cars.

It was then that we heard someone screaming from the bank. Worried that someone needed our help we inquired.

Instead this unidentified man was screaming that he was going to call the police and it actually took a bit of time to clarify that he was going to call them on us! Despite years of paddling and no signs being posted at the put in, this man was claiming we were now officially paddling after hours and that this would, of course, require him to immediately call the police. To repeat: rather than simply inform us of his rules (which would have been fine), he began with the screaming, 'I'm calling the police!' angle.

We were polite, and asked who he was (it was only then that he identified himself as Mike the campground host). We than thanked him for the warning and paddled on.

No more came of this incident. The good news is about half the people didn't even hear about the incident until we were pulling out of the water, so they managed to maintain the good time we were having.

However, I am writing to let others know about the personality of the campground host here. An avid camper, I know the campground host's personality can play a huge role in whether your hard earned vacation is fun, relaxed and enjoyable or a miserable experience. We had just stayed at a campground the week before with excellent hosts who were kind, thoughtful and reasonable - we appreciated it a lot.

Bluntly, our experience with Mike was terrible and he managed to make our already stressful lives a bit more stressful that evening. I would recommend you stay away from this place, unless you like having a rule bound bully scream at you that he's calling the police before even...

Lake Solano is currently OPEN and located at the south end of Lake Berryessa, on Peasant Valley Rd between Vacaville and Winters CA. Right before the bridge you will find their campground on the left hand side as well as the day use area on the right hand side. This is a safe place to stop and stretch your legs or to let your fur babies do their duty. The Day USE area is FREE with no parking fees. It's a really great place to have a family picnic or let the kids run to the playground located at the center of the park. In the day use area there are several VERY CLEAN and functioning restrooms that are always stocked. This is a great place to fish on land or by boat. The launch is near the bridge and is accessible. Complementary life vests are available at the campground. Be mindful of the low water levels and your propeller potentially getting caught in the under water plants. Putah Creek is a natural ecosystem and the plant life is dense in some areas. This particular area has calm water..good for canoeing , kayaking or paddle boarding. Unless you are EXPERIENCED I would stay in this area for these activities...further up Putah Creek can be very dangerous..I have personally helped rescue people from this creek...the water is very cold and runs very fast. You can find a variety of wildlife in the park..🐿, 🦫,🦆,🦎🦨,🦝, 🦌 and Lake Solano is also home to many wild🦚. If you get lucky you might find a feather or two. The campground is around $30 per night and the camp host lives on site. If you cross the bridge and turn right...town is just a couple miles...

If you are QTBPOC DO NOT STAY HERE… unless you have a harassment kink. From the moment our group pulled into our campsite to visit we were visited by 3 sheriff’s patrol vehicles. They interrogated us about how many people were staying in our site. Mind you, we booked two sites. According to the website, a site can comfortably fit 8 people. We had 9 people split between two sites. Last time I checked, gathering around a campfire while camping was not considered suspicious activity. That was the first interaction. In addition to that we were visited at least 4 other times being asked questions like is everyone accounted for, how many people are in our party, is this your car, and whatever other fake friendly check in excuse they could come up with. They parked across from us and snooped around our cars as if they were searching for something wrong, and as if we weren’t there. In addition, the campsites are supposed to fit 3 tents comfortably yet there was no space for more than one tent unless you like sleeping on tic infested ground that is far from level.

It’s understandable that sleeping in the outdoors you will come across critters but tics were falling onto us from the trees at our location. Our site was also right off the highway so you could hear traffic constantly.

So if you are looking to get away from it all and find some peace in nature AVOID LAKE SOLANO CAMPGROUND...