Pinecrest Lake Resort — Hotel in Sonora

Let me start out by saying this is a beautiful lake with really great amenities - outdoor movie nights, townhomes to rent, a 4 mile hike around the lake for all skill levels, a dock with boat and kayak rentals, snack bar, grocery store, bait & tackle shop, restaurant, and even a campground.

Now for the part that makes my family and friends and many locals that I spoke with never want to visit this place again.

Overcrowding. Good luck getting a parking spot or a spot on the beach if you get there past 8:30/9am on a weekend. People were parking in loading zones, the hash marked areas of disabled parking spaces, then they started doubling up parking in the designated boat/trailer spots, half parked on the side of the road where there is clearly no parking. This is a HUGE safety issue. What if there was an emergency? Or, a fire? Limit the amount of cars! ZERO enforcement of rules. Dogs were on the beach. Bicycle riders on the walking path and beach. Cabin owners that parked in the visitor spots for the entire weekend. Father and son fishing off the dam. Frequent visitors have learned that they can do whatever they want with no consequences. Why do people think the rules don't apply to them? Young kids with no diapers on peeing on the beach (and of course the lake), then his parents laughing about it and telling their older son to take him into the lake to wash off. Wonder what they would've done if he'd pooped? Profane and I mean extremely profane music blaring with no one brave enough to say anything to the bunch of drunks. And no Rangers or employees on site. Why didn't we just move? Because we shouldn't have to and there was no where to move to. The employees cleaning the bathrooms that REFUSED to give my daughter and friend any toilet paper. My daughter went to the bathroom before she realized there was no toilet paper. Marcus Terry told us that he is "not allowed" to give us toilet paper. Not allowed! His job is to clean and stock the bathrooms. He refused repeatedly to give us any toilet paper. Why didn't they shut down the restrooms or tell us BEFORE we went in, "..heads up there's no toilet paper in there"? Mindless govt workers. Saving beach and movie seat spots. The beach isn't cleared off at the end of each night. Why this isn't required is beyond me. People set up their canopies, chairs, floaties on Friday night and leave them up until Sunday/Monday. So, there's no way you're getting a beach front or prime spot if you're visiting for the day. Movie bleacher spots had blankets and chairs put on them by 4pm, even though the movie wasn't until 8:30pm. Why do they allow people to hang hammocks from the trees and bring in BBQs? This is a National Forest. We should be protecting the trees and doing everything we can to prevent forest fires. I saw one Ranger the entire time we were there. ONE. There is plenty of money to properly staff the park.

This place is turning into a Lake Tahoe. Enforce the rules and fix the overcrowding and we'd love...

I’ve heard a lot of good things about pinecrest so I thought we’d try a camping trip there . We stayed at pinecrest campground for a handful of nights . The first night was so peaceful & low key - the lake was so pretty and calm - I thought I’m going to like it here . We had a campfire & went to sleep . I saw all kinds of signs about the movie night at the pinecrest resort amphitheater so the next night we checked it out . Dave was rather rude to us which seems surprising bc of all the pictures he seems so happy & friendly . The movie turned out to be rated PG & was super loud - it wasn’t appropriate out littles so we left . We couldn’t get to sleep that night until after the movie was over . It was aweful - my littles kept asking - what was that ? I never realized how scary a of movie could sound as it rumbles through the forest at your campground . I’m pretty down to earth & reasonable so the next night - same thing -super loud volume that could be heard all around the lake & the worst part it’s so very loud throughout the campground at 8:30 pm at night when campers are typically quieting down & sitting around the campfire enjoying some time -but not at pinecrest for 26 nights out of 30 nights of the month - it’s horrible & totally ruins the outdoor in nature camping experience. Tix were $8 so a family of 5 would spend more money attending the movie that night than the cost of the campsite that night. ||Although some people attend , the majority of the campers do not & must suffer through the nightly intrusive noise nuisance & disruption of their camp out . Perhaps the owners Dave & his wife could have more consideration for others around them & then down their volume , start the movie earlier around 5 or 6 pm & show the movie only on the weekends not almost every day?! I shared my experience with Dave & his wife who didn’t like what I asked for them to turn down the volume of the movie , I made a verbal complaint to Stanislaus national forest office who told me to visit another campground if I didn’t like the instructive noise out in the wilderness ( hello people !) & finally one of the rangers at the campground had the audacity to listen to my experience & totally agreed , but said the campground doesn’t run it but is intimately impacted by it & that her son had the same opinion and said he’d never go back to this campground . ||My hope is that there could be a happy medium - play your movie if you must but at a volume that keeps the noise of the movie inside theater with very little noise pollution in the campground & rest of the lake. I hope more people complain so this camping experience can be greatly improved. There’s a lot of potential here for everyone to have an...

I’ve heard a lot of good things about pinecrest so I thought we’d try a camping trip there . We stayed at pinecrest campground for a handful of nights . The first night was so peaceful & low key - the lake was so pretty and calm - I thought I’m going to like it here . We had a campfire & went to sleep . I saw all kinds of signs about the movie night at the pinecrest resort amphitheater so the next night we checked it out . Dave was rather rude to us which seems surprising bc of all the pictures he seems so happy & friendly . The movie turned out to be rated PG & was super loud - it wasn’t appropriate out littles so we left . We couldn’t get to sleep that night until after the movie was over . It was aweful - my littles kept asking - what was that ? I never realized how scary a of movie could sound as it rumbles through the forest at your campground . I’m pretty down to earth & reasonable so the next night - same thing -super loud volume that could be heard all around the lake & the worst part it’s so very loud throughout the campground at 8:30 pm at night when campers are typically quieting down & sitting around the campfire enjoying some time -but not at pinecrest for 26 nights out of 30 nights of the month - it’s horrible & totally ruins the outdoor in nature camping experience. Tix were $8 so a family of 5 would spend more money attending the movie that night than the cost of the campsite that night. ||Although some people attend , the majority of the campers do not & must suffer through the nightly intrusive noise nuisance & disruption of their camp out . Perhaps the owners Dave & his wife could have more consideration for others around them & then down their volume , start the movie earlier around 5 or 6 pm & show the movie only on the weekends not almost every day?! I shared my experience with Dave & his wife who didn’t like what I asked for them to turn down the volume of the movie , I made a verbal complaint to Stanislaus national forest office who told me to visit another campground if I didn’t like the instructive noise out in the wilderness ( hello people !) & finally one of the rangers at the campground had the audacity to listen to my experience & totally agreed , but said the campground doesn’t run it but is intimately impacted by it & that her son had the same opinion and said he’d never go back to this campground . ||My hope is that there could be a happy medium - play your movie if you must but at a volume that keeps the noise of the movie inside theater with very little noise pollution in the campground & rest of the lake. I hope more people complain so this camping experience can be greatly improved. There’s a lot of potential here for everyone to have an...