Washoe Lake State Park Campground

Located just north of Carson City, and a bit further to Reno - this is a great location to base camp and have access to big city amenities.

All of the sites are well spaced, offering good bits of privacy and view.

The sites are $17 a night, and are all dry camping – no hook-ups. There is a dump station onsite, and water spigots throughout the campground.

We had excellent LTE coverage on both AT&T and Verizon.

We just love this place and stay here every single time we drive Hwy 395. It's located just a short way off the highway, yet it feels like miles away. The sites are huge with LOTS of separation & beautiful surroundings (sage, mountains). Each site is paved and has a covered outdoor shelter. It feels incredibly peaceful, yet it's only 15 mins from Carson City and 20 mins from Reno. Lots of trails to hike too.

Only downside? It's dry-camping only (no hookups) and the showers are those annoying spray-head type. This is a small price to pay for such great surroundings in such a great location.

This state park is in a lovely setting overlooking the Washoe Lake (currently) dry lake bed and surrounded by mountains. The campsites are very well spaced, with concrete pads, covered picnic tables and fire rings. They only have dry camping, but have water spigots throughout, rest rooms and showers and a dump site (with a $5 fee).

The location feels remote but is actually just fifteen minutes away from Carson City, which has lots of restaurants, grocery and other stores. Note: we did not like the laundry facility at Carson City, but were told that there is a great laundry facility in the "town" of Washoe Lake, which covers a couple of blocks just up the road. Reno is twenty minutes away.

It is a great place for walking doggies, you can walk right from your campsite to the lake bed.

We did have a problem with the dump site, which overflowed when we arrived and had overflowed prior to our hooking up on our way out, but others who left at a different time did not have that problem, so hopefully they were a couple of isolated incidents.

We were looking for a place to camp over Memorial Day that did not take reservations. We arrived the Tuesday before and the campground was nearly empty, probably due to the fact that there was no water in the lake. Sites are huge, long, and mostly level on pavement, which was good as we had rain for almost the entire week we were there.
Most of the sites have lovely views of the surrounding hills and mountains there are hiking trails along the dry lake, over the dunes, and up into the hills.
Restrooms and showers are nice, dump station before the campground entrance worked well. Fresh water fill at dump had low pressure due to leak so took awhile to fill our tank.
We absolutely loved the scenic beauty of the area and it is close to Carson City and Reno if you need shopping or entertainment. Wish they let you stay longer than 7 days.

The sun will beat it out of you, if you allow it the privilege.

Four years into a drought and Washoe Lake is struggling to deserve the title of large mud puddle.

We came here as it was an hour closer to our inevitable destination of northern Oregon. We're on a bit of a mission. But to leave Tahoe for this was perhaps a bit premature. Every day at least some faction of us would drive back up to those crystal clear blue waters in the mountains.

That said, I did miss the turn when coming here initially. Not much in the way of space to turn around, my children waking from their short naps, and the dog panting ready to get out, I declined to watch the speedometer as I should have. $108 for 10 over was my penalty, the policeman nice enough to ignore that I was actually 20 over the limit.

His lights whirled. I pulled over at the first opportune moment.

"Do the speed limit signs look different in Texas?" he asked,referring to my plates.

I wanted to tell him that on a country road like this the limit would be 75, not 45. Instead I said please and thank you and I guess saved myself the extra $150 a smart mouth would have cost me.

Of the three nights we spent here, two we declined a fire for. It was warm. And the sky was black.

Magpies and scrub jays abound. When the birds fell asleep and the stars were all counted, little trouble was had streaming shows as we fell asleep.

Still, I missed Tahoe the entire time, and in future would gladly pay the extra $20 or so the campgrounds up there offered to be closer to that Blue.

Really a great find. No hookups, but they have water, plus two bathrooms and one shower.
The site I was in, was by the road, but the big shady tree was well worth it. There is really only two sites that have trees that give you shade.
Great views, some really nice hiking trails nearby and only 15 minutes from grocery, gas, etc
The only down side is Verizon sucks out here. One, maybe two bars.

First come first serve and we got the last 2 sites when we arrived about 1 on a Friday afternoon. Our fire pit had lots of trash, which we cleaned up before we left. Sign at the entrance all weekend said campground full despite about 6 sites in both loops being open mid-day Sat and Sun. We found out when we left on Sunday that the Saturday we stayed was Nevada Public Lands day which meant all fees were waived. No mention at the entrance so we paid for 2 nights despite Sat being free. We did see rangers driving around but not doing much else.

A loop sites bigger and now has electrical @ $25/night. B loop dry camping and smaller sites $15/night. Great location but signage to entrance is very small and easy to miss. Good hiking and close to Carson City!

Two loops. Loop A now has power and water at each site for an extra $10.00 per night. With the Nevada State Parks Pass, this is all we paid. Great views! Only noise were a few planes as you are in the flight path for the Reno/Tahoe airport. Wild horses are all around at any given time. Close to Carson City to the south and Reno to the north. Good AT&T, fair Verizon and ZERO T-Mobile service.

Loop A is open again, with water and electrical (no sewer - but central dump available for $5). Loop B is all dry camping. Both loops have mix of pull through and back in spots. Several have additional parking available, or visitor spots for cars available. Most are decently far away from neighboring spots. Fire rings. Picnic tables. A few trees. Central (and exceptionally clean) bathrooms. Camp hosts with firewood usually for sale ($5). Several trails, lake is a short walk. Very kid and family friendly. Open year round and we’ll maintained. $10 per site. Additional $10 utilities. Additional $15 per vehicle.

Loop A was closed when we visited in August 2019, which meant Loop B was full. We managed to find the only remaining spot at around 3:30pm on a Wednesday. My assumption is that now with Loop A open, this wouldn't be an issue, and you'd be able to find a spot with no problem during the week.

The views were nice, although we had been spoiled at Brown's Owens River Campground so this place just didn't compare. The Willow Beach was pleasant, but the mirky water wasn't that inviting. My kids and I still waded in, but was only stayed a couple of hours.

The covered tables at each site are a really nice touch. The bathrooms and showers were clean enough.