“preserving giant sequioas”
Calaveras became a State Park in 1931 to preserve the North Grove of giant sequoias. This grove includes the "Discovery Tree", also known as the "Big Stump", the first Sierra redwood noted by Augustus T. Dowd in 1852. This area has been a major tourist attraction ever since, and is considered the longest continuously operated tourist facility in California. Over the years, other parcels of mixed conifer forests have been added to the park. This amazing park has a huge varitey of habitats and recreational opportunites to explore. In addition to the popular North Grove, the Park features the South Grove, a five mile hiking trip through a spectacular grove of giant sequoias in their natural setting. Other attractions in the Park include the Stanislaus River, Beaver Creek, the Lava Bluff Trail and Bradley Trail. The Park also houses two main campgrounds with a total of 129 campsites, six picnic areas and several miles of established trails. During the Summer enjoy evening ranger talks, numerous interpretive programs, environmental educational programs, junior ranger programs, hiking, mountain biking, bird watching and activities for school children. Dogs: Dogs are welcome in the park on leash in developed areas like picnic sites, campgrounds, paved roads and fire roads (dirt). Dogs are not allowed on the designated trails, nor in the woods in general. We have several miles of fire roads for you and your dog to enjoy; however, you will not be able to see any of the giant sequoias from these roads. Service dogs are permitted everywhere throughout the park. Comfort dogs do not qualify as service dogs and are therefore restricted to the campground, paved roads and the fire roads.
Reviews of Calaveras Big Trees State Park
12 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G/5G
Confirmed by 5 users | Last reported on August 13, 2024AT&T 4G/5G
Confirmed by 4 users | Last reported on August 13, 2024Reviews
This is the second time we stayed here. Love the quietness and big beautiful trees. This time we discovered a hiking trail inside the campground. The trailhead is right cross from site 58. It only has small yellow sticker on a wooden pole and didn’t even state hiking trail here. But after you hike a bit into the trail, you will see two more signs about two different trails. It is great hiking trails if you don’t want to leave the campground.
This time the shower is open and takes token purchased from the entrance.
Dump station is open this time: July to August. Last time we stayed during winter it was closed.
We will definitely stay here again.
Nightly Rate: $35.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: 52
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T
Camping at the Big Trees is a definite must do. We were able to book a great site last minute. Campground has clean restrooms and lots of shade. We had booked two nights at site 4 in the north grove campground and a 3rd night for site 43. We had to cancel the last night due to the site being terribly sloped and uneven. Many sites marked for trailers and rvs weren't suitable. I would recommend looking in the first loop for a trailer site. All are paved and level.
Other than the site issues, we loved it there. And the trees? Amazing.
Nightly Rate: $33.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: 4
RV Length: 25 ft
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T 4G
We Had a blast at Big Trees sp. We are weekend warriors so we almost always pack in on Friday evenings which is fine, but pulling 30ft of 5th wheel through the old dim lit park was a bit of a challenge. The pads are kinda short and there were lots of trailers and really nice tow rigs sticking out which only added to the stress of pulling through the upper park.
We were in spot 114 which is very level, but the approach to park your trailer is on a pretty steep slope. We ended up pulling past the site going up hill and then rolling back down and wrapping the rig around a huge red wood. The overall size of our site was huge and the kids loved it. Trees/creeks/trails all around us. ALL of our neighbors were very respectful and very quiet.
The overall experience of big trees in awesome. We will defiantly be coming back again
Nightly Rate: $33.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: 114
RV Length: 35 ft
RV Type: Fifth Wheel
Site: Very unlevel
Bathroom: Directly behind site. Coin-operated showers.
Bears: Bear boxes provided.
Elevation: 4628
Occupancy: Two vehicles and eight people. Overflow parking available.
Hookups: None, but a dump station is free with camping fee.
Pets: Allowed in the campground, fire road and paved roads, but not on trails. Must be contained at night in tent or vehicle and must not be left unattended.
Generators: Allowed 10 am to 8 pm.
Check in: Walk up, would not allow check in from the car.
Nightly Rate: $35.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 10
RV Length: 17 ft
RV Type: Travel Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon
I almost don't want to say what site we stayed in as we want it to be available for us next year. We went down with friends who stayed in the site next to us -- if we were strangers I'd say the sites were too close. But being with friends it was nice and cozy. It was a perfect spot as the two sites are set back off the main campground road with no sites behind them. This gave our kids the run of the forest, which was all we had behind us. Plus there was a steam behind us that the kids had a ball playing in. Note: if you have kids, they will get muddy! But isn't that what camping for a kid is supposed to be? The one negative is you can see glimpses through the trees (and hear) Hwy 4. Any traffic noise was intermittent and became non-existent after about 7:00pm. But with all of the pluses to this site, we didn't care (and I usually HATE any sign/sound of civilization when camping).
The town of Arnold, with a great coffee shop (Bistro Espresso) that also has hand-scooped ice cream and yummy food, gas stations, market, Ace Hardware, a good burger joint (Giant Burger), and cell service! (2 bars LTE on Verizon) is only 11 minutes away.
30 minutes away is Moaning Caverns, which is a must-do for the 45 minute tour at only $20/adult. About 40 minutes away is Mercer Caverns which we plan to see next time we camp here.
White Pines Lake is open to the public and is also in Arnold. The town of Murphys, with its historic Main Street filled with shops and restaurants, is 30 or so minutes away. And 40 minutes away is beautiful Lake Alpine.
Nightly Rate: $35.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: NG31
RV Length: 22 ft
RV Type: Travel Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon
Spot 2 in the North Grove campground is near Hwy 4. You can hear the highway traffic from that spot. Look at the Park map and try to get a spot on the other side of the park away from the Hwy.
Nightly Rate: -
Days Stayed: 4
Site Number: 2
RV Length: 27 ft
RV Type: Travel Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon
AT&T
The Oak Hollow campground area of this park is a few miles further into the park from the "main" North Grove campground and is way far away from the noisy traffic of Highway 4 and the deluge of day visitors at the Visitor Center and the North Grove of trees. Our 21-foot long campervan required no levelling at our site #109 which had plenty of room for our 2nd vehicle plus two tents. Walking the 2-mile long South Grove tree trail near the visitr center is easy for little ones. But, get away from the crowds and hike the longer North Grove trail or the Bradley Grove trail and take a dip in Beaver Creek after your hike! NO cell service at Oak Hollow. Wi-fi at the visitor center is good. Dump station is near the visitor center and available at no extra fee
Nightly Rate: $33.00
Days Stayed: 4
Site Number: 109
RV Length: 21 ft
RV Type: Class B
I did not stay here, but can’t wait to! I came up here from Angels Camp to get out of the heat. This is a lovely and well-maintained campground with plenty to do in the area. Bathrooms and showers were clean and sites were spacious. Do some of the hikes/walks to Sequoias and the drive to the Stanislaus River. NO CELLULAR SERVICE! Rangers were super nice and really helpful. NO DOGS ON TRAILS! Wine tasting down the road in Murphys was so much fun!
Nightly Rate: -
Days Stayed: 0
Site Number: -
RV Length: 17 ft
RV Type: Teardrop Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
AT&T
Beautiful park! Stayed in North Grove, sites 3 and 4 very unlevel but glad we stayed there for access to the sequoias. Anywhere in North Grove is an easy 5-10 minute walk to the grove. Dogs not allowed on the trails but there’s plenty of nice spaces in the campground to walk them.
Dry camping, okay space between sites in the first loop. Quiet during the week in early June, the pass over the Sierras wasn’t open yet.
If you must have internet access and have an inverter, sites 8 and 9 MIGHT be able to work for Starlink, as they open onto a nice meadow. Or maybe the sites in the 60’s backing up to the meadow on the other side of the creek. Didn’t work in site 3.
Nightly Rate: $38.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 3
RV Length: 25 ft
RV Type: Class C
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Calaveras Big Trees State Park
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Affiliation
- State park or forest
- Back In RV Sites Count
- 12
- Last Nightly Rate
- 35.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 35 ft
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 33.0
- Max Length
- 30 ft
- Max Stay
- 15
- Season End
- November
- Season Start
- March
- Sites Count
- 129
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Paved Sites
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Fifty Amp
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Full Hookup
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Rec Facilities
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Pull Through
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Tent Sites
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Back In RV Sites
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Potable Water
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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Reservations
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Sites
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Slide Outs
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Standard Tent Sites
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Vehicle Wash Permitted
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Water Hookup
Campground, Restrooms
Nearby Hotels
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