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.

We chose this park to test out our solar system and really liked it. The lake was completely dry, but the campground is quite pretty. There are very few trees, so not much shade or privacy, but we selected a spot that had a nice view and didn't directly face a neighbor.

There are no hookups here, so come prepared. Access to the park is easy, even for bigger rigs. The first loop seems a little newer and more suitable for larger rigs. The bathrooms and showers are clean and private. You are far from a major highway, so it's pretty quiet at night. Our only complaint was that the winds blew so hard the entire time we were there that we couldn't sit outside for long. The winds died down the day we left. I guess the area is known for their wind, so just be aware.

We had a very strong AT&T LTE signal, I didn't try Verizon.

We really enjoyed this park and hope to return when we can enjoy being outside.

Hot showers, flush toilets, multiple water faucets, & a dump station - a great place to get recharged. Washoe Lake is surrounded by mountains on three sides, has lovely low bush foliage throughout, and its just ten minutes to Carson City. Carson City is a lovely small town - big enough to have all you need, and small enough that traffic is not an issue. Don't miss the Comma Cafe to catch up on all your internet needs.

The bushes are a great sound barrier. Barely heard a generator, and no way could hear I-580 (US 395).

We camp here when we're visiting family in Carson City. It's perfect for our needs: close to town and an escape into the outdoors for our after hours enjoyment. We're fine with dry camping and the showers are nice. The park doesn't take reservations so once you get a site, you're in for your max 7 day stay. That being said, we've never seen the park anywhere near full, even on weekends.

The view of the mountains is inspiring and the lake pretty although it is shallow and has been adversely affected by the drought. Be sure to take the hike up the eastern hills to the gazebo overlook. Carson City is known for its winds and this park is affected by them also. Davis Creek Regional Park on the west side of the valley might be a bit more protected if the wind is high.

Be sure to see the black and white stripe cows on the ranch by the southern freeway entrance. I just love them!

Loved this campground, just wish there was a longer stay limit than 7 nights. Easy access to Carson City and everything that offers. From my observation, the sites seemed very well spaced although not much in the way of privacy foliage and such. Each site has a ramada which helps if it gets really hot. It's a dry lake now and probably for the foreseeable future which really helps in getting a campsite if you are a non-boater. Lake Tahoe is an easy ~ 1 hour day trip. Easy access dump station.

We loved Carson City and our trips up to Lake Tahoe. As far as campgrounds to base these things out of, this place is pretty good. It's a basic dry campground, but the sites are well spaced and well cared for. They were updating the picnic table in all of the sites while we were there.
The showers were nice, but there are not many of them. There is water throughout the campground and a dump station at the entrance.
It is standard self pay rules: find a site, claim it, go pay for it. You can pay with a credit card at the main entrance however if you would like. We grabbed a site in Loop A, on the lake side so we had some nice unobstructed views of the mountains and sunset. The lake shore was harder to get to than expected - we hiked most of the way there, but the trail got pretty overgrown the closer to the water we got.
Definitely a well cared for place, and we give huge props to Nevada State Parks for keeping this nice campground affordable and in great shape.