Pass Creek Campground, Nevada City, CA

Pass Creek Campground is located in the Sierraville Ranger District, Tahoe National Forest (1 hr 37 min west of Reno, NV) with an elevation of 6,055 feet. There are a total of 30 campsites. The campground is normally open from the beginning of August to mid October. Sites can accommodate RVs and trailers between 18 and 50 feet. All sites are currently reservable. Reservations can be booked up to 6 months in advance. Each site includes a picnic table and fire ring. There is a fee of $24.00 per night. Some amenities include dump station, boat ramp, swimming, flush toilets. Activities include biking, boating, fishing, hiking trails, floating sports.

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Campsite Reviews (46)

4.2 out of 5

5 star		54%
4 star		22%
3 star		11%
2 star		9%
1 star		2%

@KirkM5140167 · Camped on Sep 3, 2024 at Campsite #27

The campground is fine. The problem is with Recreation .gov. The campground did not have potable water due to a pipe break caused by nearby logging operations. So, hydrants were not operational as well as bathrooms with sinks and flush toilets. They do not post this information when making a reservation. If you cancel the reservation upon learning of the campground issues, you will still surrender a healthy portion of your reservation fee. I would suggest that people contact Nevada Irrigation district for information on the campground prior to making a reservation.

@MaryL7701176 · Camped on Aug 25, 2024 at Campsite #25

I am woman who was solo tent camping. I felt safe. The campground and permanent restrooms were clean. As usual the blue porta potties were yucky! The bushes worked well for my needs at night. The fresh water had been shut off! Yikes! I did not come prepared for that! I should have been informed before arrival. The lake was great and and the sunset gorgeous!

@CheyenneG3D4FE · Camped on Jul 26, 2024 at Campsite #27

Nice campground. Beautiful lake. Cant wait to go back!

@JasonN9654820 · Camped on Jul 25, 2024 at Campsite #6

This is a special location

@LizC1438969 · Camped on Jul 20, 2024 at Campsite #2

Close to the lake, quiet, spacious campsites!

@RichH4886792 · Camped on Jul 19, 2024 at Campsite #26

clean and beautiful the whole time

@JeremyB2902799 · Camped on Aug 25, 2023 at Campsite #12

Great, quiet, serene campsite. Site 12 and its surrounding is fully shaded but a little hilly.

@DavidR6871281 · Camped on Aug 21, 2023 at Campsite #19

This camp ground was very nice bathrooms were clean and the camp site are good for smaller trucks and small boats fishing was good and the rain did not bother us as we were able to have a camp fire as others did das well

@RonaldG6254276 · Camped on Aug 4, 2023 at Campsite #28

Great little campground! Not as large as East Meadows across Pass Creek, and that's a good thing. Felt quieter, sites are equally as large (though driveways are on average a bit shorter). Wouldn't recommend Class A in the campground proper, but there is an overflow area where folks set up with their Class A's and Toy Haulers. Bugs were present but manageable as of an early August 2023 visit.

@DustinC7739352 · Camped on Jul 16, 2023 at Campsite #21

Pass Creek is a bit hit/miss when it comes to sites. Some are really nice, while some sites are not great at all. Some of the sites are even setup backwards, meaning couldn't back a trailer into them at all. (site 21 is a great example of this). In July 2023 there was a LOT of leftover dead branches and twigs covering almost every part of the ground. It would have been awesome to have that stuff raked out, especially around the fire pits. The table area in site 22 was on a hill and definitely not level. If you have a trailer, take serious note of the size of your particular site. You would never get a trailer and a vehicle to fit in sites 20/22. But other sites are pretty deep. Location wise, Pass Creek is great. It's a close walk to the boat ramp and beach. Bathrooms have real flushing toilets. Sinks were kinda broken and the women's room had several BLACK WIDOWS living in the restroom! With a little bit of effort put into maintenance, Pass Creek could be amazing. It just felt like other than chopping down a few trees, they aren't really keeping up on maintenance.

@CindyS1337188 · Camped on Oct 6, 2022 at Campsite #9

Love this place. End of the season so water was not potable but it was peaceful, there is no cell service ( bonus)!!! beautiful lake and adjacent to PCT for hiking

@EdwardB9523394 · Camped on Sep 29, 2022 at Campsite #20

Pleasant campground, but site #21 has no flat spot for a tent.

@DavidE7840041 · Camped on Sep 23, 2022 at Campsite #12

Cleaned and nice weather

@MichaelH990269 · Camped on Sep 21, 2022 at Campsite #6

Mike the camp host was excellent. Location is fantastic.

@KathyC9607069 · Camped on Sep 16, 2022 at Campsite #1

Mike is the best camp host! Very accommodating, friendly and helpful. Nice spaces, just wish we had cell service

@RondaS4004316 · Camped on Aug 21, 2022 at Campsite #14

Very clean Campground

@LauraAnn519537 · Camped on Aug 21, 2022 at Campsite #16

The campground is at elevation 6,200 ft, in a dense Ponderosa Pine forest, so it's a good place to escape extreme summer heat if you live in the Central Valley. It's a small campground with just 1 loop, so it's easy to find your campsite even if you arrive after nightfall. There is a boat launch just down the hill within easy walking distance, with very nice swimming beaches along the shoreline. The water temperature in the lake reaches a maximum of about 72°F in late summer. Restrooms have running water and flush toilets, but no electricity, so it's pitch dark on moonless nights; be sure you bring a flashlight. The large, open area of the boat launch offers excellent stargazing and a great view of the Milky Way. It's a good site for astrophography on moonless nights, with very low light pollution. The campsite pads are all paved, and enough water spigots that you never have to walk more than a couple hundred feet to get water. There is an RV dump station across the road from the entrance driveway ($20 fee). There was lots of down wood (mostly tree branches) just lying around everywhere for making a campfire. The nearest large town is Truckee, about an hour drive each way, so try to make sure you don't forget anything important, as there's no where close to buy anything you might have forgotten or need more of, like fuel or food. It's a really nice campground, and I know I'll be back. Just be sure your vehicle's tires are all on pavement - the Ranger can cite you if your vehicle has a tire off pavement on the dirt.

@ClaireP4282957 · Camped on Aug 9, 2022 at Campsite #1

Beautiful campsite. Great facilities. Love riding or walking to the dam (about a mile) and watching the water shooting out of the hill - it's pretty amazing. Star gazing is fantastic if you walk down from the campground to the boat dock after dark. My favorite camping spot.

@JenniferR98687 · Camped on Jul 2, 2022 at Campsite #16

Take a pass on Pass Creek. We drove past through this campground on a recon mission looking for nice places to camp. What appealed to us was the relative remoteness, so we (mistakenly) thought this would be a quiet campground. We did violate our own rule of not camping somewhere that allowed motorboats so shame on us, but we figured the location looked quiet enough. The clientele of this campground is a little shady. Dogs wandered the campground unleashed and partiers stayed up partying loudly until all hours of morning. Many campers also created a 4th of July parade, which could have been *quaint* except it wasn't - at 9:30 at night. Additionally, throwing candy?? Great for your Main Street USA July 4 celebration but not in the forest. Now, I understand that campgrounds can be hit-or-miss and the campers here were likely a rowdier bunch being that it was a holiday weekend, but I think this was all facilitated by the fact that there is no on-site camphosts. Nice enough guy, and we only saw him on day one (so stock up on firewood if/when he comes around because you're likely not going to get topped off during your stay), but he really turned a blind eye to people exploiting the 2-week stay rule, I think there were people who were living in the overflow camping parking lot for probably the bulk of the summer. The campsite itself was pretty. The bathrooms had major issues that were known to whatever agency and according to the camp host, were not going to be fixed. All in all, if you want to go, I'd go during a quieter time but not in the midst of summer. There are much better places to camp in this area.

@ThomasL330 · Camped on Sep 24, 2021 at Campsite #29

Always a great visit several times a year Great camp host at Pass Creek always very helpful

@MARKW501 · Camped on Sep 23, 2021 at Campsite #7

It is always a great experience at bat Creek

@TamaraP628 · Camped on Aug 20, 2021 at Campsite #25

Host was great, smoke was bad but overall was a beautiful campground.

@DennisM363 · Camped on Aug 12, 2021 at Campsite #16

NO WATER ONLY ONE PORTA POTTY for the two bathrooms that where close by my site

@KirkM573 · Camped on Aug 9, 2021 at Campsite #27

I like this campground, and have been going there for years. This time I arrived to find lake level extremely low, creeks dried up. smoky skies, and no potable water. These things are really out of anyone's control, however, an email notification regarding the lack of potable water would have been nice so that one could plan accordingly.

@PaulaH162 · Camped on Jul 30, 2021 at Campsite #1

The camp host was very nice and so helpful, thanks Larry

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