By:
Submission
The park is on Highway 160 a few miles south of the city of Rio Vista in Sacramento County. The park is located on the lower peninsular extension of Brannan Island, and is surrounded by the Sacramento River on the west, Three Mile Slough on the southeast, and Seven Mile Slough on the northeast.
We liked going over the hydraulic lift up bridge almost as much as the Island. There is a lot of history here of you care to look it up.
Well managed park, many spots have shade, some back on to the slough so if you are okay scrambling down a steep 15-foot drop at low tide, you can have your own beach. Also, lots of places to fish and a paved walking loop around the island.
Unfortunately the over night boat slips are out of commission for the foreseeable future, although the launch area is huge and very well maintained. If you bring your boat, you will either need to pull it out at night or anchor it in the slough.
When we went there, midweek in July 2023, we basically had the park to ourselves - only about 10 sites out of 100+ had campers. Note, this is a pack-in/pack-out park; there is communal water, clean toilets, but no garbage cans.
Sites farther from the entrance have less bridge and road noise, and barking dog that the camp manager has tied outside all day long.
Nice safe and easy spot for Sac city slickers to get too. Bathrooms are well maintained, lit, w hot water, and not a cobweb in sight. Staff drives by every few hrs at night to make sure everything is in good order. The only place I've camped where I didn't have to worry about bears, scorpions, venomous snakes, or predatory cats. After boondocking undeveloped BLM sites, this was like staying at the Bellagio. -1 star for fishing pier being broken. The paved trail is too short for me but if you have children under 10ish it's a nice little adventure that takes like 45mins to bike.
Really expensive place for a campground. Some reason you only get one car included for your campsite even if it's a big one, so expect to pay more for just parking.
If you still decide to come, don't buy firewood there as it's also quite expensive and the bundle they give is tiny. Also, half the restrooms were out of order. Some of the sites were not well maintained. We got unlucky and had to ask for a different campsite. If they're going to charge $100+ for a weekend of camping, I would expect much better.
The plus side is that it's close to a river so you can have a fun day on the water (bring your own stuff or else expect to pay more).
The park was a bit run down, but it was close to the river and has a 3 mile walking trail that will be really nice when it's all cleaned up. We loved listening to the live music by Lee Dove, one of the camp hosts. He was the best! The bathrooms/showers only had cold water. This would be a great place to camp with a bit of TLC.
