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Submission
Glory Hole Recreation Area is located at New Melones Lake on the Stanislaus River. The 12,500 surface-acre lake is the fourth largest reservoir in California and is situated along the edge of the Mother Lode, the rich gold vein that prompted the California Gold Rush of 1849. At an elevation of 1100 feet, the diverse and resource-abundant Foothill Oak Woodlands hug the 100 miles of shoreline. Popular activities on and around the large, yet uncrowded lake include fishing, boating, water skiing, wake boarding, jet skiing, sailing, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, wildlife viewing, rock climbing, hiking, biking, horseback riding and picknicking. The New Melones Visitor Center offers year-round interpretive events and a museum highlighting natural and cultural resources. New Melones Lake camping provides outstanding access to the Sierra Nevada.
Great place to bbq and jetski and chill with the family :)
We camped here over memorial day weekend 2019. Here are my notes:
- Each walk in site (#80 -89) has it's own table and fire pit.
- There is some tree cover for shade.
- Most of the sites are relatively small except for the first couple sites closest to the parking lot (80 - 81).
- For the smaller sites there is usually only room for 1 or 2 tents due to limited flat areas.
- you can walk to the water, but slopes are steep
- unless you get sites 80-83 expect to carry your stuff up to 100 yards.
- bathrooms are a decent walk away and in decent condition with showers.
Serious drought and major fires in California. So live and love it here.
We can recover life as we know it. 2021
We're tent campers, and this place, like so many now, is NOT very tent friendly. The sites are small, uneven, and often heavily sloped. We had to put our tents on the parking pad. Water may be a good walk from your site. Of the 2 restrooms on our spike, only the women's coin operated shower in one had hot water. They shut down all restrooms for about 24 hours because a raccoon got stuck in the pump! No warning, no signs - just locked up. Not ADA compliant. It was also very windy, destroying one tent and forcing us to take down our canopy. The lake was still very low after all the rain that filled most other reservoirs, but the boat ramps and marinas opened. Apparently there's a fly-in campground at the airport, too, so low flying small aircraft are around.
Nice, well maintained campground. Park Rangers make routine rounds. Water access is right down the hill from campsites100' or less. Not a lot of trees in the campsites, bring sunshades.
