Camping near Bass Lake, California

Camping amidst tall green trees is great. What makes it even better is camping by a beautiful lake surrounded by tall green trees :) We did exactly that for the Memorial Day long weekend with friends and what an active weekend it was! Bass Lake is nearly 5-miles long and is referred to as 'mini-Tahoe'. It has several water sports and is only 30 minutes from Yosemite National Park's south entrance, making it a great destination for water activities as well as hiking.

Our campsites in the Forks Campground had an amazing lake view (campsites 27, 28). Forks Campground is located on a hill side overlooking the Bass Lake and is forested with cedar, ponderosa pine and oak trees. The campsites are relatively small (quite common in California) but it is very well maintained and has an attentive host. I would definitely recommend this campground but would only pitch one tent per campsite to leave enough room to freely move around. Also, the inner campsites have shade but they do not have the lake view.

Sunset View from our campsite
With lake on one side and forest on the other, we couldn't have asked for better views.

Forest view on the other side
Our weekend started with a foggy morning and super chilly night but it gradually warmed up over the next couple of days.

Sunrise on a foggy morning to our right
We spent our Saturday morning touring the Bass Lake while racing on our jet ski and loved the cool breeze on our faces. We spent the evening kayaking at a relaxing pace and enjoyed the lake views in peace. There were several other options such as boating, fishing, wake surfing etc.


Our campground has a store and a marina but has limited options in terms of fleet and rental hours, so we rented both Jet Ski and kayak at Miller's landing resort which is 2 miles from our  campground. It had a good fleet, reasonable prices and an easy rental process. Miller's landing resort also has hot showers ($4 for 5 minutes), cafe, store and cabin rentals.

Forks Resort Marina
Trail near our campsite
We spent our Sunday hiking in Yosemite Valley which is about 50 miles from our campground. We visited Bridal Veil Falls and then hiked about 6 miles with great views of the majestic El Capitan. Unless you start very early, you would end up spending 3+ hours driving in heavy traffic into the Valley on a long weekend like we did which limits the time spent in the Park. 

Our gang
Overall, it was a great location (with great views of the Bass lake) at a convenient distance (about 3 hours from San Jose) with good amenities (such as clean flush toilets and paid showers at 2 miles distance) and several activities (such as water sports and hiking). We would definitely camp here again. So should you! Happy camping this summer :)

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