Oak Knoll Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 49All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Oak Knoll Campground sits along New Hogan Lake in the brush-covered foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating is a popular pastime, with boat ramps conveniently located around the lake. The large surface area allows for plenty of water skiing, wake boarding, jet skiing and more. Year-round fishing for stripers, bass, crappie, bluegill and catfish is perfect for experts and beginners alike. Some of the largest fish are found in less than 25 feet of water. The "River of Skulls" hiking trail is located below the dam at the Monte Vista Recreation Area. There is also a staging area for an eight mile equestrian trail on a scenic loop that winds along the lake and through the foothill chaparral. Trail guides are available at the park office. Bicycle trails suitable for the beginner as well as the advanced rider are found on the west side of the lake and next to the group camping area. An easy 3-mile trail connects the park office with Acorn Campground. Hunting with bow or shotgun during the open season is permitted in certain areas of the lake. Upland game such as turkey, quail and dove is available and waterfowl includes a variety of duck and geese.
Facilities
Oak Knoll Campground offers a relatively primitive camping experience, but does provide plenty of space at its 49 campsites.
Natural Features
The 4,400 surface-acre lake was created in 1964 with the completion of New Hogan Dam. When full, the lake has 50 miles of shoreline and extends nearly eight miles upstream to the confluence of the north and south forks of the Calaveras River. The dam was built to provide flood protection to the city of Stockton and water for irrigation, drinking and hydroelectric power, and it now offers recreation opportunities for thousands of visitors each year. The New Hogan area supports a wide variety of wildlife. The foothills location is home to grey fox, mule deer, coyote, turkey, mountain lion, bobcat and rattlesnakes. New Hogan is also a wintering home for bald eagles. The south shore of the lake has been designated as a wildlife viewing area.
Nearby Attractions
A number of historic sites are located nearby, including Carson Hill, the discovery site of the largest gold nugget ever found, and The Black Bart Inn, located in San Andreas, where the famous outlaw Black Bart was captured. Groceries, gas, camping supplies and more can be found in the nearby town of Valley Springs, California.
What the agency tells you
Site driveways are asphalt paved and may not be level. There is no guarantee of sites having level driveways. Please bring ample leveling equipment for RV's and trailers. All RV's and trailers must face the direction of travel on the road.
All equipment must fit on the site pad. Vehicles parked in designated parking locations only.
Gates are open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Check-in time is 3:00pm, check-out time is 2:00pm
Two vehicles permitted per campsite. Extra vehicles are subject to an additional fee.
Maximum of two dogs per campsite. Dogs must remain on leash and under control at all times. Dogs may not be left in camp unattended, and all leads must be 6 feet in length or less.
Generator use is permitted only during daytime hours. All generators must be turned off prior to 10:00 pm and cannot be turned back on until 8:00 am. Any abnormally loud generators that disrupt neighboring areas will not be allowed.
No electric, water or sewer hookups at this facility. Drinking water is provided through spigots.
Dump stations are available only during the peak recreation season. Off season availability is subject to funding.
All trash must be removed from your site upon departure.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 49 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Paved pads
- 32 of 49
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 1060th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
49 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 49 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 49 of the 49 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 49 of the 49 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1-6 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 78 ft | 825 ftNew Hogan Lake | 228 ft | $20 |
| 1-6 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 78 ft | 746 ftNew Hogan Lake | 189 ft | $20 |
| 1-6 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 87 ft | 666 ftNew Hogan Lake | 113 ft | $20 |
| 1-6 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 539 ftNew Hogan Lake | 150 ft | $20 |
| 1-6 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 67 ft | 483 ftNew Hogan Lake | 157 ft | $20 |
| 1-6 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 67 ft | 434 ftNew Hogan Lake | 190 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 034 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 60 ft | 563 ftNew Hogan Lake | 151 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 035 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 47 ft | 577 ftNew Hogan Lake | 168 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 036 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 47 ft | 624 ftNew Hogan Lake | 135 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 037 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 65 ft | 688 ftNew Hogan Lake | 94 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 038 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 795 ftNew Hogan Lake | 101 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 811 ftNew Hogan Lake | 98 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 040 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 100 ft | 692 ftNew Hogan Lake | 86 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 041 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 60 ft | 610 ftNew Hogan Lake | 105 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 042 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 116 ft | 507 ftNew Hogan Lake | 227 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 043 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 116 ft | 495 ftNew Hogan Lake | 123 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 044 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 89 ft | 374 ftNew Hogan Lake | 94 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 045 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 330 ftNew Hogan Lake | 108 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 046 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 306 ftNew Hogan Lake | 152 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 047 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 102 ft | 222 ftNew Hogan Lake | 281 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 048 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 148 ft | 344 ftNew Hogan Lake | 81 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 049 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 102 ft | 199 ftNew Hogan Lake | 242 ft | $20 |
| 50 | 050 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 148 ft | 235 ftNew Hogan Lake | 80 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 669 ftNew Hogan Lake | 352 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 690 ftNew Hogan Lake | 398 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 82 ft | 739 ftNew Hogan Lake | 323 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 164 ft | 812 ftNew Hogan Lake | 222 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 103 ft | 846 ftNew Hogan Lake | 173 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 103 ft | 843 ftNew Hogan Lake | 204 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 102 ft | 649 ftNew Hogan Lake | 74 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 108 ft | 553 ftNew Hogan Lake | 157 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 102 ft | 549 ftNew Hogan Lake | 135 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 448 ftNew Hogan Lake | 229 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 93 ft | 463 ftNew Hogan Lake | 265 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 390 ftNew Hogan Lake | 287 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 476 ftNew Hogan Lake | 330 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 487 ftNew Hogan Lake | 355 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 42 ft | 506 ftNew Hogan Lake | 423 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 023 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 42 ft | 474 ftNew Hogan Lake | 422 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 024 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 516 ftNew Hogan Lake | 372 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 554 ftNew Hogan Lake | 320 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 464 ftNew Hogan Lake | 273 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 027 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 36 ft | 426 ftNew Hogan Lake | 264 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 028 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 36 ft | 400 ftNew Hogan Lake | 264 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 029 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 357 ftNew Hogan Lake | 281 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 030 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 351 ftNew Hogan Lake | 306 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 031 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 400 ftNew Hogan Lake | 264 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 436 ftNew Hogan Lake | 277 ft | $20 |
| 8-33 | 033 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 378 ftNew Hogan Lake | 260 ft | $20 |
25 of 49 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Acorn Campground0.5 mi
Deer Flat Boat In Campground2.0 mi
Coyote Point14 mi
Glory Hole Recreation Area19 mi
Tuttletown Recreation Area21 mi
Horseshoe Road Recreation Area26 miFrom Stockton California, take Highway 26 east for 30 miles. Turn right on Hogan Dam Road and continue for a mile, then follow signs to the campground.
Park Headquarters:
2713 Hogan Dam Road
Valley Springs, CA 95252
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Valley Springs, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 54°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 40°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Oak Knoll Campground is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →