Valley Oak Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Valley Oak Campground is part of the park system scattered along the lower Stanislaus River within the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The environmental campground boasts quiet, peaceful tent sites situated next to the river’s edge. The scenic recreation areas and river access points are popular for activities such as rafting, picnicking, hiking and much more. Stanislaus River Parks is often referred to as the “string of pearls” since they serve as charming, quiet oasis running through a number of small towns and cities. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground offers an excellent base camp for exciting recreation opportunities. The park boasts walking and hiking trails, picnic areas and river access points for fishing and boating.
Facilities
Valley Oak Recreation Area Campground is one of three reservable campgrounds in Stanislaus River Parks’ system. Its primitive amenities include vault toilets and non-potable water near the campsites. Each campsite contains a picnic table, fire ring, and a lantern holder. Campers park their vehicles in the front lot and walk approximately one-quarter (1/4) mile to their campsites.
Natural Features
The campground scenery is a pleasant mix of Fremont cottonwoods, Valley Oak and the occasional elderberry bush, offering excellent shade with dispersed rays of sunshine. Nearby, grasses, shrubs and seasonal wildflowers fill the open spaces. Wildlife is also plentiful in the park with mule deer, acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, foxes and squirrels among lots of other fauna.
Nearby Attractions
Within a short 15 min drive, campers can explore the historic town of Knights Ferry, rich with history of the gold rush era. Within the historic district, lies Knights Ferry Recreation Area, home to the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi River and a National Historic Landmark dedicated in 2014. The park boasts walking and hiking trails, picnic areas and river access points. Visitors can learn about the area when they visit the Knights Ferry Visitors Center, which contains a small museum highlighting local, natural, and cultural resources. Visitors have a unique opportunity to make reservations with local rafting companies to journey down the Stanislaus River. During the summer months, rafters can enjoy guided and self-guided floats down the lower Stanislaus River. For thrill seekers, the fall season brings perfect flows for advanced white water in the Goodwin Canyon. Fall also brings thousands of Chinook salmon returning to the Stanislaus River to spawn, completing and beginning their lifecycles. Onlookers, can view the spawning salmon from several river access points along the river.
Charges & Cancellations
Contact Recreation.gov for changes or cancellations.
What the agency tells you
Check-In/Check-Out: Check-In: 1:00 PM Latest Check-In: 6:00 PM in April and 7:00 PM May-September Check-Out: 12:00 PM Cancellation and Refund Policies: Contact Recreation.gov for changes or cancellations. General: 1. Use of all project and recreation facilities is at your own risk, and pursuant to your agreement to abide by all rules and regulations listed under the Code of Federal Regulations - Title 36. 2. USACE reserves the right to evict any person(s) who does not comply with the rules and regulations. 3. Maintenance on and/or washing of vehicles on property is not permitted. 4. All campsites are to be kept neat and clean for the duration of your stay. 5. Collecting or gathering dead, and downed firewood is permitted. Cutting of any trees which are not dead and downed is not permitted. 6. There are several unique animals and insect species native to this area. For your own safety, please don't approach, feed, or disturb wildlife. 7. DO NOT leave trash out overnight. Trash must be placed in dumpsters upon checking out. Campsites left with excessive trash may be subject to a $180 citation to the registered camper. 8. Parks close promptly at posted closure hours. Campers can exit over spike strip after closing for emergencies, but cannot re-enter until the park gate opens at 6:00 a.m. 9. The maximum stay is 14 nights within a 30-day rolling cycle. Campsite Information: 1. Recreation.gov confirmation must be presented to a Park Host or Ranger Staff during check-in to receive parking passes. 2. Individual campsites are limited to two (2) tents, and two (2) vehicle passes. 3. Group campsite is limited to five (5) tents, and six (6) vehicle passes. 4. Maximum overnight occupancy is six (6) people for individual campsites and twenty-five (25) people for the group campsite. 5. No vehicle access to campsites - no exceptions. Parking area is approximately 0.25 miles from furthest campsite. Recommended to bring wagons. Quiet Hours: 1. Quiet Hours are from 10:00 PM – 6:00 AM. 2. Please be courteous to other guests around you. 3. Excessively loud music or objectionable noise is not allowed at any time. 4. Profanity or violence towards other guests, USACE staff, or partners may result in immediate eviction from the park. 5. Generators are PROHIBITED during quiet hours. Pet Policy: 1. Pets must be kept on a leash and under immediate control at all times. 2. Guests are responsible to “clean up” after their pets. 3. USACE is not responsible for and will hold accountable pet owners for any injuries or damage(s) caused by pet(s). Safety: 1. Please wear a life jacket while recreating on, in, or around water. Free loaner life jackets are available at several points around water access areas. Please return them after use. 2. The possession and/or use of firearms of any kind is PROHIBITED. 3. The use of archery, paintball, slingshots or air guns is PROHIBITED. 4. Fireworks, firecrackers, rockets, or tother explosives of any kind are PROHIBITED. 5. Use or illegal drugs, including THC products, is PROHIBITED. 6. Wood campfires are allowed in appropriate fire rings and other containments depending on wind, weather, and local fire conditions. Propane fire pits are allowed year-round. Fire restriction signage will be posted at park entrances. 7. Vehicles may park in designated areas only. No vehicles may block any portion of roadway or maintenance access. Vandalism of any kind by anyone in your group (regardless of age) may result in eviction from the Park.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 11 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 11 of 11 campsite records
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Rafting
- Water access
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 · 15
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.
“Contact Recreation.gov for changes or cancellations.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 sites
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| 01 | tent only nonelectric | 48 ft | 67 ft |
| 02 | tent only nonelectric | 48 ft | 91 ft |
| 03 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 78 ft |
| 04 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 97 ft |
| 05 | tent only nonelectric | 51 ft | 95 ft |
| 06 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 158 ft |
| 07 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 203 ft |
| 08 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 241 ft |
| 09 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 208 ft |
| 10 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 163 ft |
| 11 (GROUP WALK TO) | group tent only area nonelectric | 74 ft | 164 ft |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Horseshoe Road Recreation Area5.4 mi
McHenry Avenue Recreation Area11 mi
Coyote Point14 mi
Glory Hole Recreation Area21 mi
Tuttletown Recreation Area21 mi
Deer Flat Boat In Campground26 miFrom Oakdale, California, take CA-120 W/N Yosemite Avenue northwest. In 1.3 miles, Turn right on Rodden Road and continue for approximately 5.4 miles, then turn right into Valley Oak Recreation Area. Proceed past the park entrance until you reach the parking lot.
From Sonora, California, take CA-108 West. In approximately 30 miles turn right on Landcaster Road. In 1.7 miles, turn right on to Orange Blossom Road. In 0.6 Miles turn left onto Rodden Road. Continue on Rodden Road for 2.5 Miles and then turn left into Valley Oak Recreation Area. Proceed past the park entrance until you reach the parking lot.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for East Oakdale, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 79°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 39°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
Valley Oak Recreation Area 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 →