Shadow Bay

We had a lovely time at Waldo Lake. Kudos to the camp hosts! Our campsite by the lake was beautiful; everything was clean and well-maintained, including the toilets. The recreation.gov registration is very confusing and inaccurate as to availability of sites so getting settled into the correct site when we arrived was a problem. Sites listed as first-come, first served were actually reservation only. If we had been able to reserve the site for our first night, we would have, since we did have it reserved for the following two nights. Ridiculous and annoying, but it all worked out OK.

The camp was nice, there was smoke from fires in the area. Lots and lots of deadfall that was cut and left in the forest, no wonder there were fires.

This is not a reviews of the Shadow Bay Campground which, under normal circumstances would be quite nice. But when we arrived, the wildfire smoke was so thick and visibility across the lake was so poor that we simply turned around and drove back home instead of staying.

There was no water and no warning that the well was dry. We would've still gone, but we would've prepared better had we known there wouldn't be any water to pump.

Shadow Bay on Waldo Lake is our favorite place to go. Happy this year with fewer mosquitoes than usual during our stay.
We missed our campfire but understand the need for the ban in this dry year. It was scary having those camping across from us ignoring the ban.
The camp hosts were wonderful. They are very friendly and kept the sites and restrooms clean and tidy.
It’s very unfortunate that the department is not doing something to improve the workings of the restrooms or converting to a different system. There are times that the stench is so bad, I wish I had a gas mask.
Last year prior to our trip, we were warned that there was no water available, and were given a partial refund after our trip. However this year we were not informed. We were fortunate to have carried water with us. However some were not as fortunate. We had been warned about the burn ban in advance.
We will continue going to Waldo Lake for its beauty and lovely kayaking opportunity. It is hopeful that water will be restored and the restrooms improved soon.

Hosts amazing. Always out of their way to keep everything running smoothly

Great fantastic place. The ONLY downside was too many mosquitoes!

Had the hardest time finding a reservation for three nights, midweek. When we arrived, only 2 out of the six loops had people in them. Loops A,B,C,D were empty. Lots of mosquitoes. The lake was beautiful and had easy access to it from little trails in the campgrounds. The toilets were clean, but burnt your eyes with the smell of ammonia. Incredibly clean campground and lake. Ended up relocating to North Waldo Campground were there were fewer mosquitoes. Half of the sites at North Waldo Campground are first come, first serve. Very quiet, beautiful view of the stars, and immaculately clean. It was a delight to go swimming in such clear water. Kayaked in the mornings. Swam in the afternoons when the winds picked up. Love this lake.

The mosquitoes were the worst I’ve ever seen we couldn’t stay. This was the first campground I didn’t stay at because of mosquitoes. The car was covered as soon as we pulled up and got bites all over my body within 2 minutes of standing outside with bug spray on. I was out $51 ish after having booked 2 nights at this campground.

This is a difficult location to travel to. There are no pictures of campsites, very little information on the website. The campsite we reserved had a fallen tree in the middle of it which rendered the site nearly useless. The mosquitoes are insane. (That is not anyone’s fault). However there is not enough information online to prepare. The camp host was no where to be found for two days. We finally just left.