AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Lake Don Pedro is a Sierra Nevada foothills escape built around a vast, sun-baked reservoir in Mariposa and Tuolumne counties. With some 160 miles of shoreline and up to nearly 13,000 surface acres of water, it is the kind of place where you load the boat in the morning and don't think about the clock until the light turns gold. Boating, fishing, swimming, water-skiing and houseboating anchor the experience, backed by three developed campgrounds, two full-service marinas and a string of primitive boat-in campsites along the shore.↗↗
Set due east of Modesto in rolling oak country, the lake also offers a quiet, scenic dimension: spring wildflowers blanket the foothills and the dam face, bald and golden eagles, osprey and raptors circle overhead, and Moccasin Creek's cool water brings trout, wading and birdwatching to the east shore. It is a recreation area shaped as much by the Tuolumne River's water and flood-control work as by leisure, with more than 14 million visitors drawn here since 1971.↗↗
A working reservoir turned playground
The water here does double duty. Behind Don Pedro Dam, which rises 580 feet above the Tuolumne River, the reservoir supplies irrigation for the farmlands of the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts, generates power, helps feed the City of Modesto's drinking supply, and provides flood control for California's Central Valley. Recreation rides on top of all that: at its fullest the lake sits at 830 feet above sea level, and its broad, branching arms are what make a day out here feel like open country.
