Lake McClure - Barrett Cove Campground

This is a good campground. We had like 20-25 people in several tents hanging out at this campground. We had space for tables to have dinner Saturday night. The bathroom is not very good. They have two showers that are not kept well. There's enough toilets. The bathroom sucks, but you accept it when you go camping. The campground is fun to have a small village of people and you can walk around. Bring a flashlight and enough equipment. It's hard to get out into civilization around this campground. It works for Lake McClure life and good for summer camping trips. Fun times.

Barrett's Cove could be rated 5 stars easily...IF:They maintained the campgroundsMaintained the bathrooms a little betterHad the marina open at least half day all week long the two weeks during spring break.I have camped here the majority of my life at the exact same time every single year. The same campsite as well (besides the few times that we couldn't get it). This year was the first time that we arrived to campsite FULL of weeds. It wasn't maintained or manicured at all. We even reserved this spot, as it is our favorite. My family drove 3 hours to get here and couldn't even set up our campsite because it wasn't what I would consider camp-able compared to what I'm used to here and dangerous for the kids to even be around with the overgrown grass ( even covering the bench and picnic table)... and the obvious rise in rattlesnake sightings due to the weather heating up. They did get someone out there to cut the overgrown grass and weeds but it left us with pretty bad allergies after the fact. I wish someone cared about this place...because it's beautiful and awesome and I have amazing childhood memories from here...and hate to see it go downhill...Last year we had all kinds of shady characters driving through and sleeping in their cars at higher sites. Idk...just weird. The fishing and lake itself is wonderful right now! Born and raised in Merced but now live in nor cal surrounded by different lakes and the river... lake McClure has soooo much potential for so many great things!

Great camping and boating. Gets very hot in the summer. Lake is big and lots of good fishing to be had.

Campsite was cool, no wood fires was a bummer but understandable with the fire danger. The bathrooms were clearly not kept up regularly. The women's showers were covered in spider webs and grime. We got to see lots of deer and raccoons and a tarantula, which was fun for the kids.The lake water was a perfect temp this time of year, a little cold on the boat but nice with a sweater. There's nowhere "nice" to sit offshore so it's not the lake to lay down and sunbathe at lol. Perfect for boaters and fishers.One of the rangers we encountered was very rude and we felt a bit harassed. That was enough for my family to consider visiting other lakes next time.

Barret Cove is a decent campground. I like to come here in the off season (Spring-Fall) when it's not too hot. In the summer the lake is quite a walk away from the RV sites with hookups, and it gets too hot to not have hookups. There is a swimming pond, but it is usually packed with kids. It can also get pretty rowdy in the summer.They let you make camp fires in the off season, and this is a nice place to stay when the heat isn't a concern. The campsites are good size, and there is plenty of room to walk. There are plenty of full hookup sites.This campground is close to me, and I have stayed several times.One negative is the way they take reservations. They only reserve two weeks before, and there is no way to reserve online.

Water is back to normal! July 4th expected to be highest level in 5 years . Had a great time . The only thing is because lake is recovering from drought there is only 1 marina . And it's owner just got started this season and is having tough time stocking shelves with necessities. No propane tanks, tp charcoal etc and the time of this post

We had planned on camping with my parents at Woodward Reservoir but when they arrived there were no sites available (first come first served) Another person suggested Barrett Cove to my parents and even called for my parents and were able to get them a site. My mom then called them to get a site for us tomorrow through Monday. They said you can only make a reservation a week in advance and would not give us a site. My mom even said she would pay for it right then with her credit card, so they would get paid whether I show or not. They refused. What kind of company willingly refuses a customer. So in the long run my mom told them they would loose two sites in that case in that they would not come either. I would never do business with them. Too many nice campground in Nor Cal to put up with bologna like this.

We really like RV camping at this Lake. We like L-Loop the best at Barret Cove, but not all sites are full-hook up. M-Loop is not too bad either, but not too close to the water. We will definitely keep returning to camp at this Lake, Experimenting with full-hook up RV sites. Staff is very friendly in the park and at the Marina store.

My sons boat was damaged when we hit rocks that were lurking just below the surface on the other side from the Marina, about 125 feet offshore. . The out-drive was damaged as well as the prop, both have serious damage done to them. They should have had a marker in the water to let boats know, they didn't. Next, the bathrooms at Barrett cove campground didn't have working showers. The handles were missing from all the showers in all the bathrooms, Guess they are trying to conserve water or something. I did give one star because the lake is beautiful and the campsites are pretty good. Security was also present, we had the federalites coming around every half hour.

Campground and bathrooms in disrepair. Bathrooms are dry rotting and falling down. What happened to the Barrett Cove of 20 years ago? Looks like they have given up on regular maintenance.