Clear Lake recreation

[denise]

I'm wondering if anyone has spent any touristic time at Clear Lake recently. We used to go camping there when I was a kid but it's been years since I did more than drive by there. I have some friends who will be visiting from overseas and they found it in the Lonely Planet California guidebook (!) and wanted to know what I thought.

Any comments?

thanks!

[Keith of all trades]

I spent last week-end at a friend's place on clear lake. If you want to be a guest at someone's vacation home, and they have a boat, great. If you want to be a random tourist, forget about it. All the "resorts" we saw are really run down and seem to be relics from the 1950s. There was a definite green algae thing going on in the water (but we water skied and swam with our kids, with no ill health affects). We were on the south east shore, not far from the town of clear lake.

I can't speak to the rest of the lake (and it is huge), but I think that any out of town visitors who wanted to see a lake would be happier visiting lake sonoma in the spring, when it's full. Rent a boat for a couple of hours or a day, then taste some wine and go to dinner.

On the plus side, clear lake is supposed to have great bass fishing, and the drive to clear lake from sebastopol is quite scenic and takes your directly through the Napa Valley.

[Karin]

Clear Lake also is an amazing birding site, especially for grebes.

I spent last week-end at a friend's place on clear lake. If you want to be a guest at someone's vacation home, and they have a boat, great. If you want to be a random tourist, forget about it. All the "resorts" we saw are really run down and seem to be relics from the 1950s. There was a definite green algae thing going on in the water (but we water skied and swam with our kids, with no ill health affects). We were on the south east shore, not far from the town of clear lake.

I can't speak to the rest of the lake (and it is huge), but I think that any out of town visitors who wanted to see a lake would be happier visiting lake sonoma in the spring, when it's full. Rent a boat for a couple of hours or a day, then taste some wine and go to dinner.

On the plus side, clear lake is supposed to have great bass fishing, and the drive to clear lake from sebastopol is quite scenic and takes your directly through the Napa Valley.