What to expect on Weekends

The water at Folsom Lake is up and boaters are out taking advantage of the nice warm days that we have been enjoying these past few weeks. When boaters come to the Folsom Lake this year they can expect great water conditions and a long boating season. That being said, I would also like to let everyone know what else to expect when boating at Folsom Lake on any weekend through the month of July. Parking is always in short supply when the lake us up and the weather is nice. Due to lack of parking spaces we often have to close the Brown's Ravine launch ramp before 1:00 p.m. each weekend and many other sections of the Folsom Lake State Park have the same problem. To help ease our parking problems we ask that all vehicles without trailers park in the single car parking spaces. If none are open, please park behind a single parked vehicle, not along side. Vehicle with trailers should always park using only one parking lane. Please take the time to park correctly. If you take two spaces, you will be denying someone the use of Folsom Lake for that day. This will be an excellent boating year, but boaters should plan to get to the lake as early as possible to be assured of getting a parking space. If you show up to the lake at 2:00 p.m. on a hot weekend day, do not be surprise to see a "Ramp Closed" sign at the entrance. I wish this were not so, but Folsom Lake is very popular and a full lake means reduced parking spaces. On the Memorial Day weekend, Folsom Lake was closed to all visitors wishing to enter the park because of no parking available. While it was only closed for a short time, it did stop a few from using Folsom Lake. If you are planning to come to Folsom Lake on a weekend in June or July, you should plan to come early. Please note, a State Park pass will only get you into the park if there is available parking.

Launching Ramp Procedures

There are proper launch procedures to be observed when launching and retrieving a boat at Brown's Ravine launching ramp.(Ramp Procedure) On weekends boaters start launching early and our ramp is usually busy all day. The hours between 4:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. are usually the busiest with boaters trying to both retrieve and launch their boats. Your boating experience will be more enjoyable if you can avoid the ramp during these hours. Please take the time to read and follow the procedure we use here at Brown's Ravine. Please do not leave the boat tied to the ramp courtesy dock when getting the trailer. If you do not have a qualified person to operate the boat while you are getting the trailer, tie it in a courtesy slip next to the ramp. Once the trailer is in the water, move the boat to the ramp. If a boater ties to a dock at the ramp and then gets in line behind 10 other vehicles, who are also waiting to use the ramp, they have closed that lane down until it is their turn to retrieve the boat. No boater has the right to jump to the front of the line just because their boat is tied to the dock blocking a lane. Once the boat is out of the water, move away from the ramp and to a location where you are not blocking traffic.

Folsom Lake has reached it highest elevation and is now slowing heading down. While we did not reach the top, it will still be the best boating we have seen in the last 5 years. I would hate to see a great day of boating at Folsom Lake ruined by a bad experience at our launching ramp. I believe if everyone will follow our simple "Ramp Procedures", our ramp would operate a lot better. I always tell people to bring a lot of different things when coming to Folsom Lake, but the most important things to bring are "Patience and Courtesy". Enjoy your time at Folsom Lake and help others enjoy theirs.