Stayed here two nights at space #165. Site was dirt but fairly level. Some shade from trees. Picnic table has a covered canopy above it. Would have been a nice site except for three things. One was that it was dirty, lots of cigarette butts around and miscellaneous small bits of trash. Hadn't been raked in a long time. Second thing was right next to the dump portal was a tall pipe, maybe ten feet tall, that I assume was a sewer vent. Due to wind and weather, we had a constant smell of raw sewage around our motor home and inside when we had the windows open. Third thing was the ants. Bring lots of Comet or Ajax to put up barriers around every contact point of your RV. Would have asked for another site but the park was full. Will not be back again.
About this campground
What campers say
Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve offers well-maintained, family-friendly camping around several stocked lakes. Campsites are described as spacious with full hookups, clean restrooms and showers, and friendly staff. The property has walking and biking trails, playgrounds, pedal boats, fishing, wildlife viewing, a small store and an on-site grill with weekend bands. Practical tradeoffs include limited shade, crowds and parking constraints on weekends or events (paid lots and some distance to sites), occasional noise that prompts staff enforcement, and reports of unreliable Wi‑Fi for remote work. Overall it suits families and casual anglers seeking a tidy, activity-rich lakeside campground.
Our summary of 1,669 traveler reviews.
Amenities
Hookups and power
- Electric
Sites
- Back-In
Facilities
- Showers
- Laundry
- Pool
- Playground
- Dump Station
Setting
- Mountains
- Lake
- Beach
- Desert
More
- Bathrooms
- Big Rig
- Biking
- Cable
- Clubhouse
- Destination
- Dirt
- Dogs
- Family Friendly
- Firepits
- Fishing
- Fitness Room
- Full-hookups
- Grass
- Group
- Hiking
- Internet
- Long Term
- Marina
- Mountain Biking
- Open
- Pads
- Park
- Partial Hookup
- Paved
- Pets
- Pond
- Primitive
- Public Park
- Public Parking
- Pull-In
- Pull-thru
- Regional Park
- Scenic
- Sewer
- Shade
- Store
- Swimming
- Tents
- Tourist
- Trails
- Trees
- Urban
- Walking Trail
- Water
- Wi-fi
1,671 reviews
2 of them were written on CampgroundViews.
This is a very nice city owned park. It is a water reclamation facility that they have built a RV park around. It is a string of fishing lakes and the top 3 three loops are for RV's. The ground was kind of sandy. The bathrooms and showers were well taken care of; the only problem I had was with the water temp for the showers...not very hot, but hot enough. Good roadways for walking or bike riding around the lakes.
Photos
Videos
Location
- Address
- 9310 Fanita Parkway, Santee, CA 92071
- GPS
- 32.8471° N, 117.0056° W
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