Lake Cuyamaca

I'll start this by saying that there are two campgrounds...I stayed in Lone Pine CG - and it is perhaps the ugliest CG I've ever been to. The other CG (Chambers) didn't seem much nicer...in fact I'm not a fan of parking lot CG's. But...I still like it here. The price is right for partial hookups.

It's $8 per day to fish. I have an inflatable kayak that they would NOT let me put in the lake. Other boats are okay if you get them inspected first, and there are rentals available. There's bass, bluegill, crappie and trout, but in the warmer months the fishing is SLOW no matter what they tell you at the tackle shop. I did catch three bass in one day, but they totaled a pound.

There's a trail that I think goes all the way around the lake, which is nice. If you shore fish, you can fish almost the whole lake. I don't think you are allowed to swim or wade in the water.

Three stars because the CG's were basically parking lots, but an additional star for the beautiful scenery.

This is a privately run campground on the shores of Lake Cuyamaca (San Diego County) 9 miles south of Julian, CA on highway 79. There are 2 campgrounds that include water and electricity, but no sewer. We stayed at Chambers in site 22. This site has an ideal view of the lake. Boat rentals (fishing and pontoon) are available at the tackle shop.

Daily fishing fees are $8 and a CA fishing license is required. The problem is...lousy fishing. Did not catch a thing in 4 days. This time of year the water is murky, so maybe all those fishes can't see my scrumptious bait, wait maybe there are no fish in the lake. 😛

Viejas Indian casino is about 30 minutes away if you like that sort of thing.

Downside was that we had 3 days of wind and there is no dump station. There is a dump station at the state park a few miles south of this campground, fee to dump was $8. Also the campground is next to the highway, so there is some highway noise ( not a lot, but it is there)

I would camp here again for relaxation, but only for a couple of days.