Lake Jennings Park

We loved this place for our short visit to San Diego. You can get to downtown San Diego in about 35 minutes. This lake is very beautiful and quiet. Our campsite was on the top of a hill with a fantastic overview of the lake. The hilltop also had great sunset views and views of the Lakeside city below. Just a wonderful place. We had electric and water hookups. There may have been sewer, but we didn't use it. There was a bathroom right on the center of the hill. It had two private no extra fee shower rooms and normal bathrooms. There were other shower and bathrooms facilities at other location in the campground.

It is run by the Helix Water District. We heard that they may close the place as it is not getting enough visitors. That would be a total crime as this is a great spot.

We tried to go to Santee Lakes campground, but we don't have an RV manufactures sticker on our home made camper van and so Santee will not let scofflaws like us in. You have to have a fancy RV with all the trimmings to get into that one. This place was much much better anyway!

We had a great hike around most of the lake. It was just a great relaxing, no hassle place in a beautiful setting.

This is a fishing lake with a launch and a couple of fishing docks and a kids fishing area that is stock and little kids where catching big fish!!!! They allow some night boat fishing ... check on the schedule.

On most weekdays (M-Thur) you can only hike halfway around the lake and back. We guessed this was to give the waterfoul a break from people during the week. It was still a nice hike. There is a flume trail from an interesting old flume that was historic in the area. This could be a heart pumper trail for some great exercise.

This is a great campground I've stayed at 3 times while visiting San Diego. With easy access to I-8 you can get to most attractions in San Diego in under half an hour, such as the zoo, Sea World, and Sunset Cliffs. Also, you don't feel like you're in the city at all when you stay here, with open green hills all around. This campground is very nice in the summer, warm and dry, but we caught a winter storm this time and it was rainy and cold. The first two nights it didn't rain but was so humid and cold that the inside of the tent was covered in dew and the pillows and sleeping bags got wet where they touched the inside of the tent. The bathrooms at this campground are good with flush toilets and showers, but the showers only have one setting which is a little on the hot side. Black widows may be found lurking in the bathrooms, but I've only seen one in all my stays there. I easily get cell coverage on my T-mobile phone here. Will definitely stay here again but not when there's a winter storm warning.