This was our first stay at Lake Skinner. We are frequent RV users, and have camped all over the US. We were there for a family reunion at a near-by winnery, owned by a cousin. There were 5 RV's in our party, and all of us had reservations. The 1st nite, most of us returned to our campsite about 9:30. Our son was delayed, because he had to take some relatives to a hotel, about 10 miles away. He returned to the campgound at about 2-3 minutes before 10:00pm, and found the gate LOCKED!!. I do mean LOCKED with absolutely no other was in or out of the campground!!!! For an hour we tried to locate someone to unlock the gate, but to no avail. We had no camp host in our section B, and no one answered the ranger phone #. The camp host sites are not on the map that was given to us at check-in, and we were told later, that they would NOT have unlocked the gates, even if we had been able to locate a camp host ......only if there was a life and death emergency. NO WHERE in the camp rules, at check-in, on our reservation print-out, or on the web-site does it say the gates are locked. There is a small sign at the entrance, easily missed, unless you are looking for it. The gates are apparently locked from 10:00pm - 6:00am.

Unwilling to leave their NEW car parked outside of the campground (the locked entrance is remote and at least a mile from the actual campground), my daughter-in-law crawled through the gate and took their car home, about an hour away, leaving my son with their now 2 sobbing little boys in the RV.

The following day, I found the staff to be almost defensive, and in denial about how unpleasant a surprise locked gate is.

Additionally, the mosquitos were horrible.....trash was not picked up....and the swimming pool was not open for our 8 grandchildren to use, despite the fact that we had confirmed that it would be open. The reason.......not enough campers to justify it's opening.

All in all, a pretty bad experience.

We had a great corner site. It was private and quiet. We were able to walk down the hill to the lake and there were several private lake areas. They did have somekind of a bathroom problem, they had added several porta potties, they were clean and well kept. Over all we had a great time, and look forward to return, perhaps in the fall.

This was our first time for camping at Lake Skinner and the surroundings were nice but disappointed with size of camp site and had to share (1) restroom with (3) toilets (one broken and one with no toilet seat) with approximately 600+ campers. This was unsanitary and we were shocked the county would even allow this. The restroom had (2) showers with no privacy and we were informed that this was OK due to people should only shower once every three days.

We had reservations for 2 nights but left after the first night. The mosqitos ate me alive and there are red ants all over-but they did not bike anyone. The pool was nice and clean.

Overall, with all the land they have they could make the camping area really nice and add more restrooms.

Lake skinner and "Whatacatch bass fishing club, make a great pair" Says David Truby(president of Whatacatch bass fishing club.
I have been fishing in the Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet, Elisnore,and Rainbow california area for abot 27 years and I love lake skinner. It has great fishing and an all aroud good feeing to it. The people are nice. From the park rangers to the store keeper. You might like it just for that.
It is a good place to boat as well.
Have fun out there and be safe!
Thank you and please visit our club:

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David Truby
president of "Whatacatch Bass Fishing Club"