dkiewicz wrote:
Macs Dad wrote:
DK how did you like Vail Lake. That's the new lake they just opened a few years ago isn't it. Was thinking of maybe going for an extended weekend. A little pricey maybe for what they have to offer. How much to launch a water vehicle.
Macs Dad,
Weeeelllllll, to be quite honest, I think that $65 a night is too steep. Yes they had a nice pool. Yes there is plenty of mountain bike trails, and damn good ones too. Yes there is fishing (catch and release only $10 per person per day at Vail Lake ~3 miles drive away) and swimming. Yes there is a new $10 an hour water slide, but...
The infrastructure was in very poor shape. The electrical hookups were rusted and falling apart. I couldn't hook up my sewer because (and I do have every adapter you can think of) the hose wouldn't fit into the receptacle.
However, that said, it was quiet, and clean from trash. They had maintenance folks picking stuff up regularly. We stayed in Chardonnay #29 which is a little lower than the rest of the Chardonnay mesa.
There were loads of mud daubers to the extent that we tried to eat in the village, and couldn't take a bite of our food w/o worrying that we'd get a bee in our mouth. I hear that's just a July/August issue though.
As for the launch fees, we don't have a boat, but Vail Lake is private, and you can inquire about a membership on their webpage here:
http://www.vaillakeresort.com/index.php?p=3_4_Vail-Lake-Membership
Will we go back? Probably not. I heard they are considering charging for each campsite individually for electric. They definitely need to do something to bring up the quality if they hope to keep folks coming back.
I am still impartial to something closer to home in San Dimas. East Shore RV Park is a pretty fair bargain for ~$44 a night. There you get great infrastructure and digital cable too with Wi-Fi. This was something missing from Vail Lake, and I expect that when getting a "Full" hookup.
For the most part we dry camp in Stoddard and Johnson valleys in the high desert, so when I shell out the $$$ I expect some amenities to go with it.
BTW, anyone know of a place that has hookups, you can fish in a half decent lake and ride dirt bikes legally?
Please let me know because so far that place doesn't exist in my searches.
I hope this helps, and your mileage may vary as everyone has different expectations, so please don't flame me because it's your favorite place, I'm just relating my relatively noob observations.
Dan ...
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