Lake Piru — Attraction in Fillmore

A perfect "nature" experience for suburbanites. The sweet aroma of evaporating benzene predominates as folks pour gasoline into various gas engine powered watercraft... and inevitably spill a little, or a lot.

Mornings there is the gentle burble in the distance of an idling gigantic pickup truck raised 30" off of the ground, or the deep heart pounding bassy growl of someone "lettin' loose" with a large truck, small "sports car" or "classic car" on which the owner lovingly spent precious moments of a finite life to remove the muffler and often the catalytic converter too to "customize" the exhaust system to produce just fabulously loud sound.

But that's not the only sound. This is Southern California, so this lake can accommodate watercraft with rather large gas motors too. And many people who had spent precious moments of a finite life altering the exhaust pipes of their cars, trucks and motorcycles found that they had yet more of those moments remaining, so they decided to use them to do the same thing to the exhaust pipes of their watercraft.

If, like most suburbanites, you are secretly frightened of the mystery, silence and timelessness of nature (it tends to leave one alone with his thoughts, his mortality, the reality of himself), don't worry because you won't find that downer of a nature "experience" anywhere near here! Even the animals you might see aren't there as part of nature. They are there to see you because they want food and they've adapted to this not being nature anymore.

This is sort of like transporting the sounds and scents of the suburbs to what was once nature. It's like looking at a picture of Yosemite in your local Wendy's as the howl of traffic forces everyone unawares to shout during polite conversation to be heard, and as a new, portly customer opens the door to enter, the fumes of smog, car exhaust, and evaporating distillates wafts into the "restaurant" from cars lovingly modified by "enthusiasts."

In short, YOU are...

If you like camping in peace this is not the place. They have a strict quite time that is Not enforced. They rent multiple sites and create their own venue. We had next to our site a family of at least 60 that partied with very loud music kids bouncing balls up to 5 am. Then after that people running thru our campsite to the bathroom throwing up. Then check our time 6 am they were breaking down camp slamming car doors and yelling instructions on how to take down tents and which of the vehicles to put them in. Walking around camp you could see the large groups all around the campground not only our area. You can hear the music blasting from all over. One site even had lazzer to go with their music. We love camping and I like seeing people enjoy themselves but this was ridiculous. We love this campground and it’s amenities but having showers does not beat being able to sleep. the camp hosts were around all day except selling wood and ice but not when they were needed. Needless to say Lake Piru is going to be a day trip place from now. We are avid campers but this is not a campsite it’s a rent for party place it’s cheaper...

We spent Friday-Sunday here. Friday night was LOUD and seemed like a college frat party. Saturday night was very calm and quiet. The staff there is friendly and you see them thought out the day. They also sell ice and fire wood and deliver it right to you. It is a little pricey but beats the drive down the mountain. We were not to happy with what goes on at the lake... Jet skies and boats aren't required to be beyond the buoys. There was SEVERAL a$$hat jet skiers close to the shore showboating and acting like fools while people were trying to swim. It was very dangerous. This is something they need to monitor and notify the watercraft users they are not allowed close to the shore unless they are docking. Other than that we had a great time, weather was good, restrooms are clean and park is...