Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve — Attraction in Santee

I rented an R.V spot in the campground and I rented a cabin on the shore for my twins and their siblings to help celebrate their 40th birthday. It was so great to be near by to walk to their cabin to hang out. However, I got to complain about the|CELL SERVICE: It made it very difficult for me to keep in contact with their cabin. The cell services was real spotty and text messages would not go through a great deal of the time. I had gotten there a day earlier to get the keys and to decorate the cabin. The kids were not coming in till the next day. They could not call me nor could I get a hold of them to direct them in or give them updates or if I needed anything. One of the receptionist at the front office said that we can complain to our service providers and maybe if enough people complained that Verizon or whatever carrier we went through would put up a cell tower..Odd, I thought that they could do that themselves on behalf of their customers. I have never been to a campground where there was no cell service. I did get cable service in my R.V. That helped to have some tv when it was raining. |LIGHTING TOUR: They had a beautiful light decorations display around the lake and it was open to the public. I would had been bummed if I could not had seen the lake lighting celebration. My kids drove down with cars and was staying in the cabins so we were able to use their car to drive it. The only way you could experience that tour is if you paid $20 for a car load of people and took a tour in a car. We could not ride our bikes or walk it. It's a shame you figure since you are staying there you could either get it free and walk it or something.|PASS CODE: Then they changed the wifi to the gate pass code in the back of the park to come in and exit from Dec 31st to Jan 1. They said that I would receive an email on the new pass code for Jan 1. Funny when Jan 1 came we had no wifi so guess what, we could not get into my email to get the new code...LOL, thank goodness my kids had received a flier with Dec codes and then another one with Jan code. So lucky we took a picture of the flier. |EXITING THE PARK THROUGH THE BACK GATE: Why do you need a gate code to leave the property. It should be that a vehicle that pulls up to the gate should activate it with motion of their vehicle to leave. We have to get out of our rig and walk a distance away push in the pass gate code walk back to the rig and drive out. Many people sit at the stop sign and wait on a car or someone to press in the pass code to the gate to open it or you have another option to make a sharp turn and make multiple back and forth movements in order maneuver your rig to position it so you can enter in the gate code into the device on a stand . Come on people, can't you make it a little easier on us with big rigs to get out of you property, this is silly.|But other than these obstacles we had a great time. The staff super friendly the volunteers so kind. The convince of a store and food...

This place is not sustainable. Although they've added several solar panels to a few roof tops, their landscapers and volunteers work together to destroy the natural environment in their effort to "clean up" nature. They gather the falling leaves in little piles along with the mulch that the park has paid to bring in, clean it all up and toss it in the garbage, leaving nothing but grainy dirt between the shrubs separating the sites. All the bugs that previously lived in the leaves and mulch then find residence in people's campers. This "cleanup" turns the ground into a desert, contributing to increased ground temperature, drier shrubbery and trees, and a crazy dust bowl. It's not worth washing my car because the dust settles on it so quickly.

Other issues with the landscapers is that these guy don't know at all what they are doing. They cut trees for the sake of cutting trees without consideration for aesthetics, the concept of how a tree grows, or how the tree will contact an RV. Trees are often lopsided and butchered.

The park also hires a tree trimming company at the wrong time of the year: spring. This is a time when the highest number of birds nests in the trees. Butchering them (the trees) in the spring, kills, injures and scares birds away. Additionally, spring cutting takes away the shade those trees would have provided in the summer, especially on hot days. This is by far some of the worst landscaping policy I've seen.

Every other plant in the park is non-native. Many are African, "drought-tolerant" plants that only work to outcompete native flora. These reek havoc on native plants and discourage native and migratory birds from visiting and staying, because they don't actually provide food or shelter. Instead these African invaders have been planted for one reason: they look pretty. This park would have a lot more biodiversity if they stopped messing with the ecosystem.

Last landscaping issue is that they spray the entire park in pesticides and herbicides. They douse native California plants with herbicides because they're tested like a "weed." They're exposing people, pets and wildlife to harmful cancerous toxins found in the Round-Up-based spray. If you want you and your children to get cancer, them...

THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE FLOATING CABINS||Santee Lakes Recreational Preserve is a 190 acre fenced off park with 7 man-made lakes. The park has day use areas for picnics and BBQs, Sprayground water play stations, fishing, pedal boat rentals, the Tin Fish Restaurant, a General Store, a camping section, cabin rentals - including 3 floating cabins. ||A group of us rented all 3 floating cabins for a fun getaway for 2 night. The campground has its own designated lakes (Lake 6 & 7) where only campers can use. Each floating cabin comes with its own pedal boat for you to use in lake 7, where these cabins are situated on the water. It was nice to be able to just go out on the lake for sunset and fishing - away from all the crowds in the public day use areas of lakes 1-5. ||The floating cabins are quite nice, and filled with the amenities that will make your stay quite comfortable. There is air conditioning, wifi and each cabin is a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom unit. The living room has a full sized futon, coffee table, flat screen TV and DVD player. The kitchen has a full sized fridge, electric stovetop burners, microwave, plus all the needs cooking utensils. ||Each cabin has a large front covered deck. The decks are equipped with a large propane grill plus table and chairs for dining or just relaxing. The large decks allows for fishing without leaving the comforts of your cabin. I did catch a bass on the morning of day 2! If you do plan to fish, keep in mine that you are required to purchase a daily permit to fish (and they sell a separate permit if you plan to do any night fishing). Licenses can be purchased at the entrance gate or in the General Store, where baits are also stocked.||The stay was wonderful and peaceful. It was great that all 3 floating cabins were occupied by our group, but if you just rent one, make sure it’s not the middle cabin as they are quite close to each other and you will see/hear each other, especially when out on your deck. Service at the General Store (which is where the cabin check-in/check-out front desks are) was good. The workers there are very friendly and welcoming. As mentioned, this review is just for the floating cabins. We had a great time and would defiantly...