Kumeyaay Lake Campground — Hotel in San Diego

Campsite Review: Uncomfortable and Unwelcoming Experience

We recently stayed at this campsite, hoping for a peaceful and enjoyable family getaway. Unfortunately, our experience was overshadowed by the actions of a groundskeeper named Eodore, whose behavior was invasive, harassing, and deeply unsettling.

From the beginning, Eodore displayed a concerning lack of professionalism. He parked at the end of our driveway multiple times, watching us and invading our privacy. He approached us repeatedly to remind us—five separate times—not to go to sleep without putting out the fire, even though we had already acknowledged his instructions politely each time. Despite complying with every request, his constant targeting and scrutiny made it clear we were being singled out.

When we finally questioned why he was hovering near our site and repeatedly giving us the same reminders, he justified his behavior by saying he could hear us laughing across the campsite. We immediately apologized and assured him we would keep our volume to a minimum. However, even after lowering our voices to a whisper, he remained standing there and asked if we understood what “quiet time” was, despite the fact that we were already compliant.

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, we asked if there had been any complaints about us. His response was dismissive: “No, there don’t need to be.” This exchange made it clear that his behavior wasn’t about enforcing rules but about targeting us unfairly.

To ensure we had evidence of our compliance, we began recording our interactions. Later that night, Eodore returned once again to remind us about the fire. When we asked him to leave and told him his behavior was harassing and making us feel unsafe, he escalated the situation, arguing with us and even threatening to call the police. We encouraged him to do so, confident in the recordings that showed we had done nothing wrong.

The situation became so disruptive that another camper was awakened and intervened. When Eodore asked this camper to act as a witness, they responded that the argument itself had woken them up.

The harassment didn’t stop there. Throughout the night, we saw Eodore sneaking around the trees and bushes near our site, which was especially terrifying since we had children with us. His actions made us feel unsafe, vulnerable, and robbed of the peaceful camping experience we had hoped for.

This was the most uncomfortable camping experience we’ve ever had. What should have been a fun and relaxing trip turned into a sleepless night filled with stress and unease. Eodore’s behavior was completely inappropriate, and his sarcastic demeanor when asked for his name only added to the frustration.

We cannot recommend this campsite to anyone seeking a safe and welcoming environment. This experience left us questioning the professionalism and training of the staff and completely...

Kumeyaay Campground is located in San Diego city just 4 miles from my house. It is a small campground that is only open on the weekends and it is actually newly re-opened after being closed for a couple of years. It has been renovated and upgraded by local Boy Scouts and Mission Trails rangers so it is like brand new. The sites are small and pretty close together, and the upper-level ones don't have any shade. Choose site 10 if available or any site on that side of the map if it isn't; those are the shadiest and 10 is the biggest and most secluded. There is no swimming here, but if you bring bikes there is a nice ride to the Mission Trails visitor center and back on the road. There is a flat hiking trail at the campground and more rugged trails near the visitor's center. The campground has flush toilets and outlets to plug in your flat iron. It also has outdoor sinks where you can wash your dishes. The campground is an easy awesome little weekend camping getaway for locals and an inexpensive place to stay for tourists. It really is in San Diego city so you can go to Sea World or the beach or wherever just as easily from here as any of the hotels. It only gets 4 stars because it is only open Friday and Saturday nights so you can't stay every night of the week. I think it is seasonal too, closed in the winter months. The rangers host informative nature hikes and star gazing throughout the year, and they have an amphitheater-style firepit for group meetings or ranger shows. The campground is quiet even though it is near the freeway. I recommend it to anyone who loves camping but doesn't have time to drive very far to get there and also to people who are camping for the first time or taking kids who haven't camped before because being so close to civilization gives a feeling of security since you don't have to drive up a high mountain and can be back home again...

First time tent camper; I took notes for this review. This is a well maintained campground by the city of San Diego. We stayed at site 26 and it had plenty of shade after 4 pm, it is considered a spacious site, you can fit 2 vehicles and 2 tents, max 6 people per site. It has a picnic table, food table, fire ring with grill and tent pad (mulch). All sites have the above but some sites are listed are small, 1 vehicle allowed. There are 46 sites total, odd numbered to the left and even numbered to the right. You can only book on weekends, Friday and Saturday night. During the week it is day-use only. Some sites allow rvs/trailers but no site has hookups. Site 29 is directly across 26, the issue I found with site 29 is that it is so close to the restrooms that you clearly hear all the flushing, since it’s very loud. That site was empty when we were there. Any site after 29 has practically no shade, eazy ups recommended for those.

Kumeyaay lake is situated inside the Missions trails regional park encompassing about 8,000 acres of land, with over 60 miles of trails. We biked the Kumeyaay trail around the lake with our kids, it was super easy, lots of places to stop and checkout, take pictures, water break. We walked to the old mission dam witch is less than half a mile from the campground, very easy for small kids to walk. There are many more trails but we did not do those. Bikers and hikers who come for the day can park in the day-use parking lot of the campground or park along Father Junipero Serra Trail Road.

Our experience was great overall. A very nice campground with friendly park rangers and volunteers. We...