OAKKNOLL RV & CAMPGROUND — Hotel in Valley Center

We decided to find a campground that wasn’t too far away this time, and somewhere that wouldn’t be too hot since it’s been warmer than usual lately. Since we’re in the middle of Summer, pretty much any beach campground was full, and anything inland that wasn’t at a higher elevation would be close to triple digit temperatures, I found the Oak Knoll Campground in the Palomar Mountains.||||Most people have never heard of the Palomar Mountains, it’s just past the Pala and Harrahs Rincon Indian casinos near Temecula. At just under 3000 feet above sea level, it’s a little cooler here, although the humidity was pretty high since we had some small storms coming up from Mexico the first part of the week we were there.||||It was a short 90 minute drive from our RV storage, a much easier drive than our last trip up to Huntington Lake. We arrived around 2pm, checked in, and set up camp in a nice long drive through space. It took a little while to level the RV with blocks since the space slopes down a bit, but once that was done the rest went smoothly. I was even able to get our Dish Network to pick up a satellite through the trees. I discovered wifi wasn’t free, but my Verizon cell signal was strong so I just used the data tethered from my iPhone.||||Once again we were the only campers in the entire park, however there were probably about twenty full time residents in RVs and trailers. The part time camping spaces are in the middle, and all around are the full timers. Some of the full time spaces have sheds, some have wooden fences, and some have gardens that look like the RV hasn’t moved in years.||||There’s not much to do in the campground, the pool was nice, there’s a small general store, and some hiking trails. Basically we just relaxed and took the dogs for their potty walks. If we had a car, we could have gone to a nearby lake, or the observatory, or even some of the casinos if we left the dogs in the RV. But we still don’t have a tow car, so we’re pretty limited in traveling far from the campground. The roads were too narrow and steep to take the bike out, plus I had a leak in one tire and had to order a new tube.||||Overall it’s a nice quiet place to spend a few days if you just want some quiet and descent weather. We only saw two other campers in our four nights there, and didn’t see too many of the full timers out side of their trailers. They do have some tent sites so if you have a larger group, it’s a good option to have spaces close to each other. If you have a car it would be nice to check out Harrahs and try the new Pink’s Hot Dogs that opened recently. We may be back for a quick weekend company retreat in a...

We stayed here once and In all fairness it was a last minute ( a few days in advance) reservation. I have a 31 foot motorhome and was looking for a campground near Pala casino. This place looked decent in the pictures and sounded decent in the description and amenities. I made the reservation on line. When we arrived we were greeted almost as if we were intruding ( there were no other customers and we are polite people so no issues there) . I said " I have a reservation " and showed them my print out. I asked if there was a fire pit ( which was stated it had in the reservation, however, I wanted to confirm because I had an issue with this elsewhere) I was told yes and due to this information I paid almost 7$ for firewood. Off to the campsite we went. In a nutshell, there was no fire pit. it was a "pull through" but we had to move the picnic table practically off the space and avoid a tree and barely had room to put out our chairs. Also it was impossible to level out due to the major slant and felt like we were walking up and down hill inside the motorhome. There appeared to be better spaces which were never occupied . As stated in another review, the store, pool table, Etc were not what I was expecting. I personally would not recommend this campground, however , if you are looking for a rustic experience you might enjoy it. Just be very specific when making reservations regarding a somewhat level site, a fire pit and whether it's surrounded by full time campers. ( Absolutely no disrespect to full timers , I want to be one someday. It is just a different experience because this is their home and we are temps there to glamp and...

My wife and I booked a weekend there as kind of a lark. I would say overall that it wasn’t a bad experience…went there in spring expecting decent weather but encountered a driving rainstorm both nights. The host Jennifer was very friendly and helpful which is a bright spot…there are people living there fulltime in their own RV’s and I would say it is best to avoid them.

Just as we were driving out we stopped to let our dogs out, one of the ‘locals’ walked past and started entertaining one of the local cats…I slowly started approaching them and this guy started threatening me, erupting into a foaming tirade of name-calling and “F” bombs with obviously not the slightest concern that we were guests there.

I have no idea what got this dude so upset, it was the most vile confrontation I’ve had with another human being in many years and completely ruined what was otherwise a reasonably pleasant visit.

This guy has obviously been living there for some time and seems dangerously unstable, which is why I emphasize “just avoid the locals”-like the local cats, they’re feral.

(ADDENDUM): Jennifer is aware of what happened; she watched the guy blow up at the moment it happened. While I’m not the litigious type incidents like this definitely have a negative effect on your business and if this guy ever makes good on his violent threats the resulting lawsuits could easily bankrupt you. I did nothing to provoke this person-so if he’s done it to me and he’s been living there very long I’m pretty sure he has threatened and harassed others similarly.

I would advise you to deal with the situation before somebody gets...