Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area

For being just 1 hour from the city, this is a perfect camping place, both quiet and clean. Nature Center is fun & has a cute gift shop! Check it out!

Awesome lake to boat, jet skis and relax. Water is on the cooler side compared to, say, Lake Perris. Beautiful scenery, water is clear. There are tons of little coves you can pull into. They have a little store where you can buy goods, food, ice etc. Highly recommended 10/10!

Lots of trails to hike and walk on. Usually you can come and swim, but today you couldn't because of the algae. It's nice to watch the boats. Many people come to spend the day and BBQ.

Not the type of camping we're use to, usually do dispersed camping but wanted a place to fish during the day and that was nice. Went a little later in the day and it wasn't crowded, Kept us busy all day. Campsites are super close though. People are loud past 10 pm and bring their dogs that don't shut up that keep barking all night. The site itself was nice, very shaded. Minus the people it was a good trip

We were staying down the road at Mojave River Forks regional park (don't go there) and decided to bring the dog and a lunch and have a picnic here. Very nice ranger at the gate. Very expensive, $45 for dry camping (no hookups) and $50 for FHU. Road to the left leads to day use. Along the road are several parking lots each adjacent to a day use area with pavilions, tables and restrooms. The last lot has access to the beach. Restrooms in day use are dirty and do not flush (yuk). Trash everywhere, blaring mariachi and thumping gang music. Alcohol prohibited in day use but that doesn't stop people from breaking the law. Lots of beer trash and graffiti. Cigarette butts. Was super happy to see armed state park police patrolling the park. But clearly they do not have enough cops here. The FHU sites are 90 degrees to the road and buddy sites, similar to many CA state parks. Do NOT recommend you try anything over 20 feet. Have no idea how you could get anything longer into a site. Road is narrow and each row is an out-and-back with a hairpin u-turn at the end. Trees are thick in the campgrounds so don't expect to get satellite reception. The dry (tent) sites are in loops. Sites are on the outer edge, are single sites not buddy sites, and are both longer and have about a 40 degree angle to the road, so backing in is easier. A few of the sites closer to the main road get a little sun for a few hours. You 'might' be able to get some satellite and a few amps charge every day. It would be the kind of place where we could probably only stay two days max due to lack of solar. As is the case with all parks, maintenance is lacking. They apparently have received some budget for new signs but they are insufficient. We drove by the visitor center but it looked closed (11am on Sunday), no one in the parking lot, no signs saying they were open, and didn't look like any lights on. Later when we drove by we saw a ranger coming out of the VC, said he closed it at 1pm. We saw a traffic barricade with a nice large metal sign that said "Visitor Center Open" but it was tucked underneath the stairs to the observation platform. Had they set it out we'd have gone in. There was a paper sign on the window that said the VC was open until 4pm but that clearly is false. There was also a paper warning sign about increased Bear activity. Down the other road is the marina, a huge parking lot, and another day use beach area. There is a store there but we didn't go in. Lots of shelters and picnic tables. The problem with any park with a lake with boating is that they are just huge party spots.