The first time out in our new Airstream was to East Shore RV Park that is located within Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, San Dimas, California. We picked this place because it was less than 30 minutes from home and about 30 minutes away from our Airstream dealer, just in case we had a problem.
When we made the reservation, we asked for a lakeside campsite. Campsites are assigned when you arrive so there was no guarantee. Luckily, we were assigned to a campsite right on the lake, campsite 168. Not so luckily, it was barely large enough for our 28′ trailer to back into. None of the sites are very big in this park and I don’t recall seeing one pull-thru. The guy in the site next to us was watching me unsuccessfully trying to back this new aluminum behemoth into the spot. I’m sure he was laughing, I would have, but I didn’t see it. He was kind enough to come over and offer to help. He told me he was a truck driver so I immediately knew I had some experience going for me. He offered to back it in but I told him I needed learn how to do it sometime and this seemed like a good time. With his patient help, the trailer was eventually backed into the spot.
Turns out that the sites by the lake are known as “Party Central” and that’s a pretty accurate name. From evening until morning the streets are almost impossible to drive because the parties have flowed out of the campsites. Friendly people but noisy and impaired to say the least.
The park itself was fairly clean, but the bathrooms were like beach bathrooms. There is a laundry facility and a fair sized general store. The staff is friendly and helpful. There’s Wi-Fi if you need it. All sites are full hookup. They offer RV storage but I wouldn’t store mine there. That area looked run down and a little scary.
Frank G. Bonelli park offers hiking, boating, fishing, bike paths, Raging Waters water park and horseback riding, so there are things to do. The RV park is right on the lake. If we had fishing poles and a fishing license, we could have fished a few yards from our campsite.
We got through our 2 night stay without any problems and thought we might want to return again someday. We didn’t know any better I guess.
About a year later, and after stays in State Parks, National Parks and other RV parks, we decided to drive through East Shore RV Park to see if it was as nice as we thought it was on our 1st trip. Since we were working at the time, we did a lot short weekend trips, usually close to home, and East Shore certainly is near home. During our drive through, we noticed most of the park was occupied by “long-term” campers, meaning full-time residents, and their sites were pretty trashy looking. There weren’t that many sites available for 1 or 2 day campers and the ones that were, were not very desirable. We won’t be going back, sorry East Shore. However, for our first camping experience, in our new trailer, it was just fine.
Dents and Filiform 