Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park

Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park   This is part of the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District. If you're looking for outdoor recreation activities in southern California this is a good place to start. (Cahuilla is pronounced "ka-WEE-a")

This picturesque park is older than most we stay in, but well maintained. The sites with utilities are spacious, and there is a range of price, so check the website for particulars. 

There is a spacious boon-docking area surrounded by a variety of desert trees, including palms. It offers a good view of the lake, so that may be of interest in addition to the sites with utilities. It's a nice little lake for fishing, perfect for young children, though anyone would enjoy it. The park offers other amenities too. 

There is a wading/swimming pool at the far end of the campground, with a playground nearby.  There are also game courts of various types, and beyond that area is a "Equestrian and group camping" area. That area is off in the distance behind the palm trees in the lower photo. 

The lake is alive with birds of various types at different times of the year. Right now pelicans and other shore birds are the primary population. There is no swimming currently due to an invasive mussel infestation problem, and fishing gear is inspected for that same reason.

The campground restrooms are clean, and adequate in size as most campers are self-contained. They have 2 coin operated showers. The structures are clean, though it needs a bit of paint and a few repairs here and there. The camp site spaces are large and each has a tree - eucalyptus in most cases, and they are kept pruned up so they don't interfere with the roofs of RV's.        
Depending on your needs, one of the best features is that this park is close in to many of the entertainment related activities that are held in the Coachella valley. We are here to visit family that lives nearby, as it seems many of our neighbors in the campground are here for the same reason. 
According to Wikipedia this lake is prehistoric in origin, and there's quite a geologic record of it's existence, including the changes over time. It was once large enough to extend southward into Mexico. 


 The hills surrounding the are beautiful to watch as the light changes. The deep erosion from thousands of years past create ever changing shadows, and the colors in the slopes change from lavender to deep blues, grays and browns as the sun and clouds shift throughout the day.

The park is named for the Cahuilla tribe. The Cahuilla language is of the Takic division of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages, the most well-established linguistic family of the Americas. The Cahuilla people were the first known residents of the Coachella Valley. In the 1700's the population is thought to have been about 15,000.
Though once considered the smallest Native American tribe in the entire (the tribe was once down to just eight people), the Augustine Band's population is still tiny, with only about 2,000 enrolled members in the various bands linked to at the bottom of the home page under "Tribal Links".           

We enjoyed out stay here very much. It's a quiet, relaxing place to enjoy walking, photography, fishing, or just cloud watching! Our next stop is the Anza Borrego desert! Here's an early morning view of the lake just as we are leaving.