Lake Piru

Busy work, school and sports schedules leave little time for quiet family time.  When the time avails itself, you sure want to take advantage of it.  So on this beautiful, sunny day in May we grabbed the camera, the fishing poles and a deck of cards and headed to Lake Piru for day of family fishing and relaxation.  Lake Piru is twenty five minutes west of Saugus along the 126 highway on your way to Fillmore and later Ventura.

This town is a simple, country town whose main attraction is the lake situated four miles above the town in the Los Padres National Forest.  Good for fishing and waterskiing, the small lake attracts mostly a few local Los Angeles area families and even on a crowded day there is plenty of room for both fishing and watersports.

Piru is a gritty town, very local in its nature.  There is nothing fancy or pretentious about it.  In fact, the fanciest site there, the Piru Mansion, is interesting while being obviously out of place.   However, there is a rifle range and motorcross track (Only $5 charge) in town that also draws the attention of the more outdoorsy families.

The park costs $10 per vehicle (pets and boats are additional) for a day pass to the lake.  There are a variety of camping opportunities available at additional cost as well.  While in the park you can enjoy fresh burgers, hot dogs and fries as well as a few other items at the park snack bar situated on a hill overlooking the lake which provides nice cool breezes even on the hottest days.  Boats of all kinds, including pontoons, are available to rent as well as fishing poles and other water equipment.  If you’re more of a land loving family, they also support fishing from along the beaches and have several parks filled with shade producing trees and large picnic areas for you to play cards, listen to the Dodger game and play tag with the little ones.

Less than a half hour from our home, we were able to enjoy the wonderful weather, do some quiet fishing and card playing and have some much needed time for conversation and family time. We had wonderful conversations, hikes and game time all for under $30 including lunch.  It got us out of the house and was a lovely and convenient last minute distraction from our otherwise way too busy lives.