ChaosAgent
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Anyone stayed at Diamond Jack RV Park in Jamul (San Diego) CA?
What's it like?
We're looking for just a cheap home base park while we explore San Diego for 3-4 days.
It's a Passport America park, but can't find a review online anywhere, or on RV.NET either.
Anyone? Anyone.
'99 American Eagle 40NS
'04 Dodge Dakota 4x4 Crew Cab Toad
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brauneyz
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Well, that generated a lot of interest, didn't it? 
I'm looking at going there in Dec. as base camp because it's close to kids. Don't care about amenities. Just want to park the fiver and head out daily. Anyone got anything to say about Diamond Jack's? HELP! 
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JRandall
Fresno, CA
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Don't know anything about the park...except that it is at least 20-30 minutes, perhaps more from anywhere in San Diego. Santee Lakes is a little pricey, but it is a very nice park with easy freeway access. Sorry I can't help any more than that.
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ChaosAgent
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brauneyz wrote:Well, that generated a lot of interest, didn't it?
I'm looking at going there in Dec. as base camp because it's close to kids. Don't care about amenities. Just want to park the fiver and head out daily. Anyone got anything to say about Diamond Jack's? HELP!
Well, I'm the OP and I still can't give you any more information because we never made it there, but Lord knows we tried!
We were coming in on I-8 from Yuma. I had entered the route in my Delorme Street Atlas program and it matched the directions on the Passport America website so I figured I was all set.
Boy was I wrong!
We turned off Exit 40 on I-8W and started down the 18 mile run to the park.
The first few miles were OK but things started to deteriorate very quickly.
The road became narrower with a lot more curves. We ended up on a road barely two lanes wide with hairpin curves. There were sheer drop offs with no guards, because there was no room between the road edge and the drop off FOR guard rails.
And in many cases the inside of the hairpin curves were lined with 2-3' diameter boulders. I'm not sure why, because they were just protecting the rock wall that came right to the inside road edge.
And these boulders proved to be my undoing.
I was on the inside of a hairpin right turn, my brakes squealing because I have really been working them hard as my exhaust brakes weren't really effective at my relatively slow speed.
I was a 40' Class A towing a 4 door pickup truck. My left wheels were riding the center stripe, and as I took the right hand inside turn, here comes a big yellow school bus on the outside curve, driving down the MIDDLE of the road.
The teenage-looking driver's eyes got big as saucers as he tried to move to the right without going over the guardrail-less cliff edge.
I moved to my right, knowing I didn't have much room due to the boulders lining the roadside, but visualizing the bus full of kids careening over the edge.
I ended up scraping the boulders down the side of my coach. Luckily the scrape was along the curved bottom of my bay doors, just scratching and denting the doors in slightly. You have to really look closely to see the damage, but it does run from behind my front wheel well to right in front of my rear wheel well.
I refer to it as my racing stripe.
By the time we got to where my GPS system said the turn into the park was supposed to be, we saw nothing, no sign, no road, no nothing.
And by this time my wife was near-hysterical, saying we were not staying there even if we did find it.
We continued on about 5 miles and were back in civilization.
The moral of this story is that if you do try to find this place, come in from the west, not from the east, or you too might get your own racing stripe.
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brauneyz
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Thanks guys. I think maybe we'll try to scope it out in the TV first before we commit to pulling the fiver. Thanks for the suggestion of Santee Lk. too. I'll keep everyone posted and hope this generates more comments before then.
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WTTCS
freedom , U.S.A.
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If you are looking for a cheap home base in diego, and you do not have kids. Try Coastal Villa rv park or down the street, Moreno Blvd rv park. Both are fine parks with great access.
1997 chev crew cab 454, 5 sp. 4.10
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dolphindog
San Diego
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I would suggest Chula Vista RV Park. You can look it up on the web. You can usualy find a coupon in the "Highway" monthly for two nights and one night free. It's close to all and is extremely clean Park. Of course the pull-throughs are the best, and alittle more than back ins--back ins still good sites.
I agree Santee Lakes also good Park. Also KOA would be my third choice located in chula vista off the 805.
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ChaosAgent
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dolphindog wrote:I would suggest Chula Vista RV Park. You can look it up on the web. You can usualy find a coupon in the "Highway" monthly for two nights and one night free. It's close to all and is extremely clean Park. Of course the pull-throughs are the best, and alittle more than back ins--back ins still good sites.
I agree Santee Lakes also good Park. Also KOA would be my third choice located in chula vista off the 805.
I will second the recommendation for Chula Vista. This is where we ended up after our near-disasterous attempt to find Diamond Jacks.
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brauneyz
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Thanks all for your recommendations. I will keep researching them and perhaps use them prior to the 'big trip' for scouting purposes. My daughters (in their 20's) live near Mission Trails Pk. and so I will be making many trips to the area.
If the road to Diamond Jacks is driveable, the cost through NCAA is only $15 nightly, so I still want to see if that is an option.
I sure appreciate all the suggestions.
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Lucyc858
San Diego, CA
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There are also Passport America Parks in El Cajon. Those would be in a good location for visiting San Diego. Some friends stayed at Vacationeer and liked it. Most parks in this area are expensive.
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