Lake San Marcos, CA

Lake San Marcos is a county-run island inside the City of San Marcos, in the inland North County valleys about eight miles from the ocean with Carlsbad just to the west. Rancho Santa Fe Road runs along its west side, San Marcos Boulevard along its north, and steep hills close it off to the south. The valley was once part of Rancho Los Vallecitos de San Marcos, an 1840 land grant, and later cattle country. Between 1946 and 1951 a concrete dam turned a creek into a reservoir for irrigation and stock water, and in the 1960s developers wrapped a planned resort community around it. Avocado groves still cling to some of the surrounding slopes. Houseberry treats the community as one neighborhood. It has no city hall of its own: San Marcos provides schools and fire protection, water comes from the Vallecitos Water District, and a nonprofit association manages local affairs. Most visitors come for the resort and the golf. The Lakehouse Hotel and Resort on La Bonita Drive has more than 140 rooms, lakeside cottages with fire pits and loaner cruiser bikes, plus a marina where gondola rides set off across the water. St. Mark Golf Club, just past the community's edge on San Pablo Drive, has a full course along with tennis and pickleball, and The Grill there serves meals beside the green. Higher ground is close at hand. Double Peak Park, up in neighboring San Elijo Hills, is the tallest point in North County, and on a clear day the summit looks out to downtown San Diego, Tijuana and Catalina Island, with a telescope at the top for anyone who makes the steep climb. The Sprinter light rail links San Marcos with Oceanside and Escondido from Palomar College station, and Highway 78 carries most commuters east and west. The lake is off limits for swimming, and the shoreline path covers only part of the water. Still, in Lake San Marcos a boat rental, nine holes and the grocery run can all fit into one short loop on a Saturday morning.