We recently headed out to this beautiful park for a camping adventure with our 2 and 4-year-old children, and we regretted that we couldn’t stay longer. Fairfax Lake is the perfect local camping spot for those who want to fit in a quick camping trip or for beginning campers.
We arrived on a sunny Saturday morning, checking in at the camp office by noon. All of the staff members were helpful and the registration process took about 6 minutes total. We were given a park map, information about the amenities, and advice on how much firewood to buy for one day/night of camping. With our 2 bundles of firewood and easy to follow map, we headed down the road to the campsite area. On your way you will pass the sports fields and the skate park. We headed out to site A37, which is a short walk to the bathroom facility and partially shaded. You will want to check out the family campground map and pick one of the outer loop camping sites. These provide the only shade and are more secluded than the sites in the middle. Call ahead and make your reservation. You can also request a particular spot and the staff will do their best to meet your needs.
Fantastic. Throughout our stay, we encountered no problems with insect stings or other creatures. However, bugs were not a concern during our visit. We experienced delightful weather, with temperatures reaching 80 degrees during the day and dropping to the 60s at night. Did we not encounter any bugs while we were there?
It didn’t take long to set up our tent and feed the girl’s lunch from the 
cooler of food that we brought with us. Each site includes a fire pit and a picnic table. Bring a tablecloth to help ‘clean up’ the picnic area. After we set up we headed over to The Water Mine – the water park that includes slides, a lazy river and loads of other fun water play areas. To read more about this fun option, check out the Our Kids review. After spending a few hours at the water park we headed back to our campsite. Skip the showers at the water park and use the family bathrooms at the campsite. Much nicer!
The bathrooms for the bottom four of our family had a large amount of space, making it clean and accessible. We used the family bathrooms, which included a changing area, sink, stall shower, and toilet. The shower and bathroom facility at the campground has recently been renovated and is clean.
We met a nice couple of families camping nearby, and all the kids played together! What a welcoming change from being tied to technology. After a yummy dinner of Applegate hot dogs, macaroni salad, and watermelon, we sat around the fire and chatted. We played charades too. I would recommend using sticks for roasting or bringing foil, as it can get pretty dirty. Each fire pit comes with a grill top, so you can roast a variety of food. We easily set up our campfire, which was contained in the fire pit.
The only drawback of staying at our ruined site was that it wasn’t definitely quiet after 10pm, as the music blared from the neighboring campers’ site. Unfortunately, there were more people allotted to that area than us. We weren’t lucky in this area. While we were soundly sleeping like sweet angels, knowing that we had great neighbors camping on the bank, my husband and I were lucky enough to chat for another 2 hours and sit around the fire. As evening approached, we settled in and put our girls to bed in the tent.
Organizing our upcoming family camping expedition, we set off the following morning following breakfast. In general, our daughters thoroughly enjoyed it and it is certainly a subject of discussion within our household. This proved to be a cozy camping experience that enabled them to have a taste of the wilderness.