Walkabout SANTEE LAKES - Easy Walk 4+ miles no hills - Lunch at the Concession

SUNDAY October 19, 2025 - Santee Lakes walkabout 11AM.

Padre Dam Municipal Water District built Santee Lakes to demonstrate the promise of water recycling.
In 1927, agriculture was the primary use of land in Santee up to the 1940’s. With the construction of the El Capitan Dam, the local aquifer dried up which had supplied the farmers with more than enough water. Santee transformed from a dairy farming area to the fastest growing town in San Diego County in terms of housing development. As a result of the transformation from agricultural area to suburbia, in 1959 Santee’s most pressing water issue was not freshwater supply, but the disposal of waste water.
Ray Stoyer, the General Manager of the Santee County Water District (Padre Dam MWD), had to come up with a plan, and fast. Santee had two options: The first was to join the San Diego Metropolitan System along with other towns in the county and send poorly treated sewage into the Pacific Ocean. This option would be costly and lock Santee into a 40 year contract with the San Diego Metropolitan Sewer System. The second option was to create a new treatment system that could handle Santee’s sewage while meeting the strict State discharge requirements. This was a daunting task considering treatment technology was not well developed in 1959, but Ray Stoyer knew it could be done! Through a multi-stage treatment process, the solids and dissolved substances could easily be removed producing usable water. His idea was to clean the town’s sewage and then offer it as a low-cost water supply for irrigation on golf courses, crops, home lawns, industries, highway beautification and recreational use. By 1961 four lakes were created and recreation was made available on Lake 4 in June 1961. The rest, we’ll say, is history!
Amenities at Santee Lakes include camping, cabin rentals, fishing, boating, playgrounds, walking trails, facility rentals, special events, and approximately 230 bird species.

Bathrooms – 2 locations
Terrain – mostly sidewalks and some dirt trails – no hills
Distance – 4 miles
What to Bring: Water, snack, hat, sunscreen, camera

NOTES ON PARKING: PLEASE READ
Parking: There are 2 options.
#1 - You can drive in at the entrance and pay $4+ for parking. Or
#2 you can park on a local street and just walk in.

Please note the following: KNOW YOUR LIMITS.
Our organizers are not tour guides, we're not rangers. Going out with us is the same as going out with a few friends. Expect the same risks, take the same precautions.

As organizers, we will do our best to give accurate descriptions of the hikes we post. If you're a beginning hiker, a hike's elevation and distance may not mean much to you. Likewise, difficulty ratings are subjective, and a hike that is "easy" to one person may be "moderate" to another.

Err on the side of caution. You're much better off going on a hike that's too easy for you than a hike that's too hard or too dangerous for you. As you go on more hikes with us, you'll become more familiar with our ratings and our descriptions, and you'll learn more about your own limits. Ultimately, it's up to you to keep yourself safe out there. You're an adult. Hike within your abilities.