A Plug for Pinto Lake Park

Pinto Lake Park, Watsonville, CA.

    While I fished here at Pinto Lake sometime in the 1950s for bluegills when the lake was in the country to the north-east of Watsonville, things have changed during the last half-century. The lake is now surrounded by houses. Nonetheless, there are still people fishing in the lake daily; and ducks, geese, and quail are here in this city park.

    While the park's gates are generally open from 0700 to 1700, at least during the winter, the best way to contact Pat, the RV Park Manager, is via the Pinto Lake Park Website. The overnight rate is $28 for most RVs -- without the 9-12% tax you'll find at other RV parks in Santa Cruz County or adjacent counties.

 

    And there's something new here at Pinto Lake: WiFi. While your access will vary depending on the range of your computer's WiFi adapter, you can always move closer to the office if you absolutely have to be on-line. [N.B. As I left for a few days on 4 Jan, Park Mgr Pat told me a repeater was to be installed that day; that may improve the stability of the WiFi, especially when virtually everyone is using it.]

    Or, you can find free WiFi at such Watsonville or Freedom stores as McDonalds, Starbucks, Safeway, most coffee shops and some Burger Kings as well as at most libraries and their branches.

    Once you've registered at the Pinto Lake Park, you can obtain a key to the lock on the front gate for a $5 deposit in case you need or want to eat at a restaurant, do some shopping, see a movie, etc. after the gate is locked in the evening.

    Here's my rig, the smallest one in the park, next to that of a couple from Iowa; he's a Korean War vet who taught at and coached football at Calexico HS many moons ago.

    Finally, if you're a fisherman, check out this 2007 article on The Fish Sniffer.

    While there are no RV sites at the northern end of Pinto Lake where the Santa Cruz County Parks Department maintains a dawn to dusk park, you may be interested in, among other things, the fishing pier. Here a link to the County's Pinto Lake Park.

Th 30 Dec 10 Route: Pinto Lake - Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake
Th 6 Jan 11 Route: Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake