Lakeside River Park

I’ve never known about this place before, but only stumbled upon it because of the Walker Preserve. This park is off Industry Rd. but also has a entrance on Channel road down the street. The walker preserve path dumps right onto the trail in the back of the park towards the golf course. When walking through the park you have plenty of trees giving shade, a well defined path and a nice look out point to the lake towards the end. All the fences were shut when I was here but it appears there are trails that go around the lake as well. The park is relatively clean and up kept for the most part. The trails are multi use for bikes, runners, and horses. The parking lot on Channel rd. is big enough for horse trailers.

Such a great hidden gem in lakeside! The walk seems to be the perfect length and great to take dogs on! You get a pretty view of the San Diego River and of the willowbrook golf course. Everyone is always really friendly on the path. If you start on the east end you end on the west with a really cool collection of cactuses.
In the middle of the trail there is a cool gazebo that overlooks the river.
Path is easy and great for beginners and for a nice morning walk/​jog.

One of my favorite little trail runs in east county. Always feel safe and it’s never a busy place to run, walk or bike. It will be great when it connects to the Santee trail by Lakeside National baseball fields.

Sucks that there is no access from the South side where most of Lakeside folks live. The idea that old farm houses rank higher than say letting dogs swim where they have for decades is also a bummer. A dirt flat road is not a trail.

Nice jogging trail, but it has a very look but don’t touch appeal which I something I can’t stand. The water mark is open to the public regardless of what the sign’s say. I grew up fishing the whole chain so I hope this trend does not continue. It would be very cool if this trail went all the way to the ocean. Although there is a monstrous task to under take for that to happen. Homeless drug addicts and illegal aliens infest several parts. Seeing the river cleaned up would be great but keep it accessible to fish! Very few free outdoor type stuff for kids to do nowadays.

Cool little trail! I have been working near here for the last few months and heard about it from a co-​worker and finally checked it out the other day. There’s trees and a view of a golf course all along the way. There’s also a small lake/​pond with a deck that was a nice little surprise. The trail is dirt, so don’t wear flip flops (like I did). I’ll probably never go out of my way to come walk here, but for a close walk near work it was super awesome!

The San Diego River Trail, Lakeside Reach, is a pretty and enjoyable place for a walk, jog, bike ride, or jaunt on your horse, (if you have one. We’re talking about Lakeside, after all !) The east trailhead is on Channel Road, and the west trailhead is on Riverside, about 2 blocks east of Palm Row. The trail is about ¾ of a mile long, and if you add Riverside Drive to the trail as a loop back to your starting point, it will increase the distance to 2 miles. The trail is a prepared surface, and all flat terrain. One side looks down on the lush San Diego River bottom and a couple of ponds, while the other side of the trail is the back side of the golf course at Willowbrook Country Club Mobile Estates, (which is not exactly natural, but pretty just the same.). The trail is open 7 days a week from dawn to dusk, and has several benches along the way, and two beautiful prepared observation areas, one at each end. On the negative side, there is no parking lot (yet), requiring on street parking, and the trail has been built as an afterthought, so that some of the views include less beautiful neighboring areas that let you know that Lakeside wasn’t built as a planned community, and that many of the early zoning decisions were based on utility, not aesthetics. Overall, this is a great choice for a pleasant leisurely walk or an exercise path. (Just watch out for horse poop on the trail ! Lakeside, remember?) If and when the land can be obtained to connect all the trail sections from the mountains of Julian down to the Ocean, the resulting trail will be around 50 miles long, and should be quite the trip.

I lived in Lakeside for about a year a had heard of this trail though a friend of mine and finally went to check it out. It has a nice well maintained trail that runs along the San Diego River. Walkers, runners, cyclists, dogs on leashes and equestrians would all enjoy it. It has an observation deck overlooking the East Pond and a lower overlook near the West Pond. The trail head is on Channel Rd next to the sand mining co.