Vail Lake is a large reservoir in western Riverside County, California, located on Temecula Creek in the Santa Margarita River watershed, approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of Temecula.
It covers approximately 1,100 acres (4.5 km²) and has a storage capacity of 51,000 acre feet (63,000,000 m3), although it currently contains about 34,000 acre feet (42,000,000 m3) of water.
It was created in 1948 when the owners of the Vail Ranch constructed the 132-foot (40 m) high Vail Lake Dam, which has been owned and operated by the Rancho California Water District since 1978.
Vail Lake is supplied by storm water runoff from Kolb, Temecula, and Wilson Creeks. Surface water stored in the lake is used to help replenish local ground water supplies through recharge operations.
The property surrounding Vail Lake is privately owned, and recreational access to the lake is privately controlled. The Butterfield Country Recreation Park was established in 1968 to provide public access to the lake and its marina, but the park was closed by its owners in 1989. In 1995, a members-only resort facility was opened at the location of the former park; and in 2000, the area was re-opened to the public on an annual-fee basis. Recreational activities at Vail Lake include fishing, boating, RV and tent camping, horseback riding, mountain biking, miniature golf and swimming.
Land near Vail Lake is the only known native habitat of the endangered flowering shrub Ceanothus ophiochilus, which was named the Vail Lake ceanothus when it was discovered in 1989.
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Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)