Lake Fairfax Campgrounds

Base Camp near Washington DC Most recent stay was June 27th thru July 1st 2017 - I'm "late" in posting my review ~ We camp in a Little Rig "Tear Drop” style RV only 15' long w/o toilet or shower ~ plus we like to eat outdoors using the picnic table and set up our dining canopy for sun and weather protection and thus rely on condition of campgrounds facilities and being nearby our site ~ so our critique is focused in that area. Our site 61 was close to restroom/shower building, a modern newer facility [typical government] with painted cement block walls and cement floor. Restrooms had separate entrance from showers which were large private individual rooms with a shower stall, toilet, and sink. This campground is operated and maintained by Fairfax County with a camp host on site. Cleaning of restroom/shower done every morning but appeared it was only a partial cleaning at best with hosing down the floors and maybe that’s all – see my photos – was like that all 5 days of our stay. The walls were high but open ceiling with exposed rafters – I suppose for improving ventilation, but it didn’t help much because there was no air movement; stuffy after the shower. Also drainage problem in all showers, leaving standing water on the floor after shower but there were no rubber mats to stand when toweling off and paper towels that could have been used to help clean up after using the sinks which remained messy. Our site W&E only was in hot sun – no shade trees – other sites had some shade but campground was fully reserved because of holiday (4th of July) and we couldn’t move. Was a good base camp for taking day trips exploring Washington DC. We learned how to navigate public transportation taking Metrorail at Wiehle Station in Reston [close by 10 min drive] to Union Station Washington DC city center. It's highly recommend instead of driving to DC in extremely heavy traffic and then good luck trying to find a parking lot.

Large, beautiful park in the middle of the high-tech Reston Virginia area (dozens of fine restaurants and shopping within a mile or two). We camped in a motorhome, but there were also plenty of tents, trailers, pop-ups, and fifth wheels at the park. We had a very large grass site with gravel lot, picnic table, and fire ring. The county park itself has a skateboard park, water park (extra fee), many trails through the woods, sports fields (active every day with soccer and other sports), and more. The bathhouse was in the middle of the campground and was new and clean. Since the sites are electric-only, we used the bathhouse frequently to conserve our water. A separate fresh water fill and dump station are near the bathhouse. I'd give the park five stars if it had water/sewer hookups at the sites. $45 a night is pretty expensive for electric-only, but it's one of the only parks near Washington DC. The new DC Metrorail station in Reston opens in July 2014 and is only a mile or two from the park, giving easy train access to DC sightseeing.