Lake Fairfax Park Campground

We stayed here for a month as camp hosts and were fortunate to have the only full hookup site in the park. All other RV sites are electric-only. At $45/night, that seems a bit expensive for a county park in the suburbs.

Sites are crushed gravel and few are level.

The bathhouses here are fairly new and some of the nicest I've seen in a campground. There are six private bathroom suites, each with their own sink, toilet, and shower. All are spacious and handicapped-accessible.

There is a fairly nice skatepark near the campground. We liked it, but some other campers seemed irritated by it.

The park roads leading up to the campground are full of potholes and in desperate need of repair. The campground and park are pretty quiet during the week, but the weekends can be busy with family tent campers, group tent campers, and tons of picnickers.

There is a water park on site (The Water Mine) geared toward the elementary school aged crowd. The park also features nice hiking and mountain biking trails. The park trails connect to the extensive Reston trail system, the Difficult Run Trail, and the Cross Country Trail (which you can hike to Great Falls if you're feeling adventurous.)

For trips into DC, the Whiele metro station is about a mile away. Cell phone reception is very good since this is a heavily populated area.

This campground is one small part of a very busy county park with sports, picnic areas, a skateboard park, and more. Since there's no water and sewer, the bathrooms and showers are very important: they're new and are some of the best we've used... huge, private, and heated. The campground is very pretty, with good-sized sites (important to us) and mature trees interspersed throughout. It's not heavily wooded, so you will see your neighbors. The price sounds high for an electric-only campground, but it's appropriate for the region, and is half the price of the only commercial RV park in the area (where your awning almost touches your neighbor's rig). There are miles of hiking/biking trails in the woods, but watch out for ticks on you and your dogs (the campground is very dog-friendly). The skateboard park was very busy (but closed at dusk while we were there), so I suggest getting a campsite on the other side of the campground. All the roads in the park are newly paved, so potholes are no longer a problem. One oddity at the dump station was that the potable water spigot was right next to the sewer dump, while the non-potable (for rinsing sewer hoses, etc.) was further away. I'm not a fan of seeing the potable spigot one foot away from the sewer at a dump station. The DC Metrorail station is just a couple miles away, as is the Reston Town Center with dozens of restaurants and things to do. Due to the excellent location in Northern Virginia, the large sites, and the new bath/shower house, we really enjoyed our stay, and will be back again.

I grew up watching July 4th fireworks at this park so it's nice to be able to spend some time here once again.

This was my first time at the park in my Airstream and the place was empty when I pulled into #24 (which, IMHO, is the best spot in the park since it overlooks the lake). It's quiet, clean and beautiful. The staff are fantastic.

My only complaint is the around the dumpstation:

1. The potable water spigot is 2' from the the dump point. The non-potable spigot, oddly, is about 10' away.
2. When I used the station this morning, it seemed that someone left a mess -- raw sewage -- just short of the dumpstation. I ended up spending a few extra minutes using the non-potable hose trying to wash the sewage over into the dumpstation hole. So gross.

I'll absolutely stay here again though -- it's close to where I grew up and I've had a ton of great memories there. Now that I'm full-timing, I suspect I'll be staying here at least once a month when I'm not out on the road.

Here is a 2019 update from my blog.

https://www.chapter3travels.com/campground-reviews/campground-review-lake-fairfax-park-reston-virginia/

2016 Review:

We camped here for 13 days as we transitioned from our home to our RV, where we now live full time. Unfortunately, when I first made the reservation, whoever I talked to didn't write the reservation down in the right place, so by the time we arrived, someone else had booked our chosen site for several days - meaning we had to move to a different site in the middle of our visit and then come back. That did not make us very happy, but the folks in the office were very apologetic and comped us a night, which I thought was fair.

The campground is very well kept, clean, quiet and convenient for staying in the Metro DC area. During our stay, the last two weeks of July, it was more than half empty, which was awesome. Our biggest complaint is just the price. For $45 per night, most people expect full hook ups, or at least water and electric. Lake Fairfax only has electric. It's just a lot of money for limited connections. That being said, the sites themselves are quite nice, the water and dump are centrally located, and the larger park is very pretty.

In order to save our tanks, we utilized the showers and they were great - large individual rooms with a shower, toilet and sink.

When visiting the DC area, we will definitely stay here again.

We were here out of necessity while the husband went to his office in Herndon. We used to live in the area for about 10 years and had no idea this campground existed! It is pretty awesome. Sites are large and many sites have tree coverage.

Sites are electric only, but there are clean bath houses. The water was piping hot! We saved room in our tanks by using their facilities. We also dumped on our way out at the convenient dump station.

The weekend was busy with Boy Scout troops camping in the group camping, but they were all pretty well behaved. It was definitely quiet in the evenings.

We really enjoyed staying here and will definitely stay here again when the need arises.

Most recent stay was June 27th thru July 1st 2017 - I'm "late" in posting my review ~ We camp in a "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 but 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.

We stayed at this campground in order to visit family in Reston. We had no idea what to expect. But we were pleasantly surprised! This is an average campground in an excellent location. If you want to visit D.C., this would be a good home base. You are only 10 minutes from the Reston Metro stop.

Check in was a little confusing. Apparently we were supposed to stop at the Main Office to check in, but there wasn't a sign indicating this. We knew our site number, so we parked and then backtracked to the office for the official check in.

The approach to the campground itself is uphill and a little windy, but it's very doable. Within the campground, the sites are gravel surrounded by grass and trees. Our site was electric only. The full hookup sites are occupied by long term residents.

The bathroom appears to be new, although we didn't use it. Verizon was good. Lots of over the air TV stations.

All in all, this is an excellent to play explore D.C. from. We will definitely stay here again when in the area.

We stayed here in the spring and again in the fall. The campsites and restroom facilities were OK and the price was right, but what really worked well for us was seeing DC on our bikes.

DC is very bike friendly and there are many places to rent but we wanted to take our own into town. The ride to metro is 25 minutes (4 miles one way). We would ride to the station and either lock our bikes at the secure racks at the station or take them on the train. If you are going to take them on the train, familiarize yourself with the bike rules.

We stayed here in August to do a few things in DC. Our site was big, wooded and private, but right across from the skate park, so some noise until 9:00 or 10:00pm. Bathrooms were nice and clean. We enjoyed the water park one afternoon. The campground was mostly empty mid-week.

Electric only park - dump station and water fill available.

This is a kind-of natur-ey camping area, set within a suburban area. Lake Fairfax Park is well visited, and hosts a waterpark, playgrounds, hiking/biking trails, and a very frequented skatepark.

The RV camping area is decently spaced, with options of 'open' sky or forested back in spaces. All areas of the RV area are nice - although we chose to go with the 'tree' area. The campground was never full in the Fall.

There is also a tent camping area (very hilly and un-level sites), and group camping areas which are heavily used by boy scouts on the weekends.

Showers are clean and hot. Campground was pretty quiet in October.

Loved the access to nature trails - and the ability to hop on the W&OD trail (which you can bike/run on straight into DC).

Didn't love the price ($37/night for 50A only). Didn't love the 15+minute drive to get to any store or coffee shop due to access point of the park. Metro access is 15min drive away - or a 1.5mile walk through trails.

Verizon was weak at 1bar- but easily boostable to 3 bars. Lots of OTA channels.