Visited 5/5/2016 - On our travels down to the Palm Springs Rodeo in Banning, California we traveled from Sacramento to this Lake and camped in our truck camper with our two dogs, Summer and Skye. Lake Success is located 8 miles east of Porterville on Highway 190 in the Central Valley Foothills at 617 feet above sea level. The barren landscape may frighten some folks away, but it has it's own beauty. The tree-less reservoir is on the edge of the Sierra Nevada foothills, near the Sequoia National Forest. Highway 190 is considered as the Gateway to the Giant Sequoia National Forest. This 2,450 acre is primarily used for water storage, fishing and boating, but nothing extremely scenic. Although it is situated next to the Sierra mountains, there are minimal vegetation and trees around this man made reservoir. A few oaks scattered about at best. Anything else is planted. This place is at the southern end of the Sierras, next to the Lower Central Valley. Feeding America's families is just one of the quiet duties of Success Lake in California's fertile Central Valley region. Since the Tule River was dammed in 1961 just outside Porterville, Success Lake has stored water for release to the valley farms that grow grapes, citrus, nuts, olives, apricots, plums and that raise dairy cattle. The lake also acts as a reservoir to store excess spring run-off from the nearby Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, thus avoiding flooding downstream. Since 1989, the Success Dam has also been generating electrical power. All of this occurs in the background as campers, boaters, fishermen and wildlife lovers come to enjoy the expanse of water. Success Lake is the perfect example of putting water to work to serve multiple needs.
View from our campsite on the northeastern side of the Lake. Very quiet campground with a good view of the Lake. Not many shade trees, but very peaceful.
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