Lake Elsinore is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. As of 2007, the population was estimated to be 47,634, according to the California Department of Finance. It is the home of the Lake Elsinore Storm baseball club of the California League who play at the Lake Elsinore Diamond. The city is rapidly growing, having added 6,000 new residents per year since 2001. Its relatively inexpensive land prices, proximity to Orange County, and abundance of recreational opportunities has attracted many families to the area's many new subdivisions. Lake Elsinore is located33°40?53?N, 117°20?43?W (33.681381, -117.345328).This places it extremely close to the Orange County line, although it is not customarily associated with "OC culture" in the same way that other neighboring cities are, namely Corona, Diamond Bar, and Long Beach. For instance, new home builders will often depict construction sites in searches for Orange County properties that are technically outside of the Orange County lines, but Lake Elsinore is consistently an Inland Empire or Riverside community even though SR-74 can get you within the boundaries of Orange County just as easily and quickly as can SR-142 for Chino Hills residents [in San Bernardino County] or other surface streets, even freeways, from gateway cities in Los Angeles County.

The Elsinore Grand Prix is a dirt bike motorcycle race that takes place in and around the Lake Elsinore area, starting and finishing in downtown Lake Elsinore. The annual race is usually held in mid-November. The popularity of the event hit its apex in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s drawing the likes of motorcycle greats such as Malcolm Smith and Steve McQueen to name a few. The race has always been set as an “open” format, meaning that anyone can ride, usually only about 200 or so take this event seriously, whereas the rest use it as an opportunity to have fun. In 1971 the documentary movie On Any Sunday by Bruce Brown was filmed. In the mid-1970’s the Elsinore Grand Prix hit a snag, none of the big riders were participating and the event was drawing the wrong crowd, mostly violent motorcycle gangs. The Grand Prix was canceled indefinitely soon afterwards. In 1996 several dirt bike motorcycle riders, with a hint of nostalgia, decided to lobby the City of Lake Elsinore to revive the Grand Prix. Promising that the violent motorcycle gang crowd drawn to the Grand Prix in the 1970’s had gone and that dirt bike motorcycle riding was more of a family event, the city allowed the event to resume on a provisional basis.

Like many other large geographical cities, Lake Elsinore is divided into several smaller communities, such as: Downtown, Canyon Hills, North Lake Elsinore (Northshore), Tuscany Hills, Rosetta Canyon (Ramsgate), NorthPeak, Countryclub Heights, Alberhill (Ranch), Eastlake (Summerly), La Laguna Estates and its general area also includes portions of Wildomar, Cleveland Ridge, Lakeland Village, Sedco Hills, Canyon Lake, Horsethief Canyon and the Temescal Valley. It can take as much as 20 minutes to drive from one side of the city limits to another.

Lake Elsinore Diamond served as a site for the Single A baseball team of The Lake Elsinore Storms, which is a farm team for the San Diego Padres and used to be the farm team for the Anaheim Angles. Also, semi-pro football team, the Riverside-Elsinore Dolphins of the Western States Football League in 1996-98. The stadium now hosts the Banning-Elsinore Eagles of the California Football Association, a minor American football league. It may host the Murrieta Bandits, a professional soccer team in 2007, despite the team's office is based in Murrieta. At this time, neither football or soccer is played at the "Storms Stadium". However, special events such as concerts with stars such as Willie Nelson have appeared there.

On a 1992 Sightings segment, a local citizen group of ten members from Lake Elsinore claimed to share or knew each other in past lives in 1863 Clarksburg, West Virginia. The paranormal television series claimed the small group experienced a rare phenomena called mass reincarnation. The story was covered on a hard-cover novel From Clarksburg to Lake Elsinore: A Profile on Reincarnation published in 1988, but since was out-of-print.

One of the first outlet shopping malls in California was established in northwestern Lake Elsinore in the late 1990s on Collier Road at Nichols Road, just off Interstate 15;the mall now has its own automobile dealership(actually a satellite location for Murrieta Valley Kia).

The City's Visitors Bureau has also been making efforts to expand tourism in the area, however a lack of lodging prevents the city from doing so on a wide scale. Prior to 2006 there were no brand-name Hotels, and even today only one exists in the city limits, The Quality Inn, although steps are being taken to attract hotel chains (Both Best Western and Holiday Inn have announced they are building new hotels in the city).