Burnt Rancheria Campground

Mount Laguna is a wonderful destination if looking for some fresh mountain air without a long commute being just 30-45min drive from San Diego. We really enjoyed our time at this campground. Lots of wonderful trails right from the campground. Sites are nice with lots of tree for more privacy. Restroom facilities were pretty nice. Would come back again!

This campground is a great little hidden gem of a getaway tucked into the Laguna mountains just 50 or so miles from San Diego. At alt 6000 feet in mountain forests, you feel like you are far away from it all. The camp sites are generously spaced adding to the seclusion. It is a family campground, so just know the weekends are going to be full of kids and pets, but weekday camping will present the peace of wind and birds. Bathrooms are clean and water is available everywhere. Not many spaces for big rigs, but lots if you’re in the 20’ range. One whole section is fir first-come, first-serve.

Access to the PCT for a stretch of very easy hiking right out of the campground. A cafe at the entrance and a general store up the road a couple of miles.

Advise stopping at a local grocery for firewood, tho. Is expensive ($8/bundle) at the campground and it’s not even local. They have it shipped in.

Lastly the price here is not $25/ nite as listed. At yhe time of this writing (4/2022) it is $29/nite

We spent three nights at Burnt Rancheria with perfect weather, great hiking and biking opportunities and a well-maintained and peaceful campsite.

Only an hour from San Diego, this is accessible but feels so far away. At 6,000 feet, the pine and oak trees provide great shade in almost all sites, but there's still plenty of sun. Bathrooms were clean; some are pit toilets and others are flush and even have showers. All sites have a picnic table and fire pit, plus there are lots of potable water spigots throughout. The Mt Laguna store is only half a mile up the road, the Desert View hike goes right out from camp (plus the PCT), and there are many other hikes along the highway.

Stayed in site 33 and 35.

Area has loads of trees and shade. The bathrooms are clean and there are several throughout the camp ground. The sites are fairly close together which we didn’t mind cause we were camping with another group. PCT is close by if you want to do some hiking.

 My family and I recently camped at Burnt Rancheria Campground in the Laguna Mountains. The campground looks like a classic mountain campground. It was beautiful with so many trees(mostly oak and pine) and shrubs! We noticed that there was a great variety of campsites that seem to offer very different experiences. There were some in wide open meadows where you could see all of your neighbors. Some were in small clusters. And others felt much more secluded in the forest. Also, there was a great difference in the amount of shade and flatness available. Thankfully our site (#207) was pretty secluded and offered ample shade, but it was on a pretty significant incline. There was only one semi-flat spot for our tent. The campground is very well-kept and the bathrooms were probably the cleanest campground bathrooms I’ve ever seen! The campground hosts seemed very pleasant and even offered firewood delivery to your site. Thanks to the ample forest there were plenty of birds, squirrels, and even a gopher we were able to watch. We look forward to returning.

Love this place. We have gone back year after year! It is the first place my wife and I went camping together and the first place we took our kids. The campground attendants are fantastic and the little diner down the road is great. Will definitely keep coming back while we're in the area.

It was my first time at Burnt Rancheria, but not the last. I was impressed with the cleanliness, and the spacious and well-spaced spots. It was super kid friendly and for pets as well, but never too loud. The hikes are gorgeous and easy for small ones to manage. I would highly recommend this campground ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

This campground is amazing. I was there for a couple days this last week. It is so clean. The hosts and manager are so friendly and helpful. They are all very conscious about the coved crisis. They all where masks, and keep all of the facilities extremely clean. They clean the bathrooms and showers multiple times a day. They also make multiple rounds through the campgrounds to ensure everything is ok and bring wood to the campers. The camp sites themselves are also very clean. You'd be hard pressed to find a gum wrapper on the ground. My wife and I are definitely planning on going back this year. Be aware: if you want to be guaranteed a campsite reserve one in advance. There are still some first come first serve sites, but many are reservable.

Only open match to october. Very quiet during week. Busy during weekends. Clean restrooms. Slot of Pacific coast trail hikers going north in spring.

Awesome spaces, some right next to the PCT. Try to go in fall. Seems like it’s full of great people too, everyone we met was friendly.

Big campsites, lots of shade trees, black oaks I think. Not much critters to deal with. Clean bathrooms. Located near hiking trails.

A great campground for San Diego. Great, mountainous feel with pine, Sycamore and oak trees (mostly pine). Campground itself is very clean and well maintained. But there are large groups all around us partying, playing loud music and dogs barking nonstop. We’ve gotten used to dispersed camping so maybe this is just how established campgrounds are nowadays? Or maybe we just came on the wrong weekend. I’m sure midweek would be nice and quiet. It’s not that bad. It’s just really noisy.

This camping is really good, spots are large and great and landscapes around are beautiful. Water, flush toilets and coins hot showers are available. I loved this place. I just take one star off because of the owner, he was really not polite and not nice.

The ground are very clean as well are the toilets and showers. Some spaces are small but there at spaces that are big enough for an RV or travel trailer.

Can’t believe we got a last minute spot here! This is one of my favorite local campgrounds. Site had lots of shade from the hot HOT sun. Vault toilets but a unanimous approval of the toilet paper. Great hike right out of the campground but we opted to drive down the road to Laguna Campgound and hike the flat lake area.

I love this campground because it's woodsy and close to home.  You get that far away feel without being too far away.  There are a lot of first-come sites, which I don't like because I'm a planner, but there are some reservable sites too.  There's lots of hiking nearby and the sites feel private enough if you stick to the outskirts.

Abundant amount of campsites. Half the loops are reservations and the other half aren’t, which is great for last minute planners such as myself. Not sure if it was just my campsite (Lilac Loop site #20), but there seemed to be a lot of flies buzzing around, which did get annoying. Very impressed by the cleanliness of the vault toilets. I will definitely be returning to try a site in the mahogany or cherry loop.

Big campground with multiple loops. We stayed on the Pinyin Loop #51. A nice private site. Has good tree coverage from the street, no neighbors in sight. It does have a small driveway that we were able to shoehorn a full-size truck, SUV and a Jeep into. The AM sun beats the campsite, but the afternoon shade is great.

Quick drive from San Diego, some shady sites, some open sites. Nice hiking / biking near meadows. Can be windy at times. Compost toilets. Temp can get pretty hot in the summer.

This campground is well designed for tent and small rv camping. The particularly site I stayed at did not have a lot of level ground for tents. The sites are generally spaced far enough apart to give you a bit of privacy. The host was very attentive and regularly made rounds to sell firewood. The facilities are mainly pit toilets but during peak season there is a shower available somewhere though I didn’t use it. Loads of hiking right off the campgrounds. You can walk right out of the forest to a great view of anza borrego desert. This is one of the few campgrounds in California where you don’t really need to worry about bears, though you should be wary of mountain lions.

This campground is an easy weekend getaway slot, just 1 hour away from San Diego. Sites and facilities are clean amd well maintained. The campground back up to the Pacific Crest Trail which makes for some cool hikes. All sites are also dog friendly, a plus for us. The only downside is that some sites are small and the campground can get crowded during summer season and holidays.