Rolling M. Ranch Campground — Chino Hills State Park

While either mountain biking or hiking I can always find a spot to get to with no trouble

Stayed one night and everything was great! Clean showers and restrooms.

If someone dropped you into the middle of this stunning campground, you’d never know that you were surrounded by one of the largest metropolitan regions in the country. This is a quiet, quaint and simple escape from the greater Los Angeles area, shhh don’t tell anyone. The campground is super simple, with sites that fit tents or vans to larger sites for bigger rigs. 

One of the limiting factors for this campground is the winding road in.  In a few spots it narrows down to one lane, so larger rigs might want to look to see if there are any size restrictions on the State Park website. Also, this park is used by a ton of walkers and cyclists from the nearby communities who park outside and roll in by human power- so plan to arrive before rush hour. 

There’s no hookups at any of the campsites so come prepared with your solar power and you’ll have more than you need in this sunny part of the world. The bathrooms were fine with a clean bath house offering single use toilet stalls and warm showers. We arrived in the middle of wildflower season, April, after a particularly rainy winter and spring ‘23, and those blooms were simply off the hook! 

Hiking trails to the nearby hills which provided unique perspectives on the suburban sprawl, began right out of the campground. Opportunities to cycle and hike throughout the park were abundant. Supplies can be gathered in the nearby communities, but the park gate closes at 10PM so plan accordingly.

Really nice basic campground called Rolling M Ranch within Chino Hills SP. We drove up in our 26ft motorhome and while we made it, I’m not sure that I’d want to make that drive again. It’s very narrow and winding, single lane at times, lots of traffic (and so lots of backing up and negotiating around other cars in the narrower sections), and lots of pedestrians/hikers/families walking along the road. It was pretty stressful. 

The campground is nice, free(!) individual unit showers, weak to nonexistent cell service but there’s wifi available through the parks system, I believe it’s free, I can’t vouch for how good it is because I couldn’t get it to work for me from where I was standing. I think it varies and that you have better reception overall in the upper spots. 

Upper spots were not level, but they had a nicer view. Lower spots were more level. Chino Hills State Park is a beautiful place to hike and see wildflowers!

Camping at Chino Hills State Park takes place at the Rolling M. Ranch campgrounds, located deep within the park. From there the assigned spots offer parking, spots to pitch a tent (though not specific tent patches), a picnic table, old school charcoal grill, and a fire pit. Additionally there are many trails throughout the winding hills.

However, on the weekend I stayed there, the park was caught in a paradox: due to rain and a desire to protect the blooming poppies, all trails were closed, and in addition, no wood nor charcoal fires were allowed. 

While this greatly limited my ability to enjoy the entire park, the website did make me aware of these restrictions, so I knew what I was getting in to, and looked forward to some peaceful beginning-of-week camping.

And it was mostly quiet, except when people arrived mid-day and ignored the trail ban, presumably to see the poppies. They had no problem parking in the otherwise-empty camping spots (parking for day use is down the hill), or in my extra car spots, or indeed, walking through my camp site.

But after they left I got to enjoy some solitude, do a little birdwatching, and at night was treated to owls and coyotes calling. I'm looking forward to giving this park another shot when it's fully "open" and when the poppy hikers aren't there.

It is a nice campground in the spring or fall. No shade so avoid in the summer. Enjoyed best if you bring bikes. Dogs allowed.

Good awesome

Sprawling lush green hills? Can’t beat Chino Hills State Park.
The campground itself feels very close together and wide open compared to the space of the park. Gets loud at night if there are too many groups camping. No cell service. Super clean bathrooms and showers.

PET OWNERS BEWARE: Our dog munched on a frog at this campsite and started foaming at the mouth. We rinsed her mouth out with water and she turned out fine, but a smaller dog or a swallowed frog and she could have died from toxicity.

This place literally feels like our back yard. That probably makes sense since a side entrance is only a mile down the road from us.

We hike this several times a month. Its a great place to go wander and feel lost, yet realize there’s a gas station right down the street (or in our case, home 😁). This park, and the hundreds of smaller parks dotted around the residential neighborhoods is one of hundreds of reasons why we love calling Chino Hills home.

Occasionally I work in Orange County so often I get to ride my motorcycle through Chino Hills State Park on the 142 through Sleepy Hollow on an incredibly regular basis. There is not an aspect to this park we don’t love and the wildlife here along with the seasonal changes make this place a wonderful escape from the daily life that can be Southern California. Great for day trips, picnics, and general fun. But be warned in the summer it can be deceiving, Chino Hills is lovely in the shade, but it gets HOT in direct sunlight, way hotter than most people remember to account for so bring plenty of water, and extra ice. Also realize that while there are main trails many people have a tendency to do their own thing so watch the main trails because off shoots tend to start/stop very abruptly.

Chino Hills State Park has a campground with a small number of spots. These hills are amazing after a good rain. This year it was a good place to see the wildflowers. Unfortunately the campground has been closed for awhile due to water line construction but should open in December 2019.  There's plenty of restrooms and parking. There's also a number of hiking trails that leave from the campground.  The only cell service is on top of the closest hill.  Its a good spot for a quick getaway from the city.

This is close to home but far enough to make a nice getaway. Lots of trails to hike very pretty in the winter,spring.been there in the fall and not a lot in summer.it has restrooms and showers and water. Campsites are large enough for 8 person tent there are BBQ ‘s picnic tables at each site and hook pole for your lantern dumpster available for trash. Not a lot of trees ,again SoCal environment

This is a nice, small campground with easy access to many freeways.  Despite being so close to the freeways, the way the campground is situated in a Valley at the back of the park, you can’t see any neighborhoods or really hear the traffic.  We camped during the spring and the place was beautiful!  There is limited shade, which would make camping here on a hot weekend pretty tough.  Currently there are no camp fires allowed. There are nice flush toilets and free showers.  The sites don’t have hookups. In March the park closes to non camping vehicle traffic at 5:00pm, which gives campers the place to themselves.