Crystal Lake Rec Area Campground

We stayed at Crystal Lake campground on Friday the 13th! Luckily we arrived before 3pm as the campground was pretty full by 6pm. I give it 4 stars for being about 90min from Corona. However it is close to LA and there is still a lot of graffiti at the pit toilets and the group next to us was pretty rowdy all night. Sites are all pretty well shaded. Crystal Cafe sold firewood by the wheel barrel and only $20! I’m glad camp fires were allowed as the temperature dropped pretty quick once the sun went down.

I didn’t stay overnight at this campground, but rather used it as the parking place for my day hike to Throop peak. I arrived at 9am on Labor Day, and I was pleasantly surprised that  there were still plenty of parking spots available in the day use area. I use the vault toilet, and wasn’t the cleanest. At the end of my hike, as I was passing through multiple campsites, almost all of them had a boombox playing loud music. To each their own I guess, but I personally prefer the sounds of nature while camping.

Very cool place, quiet, lots of places for tents. Very nice and friendly people work at the cafe at the entrance. There is a lake nearby. We'll come again!