Best Glamping near Campo, CA

This campground felt more like I was glamping. Everything was easily accessible and by that I mean; a toilet, running water, and showers. We slept in our tent which felt pretty amazing being that the weather was perfect. I’d highly recommend visiting this camp site in the cooler months.

Let me first off say that the property is beautiful and that my hosts Carolyn and Bernie were very accommodating and had great energy.  Plenty of room for beautiful hikes on their many acres of land packed with some great views a few decks scattered around the property.  I found out they have a full size professional disc golf course here! I don’t bring my discs, but Carolyn and Bernie happily lent me some discs so I could try it out. 

Now to the Glamping- now I been camping a bunch, the reason I say that this is glamping is that they have actual running water flushable toilets and outdoor hot showers!  I can’t tell you how excited I was lol, it really upleveled the whole camping experience. They also have an industrial kitchen as well as an outdoor bar where they have very fairly priced beer and wine. Did I mention they have a full size professional pool table? Turns out Bernie and Carolyn are professional pool players too! This place is awesome! I will definitely be coming back again again to relax. I live in sd so it’s only about 35-40min drive from my place.  Thank you so much Carolyn and Bernie for such a great experience!!

Went here with friends and it was nice but there are way too many RV'S and ATV'S. there's no place to have a fire because there might be a wild fire outbreak. Bathrooms are clean and the showers are free. There are even halls where you can play BINGO and a game room with Wii games. Camping spots are big enough for 2 8 person tents or 1 small rv and a 4 person tent. If you want to glamping this is a good place but if you want to tent camp I would look somewhere else.

This is hands down the best campground around. The facility is spotless, extremely clean, environment is awesome where everyone is friendly and they put so much effort into making it fun for the kids with activities at the kids club, bike and trike rentals, a super modern pool and awesome gift shop on top of huge jumping pillows, playgrounds and a giant backyard. It’s our favorite camping spot and everywhere we go is unmatched to here. The kids usually ride around the site and you’re in the middle of San Diego so you can go to the beach, Legoland, Sea World go out to eat or door dash some food! Definitely convenient to everything and the best way to glamp!

Nice spacious sites at this county run campground near the border. Lots of shade trees. Trails, playground, cabins for rent and pavilion that can be rented for large group meetings/dinners.

Easy drive to Campo with its historic train rides and museum @ the old Campo store. Fascinating historical area including former Italian POW camp from WWII.

Nice basic county campground, everything is nice and new and clean. I think once the trees and bushes and things start to grow in, there will be a little bit of separation between the sites, but for now most sites are wide open. 

The playground area is really cool, all the structures are made of wood and are all natural. Decent showers, you buy tokens from the ranger. There are nice trails and walking paths right from the campground. We didn’t walk to the beach because the area was flooded when we were there, but it appears that you can easily walk to the beach from the campground, it’s about 1.5 miles away. 

Sites are all dry camping, no power or water at sites, and no dump station at campground. There are water spigots throughout the campground though to fill your jugs. There are yurts to rent, and some equestrian sites as well. The little loop off to the side is tents only. 

You can see the border wall from the campground, and Verizon thought I was in Mexico when we arrived, haha. Good cell service with ATT and Verizon (not sure if Verizon switched me to the international plan during our stay there).

68-year old, still tenderfoot tent camper. This was my first experience in California after three prior stays in Texas and Arizona. The San Diego County system centrally handles reservations of its campgrounds, which was fortunate for me. I mistakenly reserved one campground thinking it was another (my preferred, Potrero), but it was 30 miles away. Even though I paid for two nights in advance, their phone reservations help was superb and got me transferred without any hiccups. Big shout-out to the ranger at Potrero for suggesting. I interacted with several and they were all professional, friendly and helpful.

There's one central plumbed restroom and shower facility. Further out along the tent sites there was a hand portapotty. When you first drive in you'll go past a very large day-use area with its own facilities before you get to the overnight camping sites. Alcohol is permitted if alcohol content < 20%.

My site #7 was the last in the row of tent-only sites and appeared to be the largest with plenty of shade and flat pad site. Without seeing other tents it's a little hard to gauge size, but I'd guess walking by the other sites that there's probably at least 80-100 feet between tent pads, or even more. Lots of open spaces. The seven tent sites shared a couple (maybe more) of water spigots.

The primary annoyance was with the park's neighbors who seemingly had a whole pound of dogs who barked loudly through the nights. Given how otherwise silent it was, it was the barking was noticeable and to be distinguished from the coyotes, birds and owls. I think I also heard roosters crowing each morning as early as 3am.

The major event of my stay was the arrival of, as Steely Dan sang, "Here come those Santa Ana winds again …" At 5 a.m. the first morning, it was still and quiet as can be (sans the neighborhood dogs). A few minutes later, the winds hit. For the next 11 hours, surviving the wind 30-40 mph sustained winds, gusts over 50 was the only concern – both for my little tent and my car and myself due to the wind effects on the large trees surrounding us. In the end, there was no noticeable damage but seldom have I spent a full day out in the weather like that.

All in all, I'm not sure you could ask for more at about $25/night. Although I would've paid double if there were a no-wind option. I also had two great tent parties my second night, a couple about my age who were returning to California after summering in Baja, and a young woman from Germany traveling by herself around the world. Interesting neighbors to say the least.

At site #7 I had zero T-Mobile signal. Outside the Ranger Station I could get at most, 2 bars LTE.

General: The Borrego Palm Canyon campground has three sections: one with full hookups and two without. 

Site Quality: It is often windy here, so it was recommended we pull in at an angle. The driveways are paved and on the short side, but our campervan fit with no problem (I would assume if you have a larger RV, you might be in the section with the full hookups.)

Bathhouse: Individual units with flush toilet, sink, garbage receptacle, and hooks but NO soap dispenser. Showers take tokens and while they were not the worst campground showers, they weren’t the best (but a hot shower after a hot hike was welcome nonetheless). Tokens were 50 cents each for two minutes. 

Activities: numerous hiking trails, accessible from the campground. The most popular one is the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail which leads to the oasis of California Fan Palms. Sadly, the oasis was damaged by a human-caused fire and while you can see the palms, you can no longer walk among them. Galleta Meadows with metal sculptures in the nearby town of Borrego Springs is well worth exploring. 

We were there at the very end of March when it was just beginning to get (too) warm. We only did an overnight here and the Borrego Palm Canyon hike, but it was beautiful and we would definitely return.

We spent a weekend here, and so did many families and dogs and hikers and bikers. One big group had a get together in the tent area. The park was not full when we arrived, and did fill up on Friday evening. We had full hook ups. The electric sites offer 50, 30, or 20 amp and seem recently updated. The walk to the lake was nice. The staff is great at maintaining the property. We found the spaces to be not private enough, and would avoid coming back on a weekend.

Watch your children that like yo play on the ground. There are fire ants everywhere and the yellow jackets would swarm every time there was food. The water pressure was at the highest 40psi and at times would go down to 0. The electric also would surge causing my LED lights to flicker.

The lake is very low, no boating. The shower is not that great and quarters operated. Most of the sites are level but some are not, but plenty of space at the sites.

This San Diego County campground owes one of its stars to the only local business that has WiFi for travelers (my T-Mobile had zero bars, no coverage at all). That business is .25 miles from the campground and goes by names including "the malt shop," "the malt liquor shop", "Oak Shores Store," or "the only place in town with WiFi." It's a small multi-functional burger grill, ice cream store, convenience store, and well-stocked (if your beer tastes run solely to IPA) beer/wine store. The park allows alcohol only up to 20% alcohol content.

The shower and restroom facilities are good, the shower had plenty of hot water, 4 minutes for $.50, longer for more quarters. The campsites would be cramped if you had 3 or more in a row occupied. It's a confusing maze of one-way, one-lane 'streets' that aren't always consistent in their "one-way" and are number sequentially along the one-ways, site numbers only visible from the correct direction, but the signage for turns refers to the order that you'll come upon the sites, not numerically (i.e., "Sites 80-67"). 

This Lake Morena area has obviously seen its better days and probably not likely to regain the days when the lake was full. I won't be returning, but I did enjoy my three nights there. The ranger staff was helpful and attentive, with regular patrols.

We visit this site a few times a year. Always clean, plenty of shade at most sites. Pic is view from spot 80.

 The Lake Morena campground is well-kept and relaxing. It has a variety of sites including full-hookup, partial hookup, and tent only. The restrooms (flush toilets) are located in the middle of the grounds. They were large and clean and usually well-stocked with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels. There were also two shower stalls on each side (men’s/women’s) which took quarters. At the time of our stay, one of the women’s showers was not accepting any quarters and wasn’t working. The other one had a pretty badly clogged drain, but was still usable. Many sites have a partial view of the lake. One highlight of the campground is all of the birds! We saw woodpeckers, cowbirds, bright yellow orioles (?), wild turkeys, and several other species right by our campsite. Our tent-only site(#75) was huge! Plenty of space for multiple tents and 2 cars, though it really only had shade in the afternoon. My one complaint is that the main hiking trail by the lake (Morena Lake Trail) was way longer than the map said and you couldn’t see the dam from the end! From campsite #1 to the end of the trail and back was 5.9 miles! Beware! All in all, we really liked this campground and would come back again. It would be really great for a group and there’s even an indoor pavilion you can rent.

This was a hidden gem. It was clean, well maintained and the rangers continually patrol the camp. It was quite even with multiple family groups. The views of the lakes and mountains are breathtaking. Lots of wildlife to see. Bobcats, deer, quail, rabbits and wild turkeys. Good internet if on Verizon network

Stayed in space 10, a partial hookup with a view of the lake. They have full and partial hook up spaces and "primitive" tent only sites.

Partial hook up had water in camp and an electrical box with 2 kinds of shore power and a 2- 110 outlets for $29.

Ranger was nice, bathroom was clean, neighbors are close when it's full, but I was there off season. It's a San Diego county park, reserve through their website. You can't book online for same day camping, so check the county website for how many spaces are available then pay on site, cash or charge. There is a small store at the day use area (I didn't go in), and a boat launch. You can rent boats to go out on the lake. No swimming allowed.

There is a mating pair of bald eagles near the dam that has 2 growing babies. Ask the ranger to tell you where to go to see them.

I loved how accessible this campsite was, especially if you're coming from San Diego. Our site had electricity and water, a fire pit, and a picnic table. There were plenty of sites to go around. The rangers were helpful and the facilities were very well maintained. You can buy firewood from the front entrance or get some from the local general store down the street. There were coin operated showers available and bathrooms at each end of the campground. It did get pretty hot during the day, so I would bring a canopy if you have one. My boyfriend and I hit the trails in the afternoon and at night. We saw wild turkeys and the stars were endless. Overall, I loved staying here. This was a perfect escape from the madness going on right now.

Our fist stop while hiking the PCT They have showers local food is great Through hikers camp for a small fee