Best Campgrounds near Carpinteria, CA

Okay, so it looks like a decent site for finding campsites. Lots of popular parks and forests listed, which is helpful for planning! Might give it a try next time I'm looking for a spot

Everything‘s clean and orderly. Pool area is nice with a nice hot tub. Friendly staff and the grounds are well kept. Nice dog park. Not much road noise from the 101. Has all the modern conveniences. And all this comes with a price. It is pricey, but there’s a lot of amenities.

Nice place to spend the night for free. If you park so that the large berm is between you and the freeway it muffles the sound. There is a walk down to the old abandoned highway bridge and you can watch the Coast Starlight carrying passengers South to San Diego and North to Seattle.

Nice campground for a big state park. Good for Hiks and bikes. Some interesting movie TV sets in the area. Decent cell coverage. Best for tents, tight for RVs.

Spent a sunny weekend in site A116. There are showers available in the bathhouses. Amtrac has 12 trains per day on the railline just across the fence from the campground; if train noise bothers you, look elsewhere to stay. Easy access to the beach. Overall a nice family oriented place to camp and enjoy the beach.

We were originally going to do an overnight stay at a gas station or Walmart but had a hard time finding one in this area. Luckily we found this spot which was just a few minutes of the highway. We arrived at night so were pleasantly surprised when the sun came up in the morning and we realized how beautiful it was!

You do need to purchase a $5 Adventure Pass in order to stay here and someone will come around to check in the morning. The fine if you don't have a pass is over $500 so highly recommend you get the pass before arriving for the evening.

Les employés sont super gentils on est arrivé à 19h et c'était ouvert. Choix avec ou sans électricité, petite épicerie, douches bbc et table. Calme et nature au rdv à quelques pas de los Angeles. Ambiance très familiale !

We needed an overnight in Santa Barbara and chose this convenient location. Yes, there is highway noise but it is like white noise to me. The spots are tight but this is a city (and expensive one at that). Plenty of room to park our van and our daughter’s Jeep. Bathrooms are clean. This is not national park camping, so adjust your expectations and you’ll have a great stay! Walking distance to a beach and on a city bus route.

This place really came in handy on our way north. Two notes! The entrance and exit are build for traffic going south, so you have to be comfortable doing a freeway u-turn if you're going north. Not a big deal, and there are lanes that are built for it, but those were my first two ever freeway u-turns. Also: I bet it's quieter if you park with the large "berm" between your car and the freeway. We didn't, and I heard the traffic noise all night long. Beautiful view in the morning.

Ranger woke me up early asking for a permit. He was not agro, as I didn't look like I bum I think that helped. He explained a shell station off the 176 nearby sells $5 day passes and $30 annual.

Three miles from a the grocery and only minutes from north LA, you'll find a basic campground with flush toilets, coin showers, and easily accessible hiking trails. The sites are basic with campfire pit and grill, open space for a tent or rv, and picnic table. The inner circle of sites abuts the bathrooms and is better for groups. The outer rings on three sides have nice views, but some sites on the south side are shorter and abut a fence.

We stayed in site 59 which had a really nice shade tree and great views of a meadow and the cliffs out the back of the site. The sites are fairly open and close to each other, so be prepared to hear everything, and because the campground is close to the city it is popular with groups and families.

The campground was under fire warning all weekend, but faux wood (javalog or duraflame) and charcoal was still allowed. The camphost sold Javalogs, and there were plenty of options at the nearby Albertson's.

The state park is a former movie set and is filled with easily accessible trails for hiking and some for mountain biking. The primary trails were open fire roads with off-shoots to lakes, pools, meadows, and more. It was easy to imagine you weren't anywhere close to the city. During a holiday weekend the trails were fairly busy with day-use hikers, but even then, it was easy to get away and be on trails alone if you wanted. There is also a visitor center in the park, but it has limited hours.
The wildlife is abundant. There is plenty of birdwatching, and coyotes were wandering through the park and campground without fear. If you have a dog with you make sure they don't try join the pack. On a hike right out of the park a few hundred yards, I came across a pair of bobcats—mom and cub—making their way to a running creek.

I'd recommend a visit if you're looking for a close to town escape.

☆ No target shooting allowed ☆ Arrived on a drizzly day & tried going further down the road to other more secluded camping spots. However the dirt road was slick & minivan, loaded down, was slipping & sliding. Backtracked to a nice spot, camaflouged by a small hill, it'll protect my gear tent. This is open castle range.

Place with beautiful ocean view, a lot of space on each campsite. One star less due to Very worn sanitary facilities…… but still working :-) Very crowded on weekends