Best Glamping near Carrizo Plain National Monument

The resort offers RV camping, cottages Airtream rentals, canned ham rentals and safari tent glamping. Endless amenities include soccer field, basketball court, bocce ball, pool/spa, playground, store, restaurant, LP refills, self service ice machine, firepit rentals, covered bike parking. Impeccably clean and well maintained. The site staff is very friendly, helpful and quietly accomplishes their tasks with hardly any disturbances to campers. Much appreciated. Was pleased to see roaving security regularly.

Good experience overall. There are many kinds of sites including full hook up, partial, primitive, cabins & yurts. Many sites have views of the lake.

We just spent one night at Cachuma Lake (a Sunday), camping near Chumash Meadows. The tent camping sites were probably only ~30% full, which made for a very peaceful (albeit short) stay! The sites are big with picnic tables and fire pits, and many are shaded by large trees. The nearby toilet block was clean, as were the showers (a little further away). Our tent site had a view out to the lake, and was a bargain! 

There is a store (with a not-so-great assortment of goods), a restaurant and a fishing/boat hire shop. The roads and paths make for great cycling, and there are trails to explore too.

We drove through the whole camp ground checking out the various areas (full RV sites, partial RV sites, tent sites, yurts & cabins). The full RV sites were (not surprisingly) still pretty full, even in mid-October, but the rest were not. We loved the campground, and plan to return for longer next time. Its proximity to cute little nearby towns is a bonus!

The lovely county run park in the hills above the Santa Barbara coastline, is a great campground offering a wide variety of camping experiences from full hook ups to grass covered spaces under the trees along the shores of this lovely reservoir. The sites offer the usual camp picnic table and fire ring, and the many group sites offer large grills and even a few picnic shelters. 

The sunshine is typically abundant in this California park, and even without full hook ups you can easily get all the power you need with an appropriately sized solar panel system. We’ve run on solar for over 10 years, and it saves us thousands of dollars each year for our full-time camping life. 

The flush bathrooms are clean and spacious. Water spigots were plentiful throughout the campground. The coin operated showers got the job done, but since we were there during a chilly March, things could have been warmer. But hey, everything important got clean… 

The lake is perfect for boating, but since it’s a drinking water reservoir, there is no body contact with this body of water. So plan on using the campground pool to cool off during the summer months. Hiking and mountain biking trails are abundant throughout the area, and kayaking, canoeing, fishing or sailing on the lake is the perfect way to spend the afternoon. 

The campground offers some excellent yurts and cabins for nightly rent right on the shores of the lake. These are often booked out so plan ahead. 

The camp store offers enough grocery supplies in case you forgot something, including ice, snacks, fire wood, and gas.  There is also a cool pub down by the boat ramp which offers live music in the weekends.  The nearby tourist town of Solvang offers a great day trip to sample the amazing Dutch pastry treats, pick up some groceries, wine tasting, or a night out on the town.

I am a native of Santa Barbara, CA, so I grew up going to Cachuma Lake. Cachuma Lake’s main recreational area is on a bluff overlooking the lake. There you can find tent sites, yurts, cabins, and full hookups for RVs. There are also smaller campgrounds at lake level - we prefer to stay in the Mohawk Shores campground, which is at lake level. The Mohawk Shores campsites are in a more densely packed oak grove, offering more shade and more privacy than the upper-level campgrounds. A few years ago they started pricing the “lakeside” sites in Mohawk more expensively than the rest of the sites in the area; ironic though, since the lake has been so empty the last few years due to the drought, and these sites are no longer lakeside.

The campsites each have their own picnic table and firepit with a grate, and water spigots are available in various places around the campground. Mohawk has its own bathroom with flushable toilets and coin-operated showers - the bathrooms and showers are kept clean. I prefer to shower in the showers located in the upper-level campgrounds, as they are in their own individual, lockable stalls, rather than the locker-room type set up in the bathroom in Mohawk. There are multiple dumpsters available for trash AND recycling around all of the campgrounds.

Caution: There is a lot of poison oak around the park!

We have rented a yurt a couple times, and hope to do so again soon. The yurts have bunk beds inside (bring your own bedding!), an overhead light, and a heater. Outside each yurt is a picnic table, charcoal barbeque, a firepit, and a water spigot.

We will often bring an easy-up to use in the day-camp areas in the upper-level of the park. There are oak trees all over the park, but if day use site with a table under a tree gets snagged, it’s nice to have the easy-up for shade - if you have one, I would recommend bringing an easy-up if you are going to camp in the upper level campgrounds, not all of the sites have shade.

A small but well-stocked general store is available, as well a small (expensive) gas station. Cachuma also has a pool (for an additional fee), gameroom, playgrounds/jungle-gyms, and disc golf courses available.

Cachuma Lake is a great place for wildlife viewing and birding. I am a photographer, and love seeing all of the birds that hang out around Cachuma - ducks, coots, Western and Clark’s grebes, loons, osprey, hawks, turkey vultures, turkeys, quail, American white pelicans, cormorants, etc. I have gotten my best birding photos at Cachuma Lake. Deer can often be viewed on the shores of the lake, and we have even seen bobcats and foxes. Pontoon boat tours to view wildlife launch every day from the marina.

Keep in mind that you CANNOT SWIM in Cachuma Lake. Silly, I know, but they justify it because Cachuma lake is Santa Barbara’s drinking water source. You are allowed to boat, kayak, and fish on the lake, but no swimming! Motor boats and pontoon boats are available to rent, and now they even have kayaks to rent hourly! My dad has a small 14 ft fishing boat, and we enjoy taking the boat out on the lake to fish and sightsee.

There are endless trails around Cachuma Lake in Los Padres National Forest. There are some mellow hikes around the perimeter of the lake itself, offering nice views of the lake and the surrounding Santa Ynez and San Rafael mountains.

Figueroa Mountain is near Los Olivos - Grass Mountain and Figueroa Mountain are both beautiful hikes, especially in the spring when the wild flowers are in bloom. Both are strenuous, steep hikes, but the views are totally worth the effort.

Cachuma lake is about a half an hour from the city of Santa Barbara, 15 minutes away from Santa Ynez (if you like to gamble check out the Chumash Casino), 20 minutes away from Solvang, and 20 minutes away from Los Olivos. There is fantastic wine tasting available in any of these small towns, and everywhere in between - you are in the heart of Santa Barbara’s wine country! There are endless tasting rooms available inside the towns, and countless vineyards that you can visit to wine taste. A popular wine trail is on Foxen Canyon Road - it is a lovely drive on a country road with some really beautiful and quality wineries and vineyards.

Solvang is a fun town to visit - it was originally a community full of Danish immigrants, so the Danish theme has stuck. It is very touristy, but even as a native, I still enjoy going to Solvang. There are a lot of shops, antiques, candy stores, restaurants and tasting rooms to visit. We are partial to the Solvang Restaurant, and for more than just their Danish Aebleskivers. If you don’t know what an aebleskiver is - its DELICIOUS. Aebleskivers are round Danish pancakes that are shaped like a ball - they serve them with amazing homemade raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Everything at the Solvang Restaurant is good, from their traditional breakfasts to their Scandinavian offerings to their sandwiches.

More Food Recommendations:

Cold Springs Tavern is a historic site dating back to the 1880s when it was a stagecoach stop. Cold Springs Tavern has a full bar and serves some quality meat selections, including famous Santa Barbara style tri-tip. If you are there on a Sunday, they start serving traditional tri-tip sandwiches around 11am - BEST tri-tip sandwiches around! They cook up the meat on giant barbeques outside, and serve the sandwiches hot off the grill - just tri-tip and fresh garlic bread, YUM. They have homemade salsa and homemade BBQ sauce to dress the sandwich with. Sundays at Cold Springs Tavern is a popular spot for locals to go have a beer or a drink with tri-tip, and there’s always a fun atmosphere.

If you are in the mood for some quality Mexican food, Dos Carlitos in Santa Ynez is a favorite spot.

Los Olivos Grocery has a great deli with delicious sandwiches - both hot and cold - and a good selection tasty deli side dishes. The store also has a good selection of local wines.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $30/night

**Plumbed Toilets: Yes

**Drinking Water: Yes

**Showers: Yes (coins needed)

**Picnic Table: Yes

**Firepit: Yes

**Cooking Grate: Yes

**Shade: Yes

**Cell Service: Yes - Limited

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: No

Trash: Yes

Campground Review:

This would be the most epic campground ever for a huge family reunion! There is something for everyone here- RV sites, tent sites, cabins, yurts, even big group sites. There are tent sites overlooking Lake Cachuma, and tent sites in the shady grass, and almost everything in between. There's a dog park, and playgrounds, and a pool (since you can't swim in the lake because it's drinking water... which was strange to us as Utahns when all reservoirs are drinking water and we still swim in them), and a general store! There are close to 200 sites here, which is mind-boggling to me. It was an awesome campground, and we were cooking up plans for a someday party (be it friends or family) there.

The restrooms are plentiful and clean, the quiet hours are well observed (though that may have had more to do with the fact that the campground was pretty empty while we were there), and the facilities are reasonably easy to navigate. Every employee we interacted with was helpful and professional. We rented kayaks for several hours while we were there and it was a blast! This place is a perfect little getaway a super reasonable distance from Santa Barbara and the surrounding areas.

My only complaints were mostly about the tent sites. Some of them are a little too smashed together with unclear boundaries, and the footing consisted of kind of icky weeds. I know, it's me being absurdly nitpicky. But I can't give EVERY campground 5 stars... right..?

Product Review:

As Rangers for The Dyrt, we get products to test from time to time, and at Lake Cachuma we tested out some Optic Nerve sunglasses. We used them throughout our trip, but they came in especially handy while kayaking! The morning started out a little cloudy so we were worried that we wouldn't get a real opportunity to use them, but the sun eventually came out and the sunglasses were PERFECT. The pairs we got were polarized, which was great for cutting glare from the water (as well as driving throughout our whole road trip. The sunglasses were comfortable and seemed high quality, which was great considering they're nowhere near as spendy as some of the high-end brands of sunglasses. I'll admit I was too much of a wuss to see if they'd float in the lake, but they were awesome for keeping our eyes safe and protected (from the sun and from splashes)! If I had to have any gripe it would be that the wood grain print on the sunglasses I got (which I love) is pretty pixelated up close- completely a non-issue that only affects aesthetics, but might look better with a higher resolution for future printings.

Pro Tip for Hungry Adventurers: DO NOT MISS Cold Spring Tavern just up the highway from Lake Cachuma. Delicious food, atmosphere that is simply out of this world, and a gorgeous setting. Seriously. Don't miss it. And if you live in Santa Barbara and you've never been... GO. NOW. You won't regret it.

There's a lot to like about Flying Flags RV park.  Its clean, has lots of full hookup sites, an onsite restaurant, clean facilities, as well as tents and cabins for rent. Why a 3 star rating then?  Well, per my system, 5 stars are the truly special places (i.e Yosemite, Zion) where one should travel to for multiple days. 4 stars are top-tier spots for locals, and should be part of a larger trip to the region for out-of-staters (examples include Lake Sonoma and Lopez Lake). 3 stars are perfectly fine, but you mostly go there for convenience. Flying Flags in Buellton is such a place. You come here because you can explore Santa Barbara, Solvang, and the surrounding wine region. The RV park itself is big, and the spots are pretty close together, and while it's not necessarily beautiful itself, it is clean and comfortable. If I'm planning a trip to Santa Barbara in my 28' Airstream, this is absolutely a park I'd stay at again. I prefer dry camping (i.e. limited or no hookups) in my trailer, but I certainly appreciate full service as well, and Flying Flags delivers.

If you own an RV, this is a perfect "home base" for exploring the area.  Solvang is a town in central California that looks like a Scandinavian village. It was featured prominently in the movie Sideways. Buellton and Solvang are both basically right in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country. Many, many wineries are within short driving distance. Santa Barbara is an easy hour-ish trip.  The coast in Santa Barbara and just south in Carpineria is some of the most beautiful in California. The surfing is exquisite (these are well known, popular spots so expect the usual "locals only" aggression in the line up). Paso Robles is about 100 miles up the road from Buellton, so it's entirely possible to do an "up and back" in the same day.

Flying Flags RV park won't take your breath away with natural beauty, but it's close to a lot of places that will.  It's convenient, clean, and a great place to park an RV for a couple of nights as you explore the surrounding areas.

We stayed here a few years ago, but on the primitive / non-hookup side. We stayed on the E/W hookup side this time and liked it as well, though it does have the more typical RV/parking lot feel as compared to the other side.  There's a nice walking trail that connects the two sides. It's $50 for an E/W site, plus an $8.25 reservation fee.

There's a cool lagoon that you can walk all the way around on, with lots of birds, and much of it accessible as well which is nice. There's a cool visitor center, open 12-4. The beach is a short walk away. There's a great Mexican restaurant down the road also, Old Juan's, it's so good and has great vegan options.

The showers here are nice and clean, and $1 gets you 4 minutes.  The showers are individual, private, and non-gendered. There was no host on site when we were there, but the rangers were very present.  This campground, like all California State campgrounds we've been to recently, has trash, recycling, and a food compost bin which I love.

There's a fun game for kids where you download an app and go on a scavenger hunt and complete other challenges.

No dump station here, but there's one just 2 miles north at North Beach Campground, and it's $10 for dump and water fill there.

We rolled through on a Friday night in May with no reservations and got absolutely lucky to snag the very last site.  Would not recommend chancing it on weekends in the high season.  We only were able to get a site because the ADA sites are released at 5pm and we happened to be there right at the right time to get one.

Very nice campground - one side is hookups at $40 (electric and water only), and this side is kind of boring with RVs all lined up in a row. FYI there are no sewer hookups here and no dump station. You can drive two miles up the road to North Beach and use their dump station and water fill for $10.  We stayed on the tent side for $25, no hookups and much more pleasant and green and beautiful.

There's a lagoon and a boardwalk to walk around it, but the boardwalk ends and the trail turns to mud and it was pretty much impassible when we were there - thick black muck that will suck your shoes off and get your dog's belly all dirty. Watch for mosquitoes, especially the sites along the lagoon.

Beautiful walking trails to the beach - we saw a coyote here!  We heard them yipping all night as well.  Interesting experience for us to see and hear them right on the beach. 

As with all state parks now, there are recycling and food waste bins available, thank you California!

The visitor center is right at the entrance of the campground and there's a good Mexican restaurant within easy walking distance as well.

Overall a great place, amazingly cheap, and we're happy we got lucky and snagged a spot!

[ PROS]

• Super close to the beach! There are a couple beach trails that lead you right to the ocean.

• Love that you can walk to the dunes and spend the entire day there.People bring the craziest beach set ups and have bonfires and cookouts here. Souped up trucks with ATVs roll through and drive right along the beach. It’s quite the sight to see.

• Very convenient location to ATV rentals, beach/convenient stores, and a few eateries.

• Fantastic park rangers serveiling the campgrounds every hour. The ranger presence definitely keeps the rowdy crowd here in check.

• There looked to be a very nice Visitor Center. For some unknown reason, they were closed both days that we were there.

• Really big and clean showers and restroom facilities. They were very well maintained considering how packed and heavily used they were. Toilets ran out of toilet paper so make sure you come prepared.

• We saw tons of cool birds around the campsite. My favorite of the weekend were the swallows that flew around dusk. They fly like bats! We also enjoyed seeing a couple ospreys by the beach. We even saw one catch a fish!

• Campfire is sold here for$8/bundle at the camp host.

• Each site comes with a picnic table, fire ring, and 2 parking spot. Our neighbors had 3 cars so we let them use one of our parking spots since it was a madhouse here.

**[ CONS]
**

• Hard to find availability. This place is usually pretty booked up.

• Very, very crowded campsite. Sites are extremely close together so there is very little privacy. It feels like a giant parking lot

• Sites are small so setting up two tents feels very cramped already. Luckily we just stayed in our tent trailer on a parking spot so we felt like we had a little more space.

• Loud campground! This place attracts a party crowd so be prepared to listen to people roll in with their loud souped up trucks and blast music on speakers throughout the day. Hope you like listening to hip hop from 10am-9pm!

• It doesn’t seem like the 8 person max/site rule was regulated. People had upwards of 12 people at a single campsite so you can imagine how crowded the place was.

• There was constantly a long line for the showers throughout the day.

Overall, this is not my favorite place to camp by far. It feels more like a giant tailgate party than it does camping. We were looking for a nice relaxing weekend by the beach so had an unexpected weekend. This is one of the few places left in California that allow cars, trucks, RVs, and ATVs to drive right on the beach. It’s pretty weird to see. They also allow people to have bonfires right on the sand so be careful where you walk. There’s ash and coal everywhere. And sadly, also lots of trash left behind from people.