Cleveland National Forest is an ideal place for camping adventures of all kinds. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in, as well as sights to see and explore. Find the best campgrounds near Cleveland National Forest, plus reviews and photos from other campers like you.
For many, once the sun comes out and summer rolls around, it can be hard to resist the urge to get outside and soak up some fun. If you relate, and you just need to unplug for a minute, Carlsbad camping offers some of the state’s best camping sites around. When your work has stacked up and you’re overloaded, it’s time to gather your camping gear, and head to Carlsbad State Beach camping for solitude and relaxation.
This San Diego beach and campground feature camping, swimming, surfing, skin diving, fishing and picnicking. The campground is especially popular in the summer, thanks to its scenic location which overlooks the picturesque Carlsbad Beach below. Even better, the campground offers direct access to the beach via a set of well-kept stairs. As a result of the popularity, the campground is reservation only, so don’t show up without one or you’ll likely be unable to stay.
When you’re done with the beach, check out the nearby California geography and some of the trails within the park. If the ocean isn’t your thing, a number of Campfire Programs, Junior Ranger Programs, and Nature Walks may be offered. That said, program availability changes with the season, so be sure to check signs posted on the restrooms and at the entrance station regarding park information during your visit.
At night, campers are gently caressed to sleep by the nearby ocean tide, lapping upon its secluded shoreline. There is plenty of privacy throughout, thanks to the large selection of flora and fauna throughout the campground. The campsites themselves are also spacious, with roughly half of them featuring electric hookups. Additionally, All restrooms and shower buildings have accessible facilities. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the unit Supervising Ranger.
South Carlsbad State Beach Campground is perfect for campers and individuals who love the ocean and the outdoors. Whether you’re looking surf the rolling waves, or paddle board out and take part in all that the north county coastline has to offer, you’re sure to have fun here.
$50 - $650 / night
$25 - $45 / night
Lake Hemet is surrounded by the majestic beauty of the San Jacinto Mountains, in Mountain Center, near the charming town of Idyllwild. The scenery is splendid no matter which direction you look. Tall pines, manzanitas, sage, and giant oaks abound!
Lake Hemet is one of the most popular spots in Southern California for camping and fishing. The recent additions of the Soaring Pines Cafe serving delicious food and Splashing Eagle Swim Zone have made Lake Hemet the vacation spot to be during the spring and summer months.
Remember to pack a camera and binoculars, and keep a watchful eye as majestic eagles, hawks, and other wildlife are often seen soaring throughout the forest and campground. Come and enjoy camping, fishing, boating and the breathtaking scenery all year round.
DAY USE: In addition to camping, Lake Hemet offers public access to the campground for day use guests daily (hours vary by season). Day use is $25 per vehicle and affords guests with the opportunity to picnic, shoreline fish, launch personal boats or kayaks (additional fees apply) and rent boats or kayaks from our marina. If you are visiting other guests who are overnight camping with us, the $25 fee still applies. NOTE: DAY USE WILL BE CLOSED FOR ALL SUMMER HOLIDAY WEEKENDS FROM FRIDAY TO SUNDAY for Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends. Only guests with previously purchased annual day use or launch passes will be allowed as our campground will be fully booked and activities are planned for our guests.
$45 / night
We are San Diego County's ONLY campsite with river and tubing access!
$40 - $120 / night
There are 31 campsites in the Doane Valley Campground, three of which have accessible features. Each site has a table and fire ring, and most have a food locker. Piped drinking water is available. The campground also has restrooms with flush toilets and hot showers which are usable for campers, including those with disabilities.
The beautiful forest and mountain meadows of Palomar Mountain State Park are in northern San Diego County, high atop the west side of Palomar Mountain. Large pine, fir and cedar trees make the park one of the few areas in southern California with a Sierra Nevada-like atmosphere. The park features camping, picnicking, hiking, and fishing (trout) in Doane Pond. Coniferous forests cover much of the 1,862 acres, in contrast to the dry lowlands surrounding the mountain.
Elevation within the park averages 5,000 feet above sea level, making evenings cool even during the summer. A number of vista points offer spectacular panoramic views both westerly toward the ocean and inland toward the desert, particularly from Boucher Hill Summit, which has been listed in the Sierra Club's "Hundred Peaks Section" since first published in 1946. There, you'll also find the historic Boucher Hill Fire Lookout.
The park is open from dawn 'til dusk daily. Reservations are highly recommended for camping during peak season. Day use fees are $10.00 per vehicle, cash or check only. Trails are open to foot traffic only, and dogs and mountain bikes are not allowed on trails. Please note that there are no gas stations on Palomar Mountain.
$40 - $130 / night
$39 - $50 / night
Wilderness Lakes RV Resort is a flat, 80-acre RV Resort in California with fishing canals that weave throughout the park. As a centrally-located RV camp, it is close to shopping, hospitals and freeways in California's Los Angeles region. The surrounding area has been changing quite dramatically with housing projects on two sides and dairy farms on the other. The temperatures are mild in the winter and warm to hot in the summer, making Wilderness Lakes a perfect RV campground no matter what time of year. At Wilderness Lakes RV Resort , our 523 sites include RV sites, rental cottages and cabins. The general store is open five days a week for all of your convenience needs. Plus, our on-site package delivery lockers allow guest to vacation with the assurance of receiving packages and deliveries in safety and ease. Locally, there are numerous golf courses within a 15-mile radius of Wilderness Lakes with one only two miles from the campground. Old Town Temecula is only 17 miles to the south of our RV campground and offers great dining and shopping in true California style. The Pechanga Resort and Casino is about 20 miles south of the resort and is the largest gambling casino in the state. It has weekend entertainment, seven restaurants and a non-smoking section for gambling. Diamond Valley Lakes is just 5 miles to the east of the resort and has boat rentals and fishing. Most of the major theme parks, such as Disneyland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park are all about 1 hours away. Los Angeles Area RV Camp in California At Wilderness Lakes, we offer plenty of activities to keep you busy during your stay. With so much to choose from, there is bound to be a special activity for everyone. Be sure to check out the events and activities page to find out what activities are being offered during your visit.
Fry Creek Campground is situated in the heart of Cleveland National Forest, uniquely located down the road from the world-famous Palomar Observatory. The fresh, clean air of the campground provides a refreshing getaway for visitors from San Diego and Los Angeles. The observatory, atop Palomar Mountain, boasts five high-tech telescopes, among them, the massive 200-inch Hale Telescope, was the world's largest effective telescope for about 45 years. The observatory is owned by the California Institute of Technology and astronomical research includes near-Earth asteroids and the study of distant galaxies.
At Observatory Campground, the site across from Fry Creek, there's a popular astronomy event called Explore the Stars. Amateur astronomers gather here with their telescopes and share views of planets and constellations with visitors. The event takes place one weekend each month, April through October.
At Observatory Campground, the site across from Fry Creek, there's a popular astronomy event called Explore the Stars. Amateur astronomers gather here with their telescopes and share views of planets and constellations with visitors. The event takes place one weekend each month, April through October.
Fry Creek is at a 4,900 ft. elevation on Palomar Mountain. The area is dense with evergreen and oak, and is usually cooler than the surrounding area.
The visitor center at Palomar Observatory is 2.2 miles away and can be accessed by road or by hiking trail. A restaurant and gift shop are onsite.
$15 / night
$24 - $100 / night
Located on the San Diego Coast, San Elijo Campground offers camping, swimming, surfing, showers and picnicking. The narrow, bluff-backed stretch of sand has a nearby reef popular with snorkelers and divers.
A camp store and snack bar located near the campground entrance operates March through December and provides all the amenities a camper may need including some RV supplies, boogie boards, and firewood.
This San Elijo camping destination requires reservations for its 171 campsites.
$50 - $520 / night
Staff all friendly and facilities while dated are kept very clean. Campers are respectful and quit at night but it’s a very noisy location right next to the freeway which took some getting used to the first few days.
The place felt very tired, and lacking in any atmosphere. There is a pool, which was nice. There just wasn't anything else there to justify the steep price of $100 a night. Though I'd award 5 stars to the lovely German lady who checked us in and was very friendly.
I have never had a bad experience at a camp ground with any ranger. They have all been wonderful. Not at this park. My registration tags went to my home so I did not have current tags. I had to have a family member collect my mail and forward to me on my travels so it was delayed. I did have a receipt which I was required to provide. However, the ranger barged into my campsite in a huff, treated me as if I were vomiting a crime and demanded my receipt on the spot in front of all. It was quite over the top. Later the same man barged back into my campsite throwing accusations at me that I hadn’t paid my measly $4.00 parking fee and breaking the rules of the park. He had the nerve to argue with me after I explained that in fact I had paid. He backed down after realizing I had. He then returned to harass us for the kids using chalk. There were kids from several campsites using chalk. We apologized and made them clean it up, no big deal. But the ranger was didn’t simply ask for it to be cleaned. He was threatening and confrontational. I dealt with one other ranger here who was quite nice and helpful but this other was awful. I discovered I was not the only one to have this experience here. I would recommend Sweetwater or Lake Jennings in San Diego area or Aqua Caliente where they are quite friendly. Yikes this was horrible
This is a very nice and quiet campground and everyone there was very respectful of quite hours. The place was very clean and very beautiful. The only con was that there are way too many insects everywhere, My base camp got bombarded with a swarm of wasps, And I was forced to leave a day early, and had to leave my cooking pot behind because of the swarm of wasps... I wish there were some kind of rangers or someone there that I could have asked for help about this, or I wish someone would do something about this issue but I guess it is what it is at this location lol 😆 Other than not being able to cook and eat without wasps in your face and In your food, it was really nice
Let's start off with the fact that this"resort" has REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS living there and TWEAKERS SELLING DRUGS. When I mentioned it to the management they could care less, didn't say a word and walked away laughing. They DO NOT perform ANY BACKGROUND CHECKS and especially with children in the park I find that very disturbing. They nickel and dime you for every little thing and the rent has gone up 3x in one year. The water supply smells like sewage when you take a shower. Because they do pump outs the resort smells like human excrement most of the time. The lakes are polluted as well and completely full of cyanobacteria AKA green algae which is a respiratory hazard. POTENTIAL BEWARE.
My fiancé and I were last minute camping and this campground was beautiful, quiet, and very aesthetic! There is a lot to do near by, a very convenient store about 5-10 minutes away called valley center foods! Employees were sooo sweet and friendly! DID NOT DISAPPOINT!! Ps isn’t that expensive when tent camping ⛺️ 🙌🏻
Nice little site that is right in the middle of everything.
It's crowded and you don't have much space, but if your using this instead of a hotel room it works great.
It had a game room and pool so kids had something to do. There were families all over with kids riding bikes. We had a quick stay over while we were seeing family in the area and it worked great .
Only issue we had is both entrances have a hell of a dip, we scraped the ass end real good going in and out with our 24ft class c.
Great campground for families. Lots of activities for the kids to do, like smores by the fire, art, splash pad, and play ground. Facility was clean
Nice campground. Mostly no hookups, but has toilets and fresh water throughout. Great little restaurant serving pizza and snacks over looking the ocean. Beach access. Lots of sites.
There is always a spot or 2 open. Staff are always polite.
They are scammers. The cabin they have on site electricity keeps going on and off, the cabin was also dirty. Got a bad splinter on my hand from the railing and spoke to some residents and figured out that even though they’re selling memberships the electricity is going to be shut off. They are going to cause hundreds of people to go homeless and trying to keep it a secret. What a shame.
I don't think this map pin is correct for Yaqui Wells Primitive Camp, the location according to Google Maps is a little further south just off Yaqui Pass Road off Highway 78. There are two different camps similarly named, Yaqui Wells and Yaqui Pass, fairly close to each other. Anyway, we stayed here at Yaqui Wells for one night after attempting to camp at Blair Valley but getting swarmed by bees. Only saw 2 other vehicles, and while the sites are pretty small and close to the dirt road, they are nice enough. BE AWARE THOUGH: pull your vehicle well into the sites, we had 6 lifted off road trucks come flying through around midnight at a ridiculously high speed without slowing down at all and it could have been catastrophic if we were closer to the road or if we had been walking our dog at that time.
I grew up right down the road in the early 60's. Great Campground with a lot of trails, awesome views, and some opportunities for fishing. Taught my very young nephew how to trout fish at Dohnes Pond, right below the Observatory.
PROS:
This site offers amazing sunsets and ocean breezes. There are plenty of facilities, and the camp store is great. The live music is always good, too.
A grocery store is nearby, just over the freeway.
CONS:
It can get very crowded and packed.
Hard to get a site
Many generators are always on.
If you get a site at the far ends, it's a hike to go in and out. Try to get a site closer to the entrance and the store. But you will get a lot of traffic through your site.
Don't try to get there earlier; they usually won't let you in before check-in.
Biking and Running:
Great if you want to ride along PCH. This stretch has good bike lanes that take you into Oceanside or Encinitas.
Good running. You can lap the campsite, which is almost 1 mile, end to end. I usually run down towards Encinitas along PCH.
My friend and I went together for one night and we loved it! It was her very first time camping and she enjoyed it very much. Here is our review:
-NO T-Mobile: There was no signal at the campground at all. We drove about 7 minutes to the Palomar State Park Parking Area (based off Apple Maps) to find spotty signal. Just good enough to make a phone call if needed.
-Privacy: Many of these sites such great privacy, even though we were neighboring #19, there are a quite a bit of trees. Also, you walk down a few stone steps to pitch your tent, so your car parked a level about you on the street provides nice privacy.
-Convenience: The bathrooms were pretty close to us and were kept fairly clean. Also the firepit and grill were a plus.
- CRITTERS: I mean who doesn't know this but the squirrels and crows were greedy! They had no issues flying/ skittering to your food if you were 6 feet away lol.
-BEAUTIFUL!!!: You can hear the Doane Creek flowing and the stars are just an absolute sight, we took the rain-fly off our tent so we could see the stars
I'd imagine spots 21 and 26 would be great because of the privacy and creek location.
I'd avoid spots 28-30 just because of the steeper hill to walk UP to your campsite. It's already a pain to lug all your gear.
We didn't particularly care for the area, it was not far enough out to feel like in serene nature but still far to drive to anything. Well kept campground, enjoyed the mini golf (probably our favorite TT mini golf so far) but weren't too majorly impressed overall. It didn't help that it rained a lot and the streets turned into lakes - so not only did you have geese on your roof but also right outside your door. ;)
Using the marker on the map in the app, I was brought to a small dirt parking lot off the main road. Further exploration showed that a dirt road continued into the vegetation. I followed it, but it turned and went parallel with a road. I am nowhere near see the marker on the map. However, I am a 100 feet off the trail overlooking the town of Borrego Springs and the mountains behind it. I am here in this section by myself.
I did explore the Yaqui Pass and the Yaqui Wash spots, which are both further west over the mountain. The Pass was great and within a valley. The pass was a carpark as someone else noted. I wanted my back to the sunset (and the wind) so chose this location. Next time I hope to get to the spot the other reviews seem to be at.
Couldn’t have better views. We watched dolphins and seals playing in the waves. No hookups, but there was water and clean bathrooms.
This was our first camping trip in our travel trailer. The amenities available are great. Very clean and friendly staff
Spectacular night lights
Had a wonderful time with the kids and our two doggos here! Great dog park, family friendly and the hot springs was just perfect for all of us. Even have 3 temperatures so the kids can enjoy hot springs too! Thanks for a wonderful stay! We’re here last week of March 2024.
Shouldn't have a problem finding a site here.
This was our first visit to the Oceanside area. The RV park did a great job with communication in all phases of the planned stop. They did text to look for the check in with the orange flags. Once there, these flags are very narrow and I hard a hard time spotting them, as they are on a busy sign flooded street.. After circling back and now coming from the east, the narrow drive with the street light and curb wasn't enough for us to turn...so backed it up and went to the wider entrance down the street. Hopefully your arrival will be easier. :-). Once through self check in, the sites are all concrete but pretty tight. All the hook ups worked well. The Wi-Fi is one of the best I have used. The showers and bathrooms are very clean. No real views there. Beach is an easy walk or bike ride. We enjoyed the restaurants, town and the outdoors of Oceanside.
This is a gem of a campground. Almost every site has an ocean view of some kind.
The roads that lead to the sites is a bit narrow, so if your towable is on the long side, you might have to work a bit to back it in. The maximum length is 38. We had 30/50 amp electrical and water. Dump station is on your way out, with 3 stations in that row. Wi-Fi works fair. Cell towers are in sight just to the north, so no reception issues. Lots of hiking and bike trails. We did a 12 mile loop to the north, and a ride along the coast on some bike paths. Shake shack and Beachcomber's restaurants are just down the street for an easy ride or walk. Bathroom and showers are very clean. The picnic tables are what you would expect, very seasoned. :-) Most are anchored to the sites. The length of the site is very good with lots of room to setup your outdoor goodies. Check in is at 3pm. They are hard on this. If you arrive early, you can register, but will be directed to Reef Point back down PCH or to the visitors center in front of the camp entrance.
Second time here, booked to be close to the San Diego zoo safari park. This is a very well run county park.
My boyfriend and I love this campground! It’s gorgeous and filled with trees, the rangers are awesome and there’s several hiking trails nearby. We will definitely be back
Clean, pet friendly and good for kids.
Camping near Cleveland National Forest, California, offers a fantastic escape into nature with beautiful landscapes and a variety of campgrounds to choose from. Whether you're looking for a family-friendly spot or a peaceful retreat, there's something for everyone.
Camping near Cleveland National Forest, California, has its perks and quirks. With the right preparation, you can enjoy a memorable outdoor experience!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Cleveland National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Cleveland National Forest is South Carlsbad State Beach Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 73 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Cleveland National Forest?
TheDyrt.com has all 51 glamping camping locations near Cleveland National Forest, with real photos and reviews from campers.
