Camped for two nights at sites 67 and 68. Site 68 was our favorite, with lots of shade and LOTS of room to spread out.
Originally, we'd booked the adjoining campsite 99, but the morning we were leaving, a ranger called to tell us it had been double booked and that people were already in our second site and could we take site 67 across the way, instead? That was fine, though not ideal. 67 is very exposed for camping. Very little shade in that one, but great if you want to do star gazing.
Our initial experience entering the park was not a good one. The entrance has a sign that says if you have a reservation, then proceed to your site. So we started to do that, but then got chewed out by a ranger who clearly did not enjoy her job that we were supposed to check in with her first. We were like, "But the sign said…" She snapped at us that the sign was for after hours. Yet, the sign did not SAY this.
When we finally got to the point to check in, we said we were the site who'd been called this morning because the park had double-booked the site. The ranger snapped back, "WE didn't overbook your site. The BOOKING SYSTEM did." Um, is the booking system that makes park reservations ON the park website not part of the park?? Why does this matter to this ranger? Was SHE the one bumped from her reserved site?
Her unprofessional attitude soured our first exposure to this park. (Seriously, if you don't want to work there, don't. But don't take it out on the campers.)
The ranger continued to give us a lecture on how we may not have more than 2 tents per site and went into a mathematical breakdown of this. "You may have two tents in 67 and one tent in 68 or two tents in 68 and one tent in 67, but you cannot have three tents in 67 or three tents in 68," as though we were complete morons.
After all of this, our observation is the sites have plenty of room for three tents. We had four solo people. I don't quite understand this two-tent-per site rule. Makes zero sense when there is room and you are well below the 6-person maximum per site.
Also, there are no swimming pools at the sites. She also told us this, in case you are planning on somehow bringing a pool camping.
Once we got to the sites, it was great. Lots of flat areas for pitching tents well away from the fire pit. Trees and bushes between sites for privacy. 68 had the area water spigots (one on each side of a fat post), so we did get to say hello to visitors getting water now and then. Parking is a few steps away from the sites.
67 and 68 are a bit of a slightly uphill trek to the bathrooms, where there are clean toilets and clean showers. It was $1.25 in quarters for 10 minutes of shower time. Only complaint from our group was you could not control the heat of the shower. I heard some people complaining about moths in the bathrooms at night, but to me, this is totally normal for a campground bathroom. There was no mirror at the sink though. (There was a power outlet by the bathroom sink, should you need to use a hair dryer after you shower. There was also a park bench right outside the showers.
Watch for snakes. We didn't see any, but fire officials came one night to remove an injured rattlesnake, so they are around. (Walk with heavy feet and most of the time, they'll just move out of your way if you do spot one and watch if you step into the bushes to let someone by on the hiking trails. Also watch for poison oak on trails.)
Thursday night was nice and quiet. Friday night, not so much, but MOST people piped down by around 11pm or 11:30pm.
A couple of trail loops start at the campground. The one toward the end of the campground has a few options, including a shorter and flatter nature trail. We took the steeper, longer loop from that same spot up to Glens Lookout, where on a clear day, you can see from the Salton Sea over to Escondido along the coast. The trail was a bit rocky, but fine if you are used to hiking. Another trail series started from closer to the checkin kiosk. We did find a mountain lion print on our hike, which was kind of cool.
There are horseshoe pits in the campground, if you want to bring horseshoes. Julian is an easy 10 minutes or less away, if you have a hankering for shops or pie. All of us, with different cell phone carriers, had decent reception at the campground.
I'd read a review that said to steer clear from camping near the trash bins. I'd second this because people do tend to slam the lids on those, which could be jarring if you are camped right by them.
Overall, this is a great campground, minus a star for some of the staff. (Other staff members were lovely and gave a completely different experience.)
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