Best Tent Camping near Green Valley Lake, CA

The campground is located about ten minutes drive from green valley lake. This camp ground has 32 spots available they require a $25 per night fee and check out is at 12 noon. The site is equipped with water. And bathrooms (extremely clean) Your next door neighbors are but a few feet away from you, but the site is set up to make it feel as secluded as possible. We never had an issue with our neighbors and I hope they didn’t with us. This being said if you forget anything more than likely someone in the camp has it. All in all this campsite is easy to recommend and if you’re a first timer this is the place for you! It’s also very family friendly so teens beware and keep noise and “loudness ;)” to a minimum.

Been here many times since it is local to me.

This place has changed a lot over the years, and not necessarily for the good, in my opinion.

What there is:

• Trailer camping
• Tent camping
• Fishing
• A playground
• Small water park
• Two lakes to fish at
• Trains, lots of them
• Bathrooms with showers
• Frisbee golf
• Picnic tables and shelters

What there is no longer:

• Paddle boats
• Horse riding stables
• Horses and cows
• Other interesting animals
• Water in the grass fields where the animals roamed
• Arenas

Beware of skunks and loud trains!

It is still a somewhat nice place to visit for a couple hours with the kids.

We have camped in a tent. The tents sites are adjacent to the lake.

Trailer camping isn't too bad, other than being adjacent to the busy railroad. Most sites have grass.

Offers wide range of tent camp sites, RV camping, showers, toilets. Beautiful scenic hikes. Small creek runs through property. Campsite grills and picnic tables.

We tent camped here for 3 nights and loved this campground. The tent sites are spacious - can’t exaggerate that enough. the workers were friendly and helpful. The bathrooms were clean and had plenty of showers available. There is a playground centrally located, tennis court and basketball - all equipment available from the office. They also had board games for use and a pool table inside. There are a couple of pontoon boats available for rental as well! We took out kids on a couple hikes, be sure you have an interagency pass for parking at trailheads! Fantastic getaway!

Overall a nice campground with decent sites, but really not for tent camping at all. They say they have some tent sites, but pretty much every site is setup with gravel pull-in or pull throughs which you'd not really want to set your tent up on. They do have a "tent village" which you can camp on, but again, not really ideal for tents. They do have really nice facilities for washing your cloths or yourself along with a nice club house for unwinding. While each site doesn't have a fire ring, you do have a table and there is a group fire ring along with a pool and playground. You are a bit inside the city of Banning and not too far from the train tracks, so if you're not in something super insulated you'll probably hear a bit of train noise like we did.

I was looking to take my Jeep off-roading in the Big Bear area. I just needed a simple tent site where I could have a campfire at night, and as usual I hadn't booked very far in advance. By luck, I found Green Valley Lake. 

When I went online to reserve my spot, the only site left was site #1, so I grabbed it. Searching for reviews or pictures of that site, there were comments about it being too close to other sites, too close to the road, too close to houses, etc. When I got there I found a different story. After asking the camp host, I found the site - isolated from the rest of them in its own private little grove. The parking spot for the site is a considerable distance away, next to site 2. There are 2 trails leading to the site - one from the parking spot that cuts through site 2, and another one that ends near the entrance gate. It was a bit of a hike to get my gear in and out, but it was worth it for the privacy. Plenty of trees provide shade, and isolate you from the road and your neighbors. There was some noise, but they were completely blocked from view. 

The campground itself is very well maintained. The bathrooms were clean, with flush toilets, running water, and lights. The sites themselves don't have water, but there were faucets all over the campground so you could fill up a jug and take it back to your site. This is bear country, and bear lockers are installed at every site. The hosts were very nice, and sold firewood at their trailer for $8 a bundle. There was no AT&T cell service at the site, but there was a few miles down the road. 

The campground is about a mile past the village of Green Valley Lake, which has a small market and a restaurant. A few miles further is Arrowbear, which has a couple very well stocked markets and gas stations. Running Springs is a few more miles down the road, and has all the services you would need in a small town. 

For off-roaders like myself, the Big Pine Flats trail starts just a couple miles down the road, and offers a fairly easy and fun drive to just north of Big Bear Lake, and continuing on to Baldwin Lake. 

The next time i camp up in the Big Bear area, this will definitely be on my list of places to camp again.

Best place ever!! Tent camping, RV camping, they have a restaurant and bar, best burgers in all of southern California!! They also have a small store, there's showers, restrooms and a swimming pool! Tent camping along Santa Ana River, you can also fish and hike. So amazing and beautiful, awesome memories made!!

Green valley lake campground is an awesome place for a fun getaway. We wanted to get away for the Fourth of July but waited too long to book in Big Bear. Thankfully we found the Green Valley Lake campground! Check in was a little confusing, the camp host was not at their station. So we just drove around and found our site and eventually ran into the camp host who was very kind and accommodating. The sites were interestingly laid out and some had little wooded areas that you actually camp behind, others had interesting ground layouts with multiple levels, we found it really cool. Our site was a flat site, water and bathrooms are central to the loops. Bathrooms were fine for a small campground.

The camp hosts are very attentive and even drove by making sure we had enough firewood!

Nearby there is Green Valley lake, just a couple miles up the road, you do have to drive there. The town is very small and cute. The lake is very clean and has a lot of fish. It is privately owned so you do have to pay to fish or swim, and you pay per person, so keep that in mind if you have a large group. Everyone was very kind and we enjoyed fishing from the shore.

Big bear lake is about a 30 minute drive from the campground, we went there for the Fourth of July fireworks.

Overall we really enjoyed our trip to Green Valley Lake and we would camp there again!

Does not allow tent camping

Cottonwood is for the true RV’ers. Lakeside is more for tent camping. Nice park for family camping.

Super nice staff!! They remembered us after only staying here twice which means they take pride in the care for their customers. We love that we can tent camp by the water!

Will definitely recommend to anyone!

Good home base for Joshua Tree is NP campgrounds are full. Pretty barebones. A few weirdos, but enough space to steer clear of them. The wind can be brutal if you’re tent camping. Have large stakes.

This is your typical regional park Campground. There’s a lot to do here, including fishing, playgrounds, and even a waterpark in the summer. The bathrooms are decent, no showers.

We stayed in group campsite A. Tent camping is only allowed in group sites. They do have about 30 to 40 RV sites as well. The tent camping sites come with plenty of space for group camping. There’s a built-in grill and running water.

There’s no larger wildlife, like bears, so less stressful when you have pets or kids. Plenty of space to bring bikes and ride around. There’s a large community park right next-door where you can go and play baseball, basketball, sand volleyball, or frisbee.

We’ve been here several times over the last few years and really enjoy a nice quiet place close to home.

Went here a few years ago, and was a little disappointed. The site was fine; relatively even, fire pit, lots of gorgeous tree cover, but if you're going to call it "green valley lake" I'd better be able to see the lake. Instead, it was a twenty minute car ride to the lake, which was closed off, and required an entry fee. The whole town is right on the lake, and happy to charge you for anything they can think of, but the campsite is a totally separate organism. Instead of popping out of our tents in the morning and going fishing, a trip to the lake became a day-long endeavour. If you don't mind skipping the lake, I think this is a pretty decent site, but otherwise, try a different place.

Bring own gear, tent sites are primative you have to walk to toilet and showers but not far campsites are big enough for more than one family and friends

Lake fishing swimming hiking campfires

Group activities

While I fully appreciated the location, the scenery, the quaint community of Idyllwild, the campsites were TOO close and on hills making relaxing and tent camping a bit of a downer. It felt like we were right on top of each other. We had loud campers on 2/3 sites near us. I don’t think I would camp here again.

Do not follow Edison Road This is a narrow, and intermediate trail for ATVs. Do no recommend unless you have experience, someone to spot you and high clearance Jeep or aftermarket suspension. Follow Green Valley Lake Rd to Crab Flats Rd. The campsite is spacious although, not private from each site. The camp host visit twice a day and keep the place clean. This place is primarily for dirt biking. The mosquitoes were terrible from morning to nighttime. The campground is about an hour south of Big Bear and 25 minutes from Lake Arrowhead. There are fire rings, table, trash cans and 2 bathrooms with vault toilets.

This listing was showing as free but when we showed up that was not the case. For simple tent camping, this cost $15/person and charge $5/per kid and pet. Must be gone by 11am. Overpriced for what we needed. Very loud and rude campers next to us until early morning hours evens though it’s against the park’s policies. Disappointed. Front lady checking in was very pleasant. No discounts for Veterans, only active duty.