Whether you're an RVer or tent camper, Los Padres National Forest, CA is a great place to post up for the weekend—or longer. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in. Experience some of the most stunning views that California camping has to offer. Search nearby campsites and find top-rated spots from other campers.
Set amidst acres of wilderness flanked by the picturesque Santa Ynez and San Rafael Mountains, lies glimmering Cachuma Lake. Here you will find practically everything you need for a relaxing getaway in the great outdoors. Mild temperatures, typically sunny skies, and celebrated fishing conditions make camping here during winter months exceptionally rewarding. The County entered into a long-term lease with the Federal Bureau of Reclamation in 1953 to manage the 9,000 acre Cachuma Lake Recreation Area. Cachuma Lake was formed by the construction of Bradbury Dam in that same year. Located off scenic Highway 154 in the Santa Ynez Valley, Cachuma Lake is midway between the beaches and bustle of Santa Barbara and the Danish Community of Solvang. At any age... in any season... you'll find that the Cachuma Lake Recreation Area offers a fun and relaxing getaway.
Camping is available on a first come-first serve basis, we do not take reservations. Twelve campsites (two are elevated ADA compliant), with picnic tables, fire pits, horse corrals and ADA compliant vault toilet. Electricy and drinking water is not available. There is no garbage service, please act responsibly and pack out any refuse you have. It has some of the few shade trees on the monument. Formerly owned by the Kern County Land Company, the KCL still has a few of the original barn structures as well as some of the corrals. Please refrain from entering the barn structures.
Experience life elevated when you enjoy vistas of wildflowers, star gazing, and summer campouts atop Figueroa Mountain. Lose yourself in a grove of beautiful red manzanita, oaks and pines as Figueroa Campground lifts your spirits and your senses. Take a leisurely walk up the mountain ridge to watch a beautiful sunset or walk the trail around the campground to see the wildlife and all of nature's beauty. During the spring season, the area features an amazing wildflower display. This easily accessed pedestal in the pines is also very popular with hunters during the annual deer season.
Trails, horseback riding, off road vehicle use, mountain biking, fishing, camping, backpacking, seasonal hunting, shooting and photography are all popular recreational uses on Figueroa Mountain. Figueroa Campground serves as a centralized location to various trailheads, including the Davy Brown/Fir Canyon and Ballard Trails. On Figueroa Lookout Road, you will also find amazing views of rolling hills and the shimmering Pacific Ocean in the distance.
Figueroa Campground is surrounded and shaded by red manzanita and a variety of oak and pine trees. During spring, Figueroa Campground is an ideal place to camp while you enjoy the magnificent wildflower displays that Figueroa Mountain has to offer. This is also the home of numerous spring migrating birds, such as the exquisite western tanager, which breeds and raises its young on Figueroa Mountain until August.
A few miles away, Davy Brown Campground is the starting point for several trails, including the spectacular Davy Brown/Fir Canyon Trail. Two miles further are the Lower Manzana and Upper Manzana trailheads, entry points to the majestic San Rafael Wilderness. Los Olivios, Santa Ynez, Solvang and Buelton are within an hour's drive.
$30 - $34 / night
El Capitán State Beach offers visitors a sandy beach, rocky tidepools, and stands of sycamore and oaks along El Capitán Creek. It’s a perfect setting for swimming, fishing, surfing, picnicking and camping. A stairway provides access from the bluffs to the beach area.
Activities and Facilities Include:
-Picnic Areas
-Exhibits and Programs
-Fishing
-Guided Tours
-Scuba Diving/Snorkeling
-Beach Area
-Swimming
-Windsurfing/Surfing
-Family Programs
-Geocaching
Beach wheelchairs are available for use by the public with no cost. With this specially designed chair, wheelchair users may access the beach at several locations. Contact a ranger or lifeguard for additional information.
$45 - $320 / night
Twelve miles south of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria camping offers a mile of beach for swimming, surf fishing, tidepool exploring and camping. Although dogs are not allowed on beach, we have a great picnic area where they are allowed to enjoy the outdoors as well. Lifeguards patrol the beach year round and lifeguard towers are staffed roughly from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The Spanish named the area Carpinteria because the Chumash tribe, which lived in the area, had a large seagoing canoe-building enterprise, or "carpentry shop" here. This was because of naturally-occurring surface tar, which was used to waterproof the canoes.
Seals and sea lions can be seen in the area December through May, as well as an occasional gray whale. Tidepools contain starfish, sea anemones, crabs, snails, octopi and sea urchins.
$45 - $180 / night
Oceano Camp (sites 1-42)
$25 - $40 / night
Located just ten miles east of Arroyo Grande, California, Lopez Lake Recreation Area is one of the top choices for camping and leisure trips. With 22 miles of shoreline and summer lake temperatures around 70°F, there is something for everyone; camping, fishing, boating, picnicking, hiking and equestrian trails, mountain biking, zip-lining, birdwatching and so much more. The warm climate of the Central Coast makes Lopez Lake the ideal, year-round recreational destination. Once covered by the sea, the surrounding hills of Lopez Lake are rich with relics of ancient days and studded with oak trees. Over 175 species of flowering plants, and more than 150 species of birds have been identified within the park. The naturally beautiful canyons were once hunting and fishing grounds for the Chumash Indians. Later, homesteaders and ranchers inhabited the area and harvested grain crops for Mission San Luis Obispo. Lopez Lake was then created in 1969 to provide domestic water for the Five Cities area of the Central Coast.
Lopez Lake with its 22 miles of shoreline is the ideal year-round recreational destination for everyone. There are 377 campsites to choose from. Many overlook the lake, and others are nestled among picturesque oaks. There are primitive, electrical, full hook-up, and group campsites available. Hot shower facilities are at several campgrounds. Camping reservations can be made up to one year in advance.
$60 - $70 / night
Camping is available on a first come-first serve basis. Thirteen campsites with picnic tables, fire pits, horse corrals and a wheelchair accessible vault toilet. Electricity and drinking water is not available. There is no garbage service, please act responsibly and pack out any refuse you have. This campground is more secluded and the camper is only steps away from unlimited hiking in the Wilderness Study Area that lies outside the campground.
With a s’more in your hand and a brand new friend at your side, you might not remember all the things that inspired you to visit Flying Flags in the first place. Like the fact that it’s surrounded by miles and miles of lush, Central Coast vineyards. Or the fact that it’s just down the road from an outrageously charming ostrich refuge. Or the fact that it’s on the edge of the village of Buellton—the home of split pea soup. Because when you’re at Flying Flags, you’ll see that these grounds create a village in themselves.
Here, poolside cabanas keep families cool late into the afternoon. And expertly groomed bocce courts host brackets late into the evening. Front porches foster interactions between neighbors. And fire pits tend to spark a few stories among them too. Sure, the beauty of this place is more than enough to inspire you to come for a vacation. But the beauty of our community is what just might inspire you to come back.
Legend
This campground really does deserve the label "resort". Very clean very well kept, full service campground. Grounds are beautiful with lots of grass and trees well paved and maintained. Heated pool and spa and clean beautiful laundry room. The management is very accommodating and helpful and pleasant to deal with. We surveyed a number of campgrounds in this area before booking for an entire month. We feel this is well priced and one of the nicest RV campgrounds in the area.
Traveler
The night ranger Ron is awesome 👌 totally let me shower in the middle of night when the shower was closed, even gave me a few bucks for shower tokens very kind man!!! Just don't be late getting out of there at checkout time they don't like it and definitely threatened to call police wich kinda killed the whole good vibe of the place.
Guide
Lots of space for campers and tents. Nice, CLEAN, showers and restrooms. Staying here gives free access to driving onto the beach.
Lots of families and dogs. Noise wasn't a problem other than generators constantly running.
TravelerThis was my first time camping independently, so didn't know what to expect. Everyone was really nice, camp host, camp ranger, etc. A lot of good amenities and very close to the beach. Loved my site specifically as well, especially since walking down noticing others didn't have as much space, shade, etc. Will say this is a really good rv place, did not see a lot of tent campers. They also sell fire wood for $10 so be ready with cash!
Traveler
Easy spots to turn around and park. Beautiful views, slight road noise if you’re not in the van but quiet inside. Wouldn’t recommend anything bigger than a extended sprinter or transit
Guide
This is a county park on a lake. The campsites are unique in that they are all pull through, but really pull along. There’s lots of space and you are not on top of each other. That said, the campground is full of pocket gophers and ground squirrels so lots of uneven ground. The bathrooms are really old. Like they have metal toilets. I travel a lot and wouldn’t choose to shower here. It’s great in November and December. I’m sure it’s hot in the summer and not a ton of shade. It’s very affordable and did the job. If the bathrooms were not so old it would have been a 4 star.
Traveler
☆ 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.
Scout
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
Scout
Not a bad campground, but driving in, the owner has large political flags flying. In these highly divisive times, I don't want to stay at places that divide our country, I want to get away from that. Not recommended.
Scout
Nice rv park but pretty ridiculous that all the toilets and showers in the rv park are locked from 10pm-7:30 am. When you’re paying a minimum of $59 a night I’d expect I would At least be able to Use the restroom in the middle of the night wouldn’t recommend for that reason
Guide
Facilities are run down. This places needs a major make over! Bathrooms are dirty, showers are gross. Sinks to wash dishes are disgusting & right next to dumpsters. You have no privacy and sites are right on top of each other…you’re basically in a parking lot. Barking dogs right next to you can get pretty annoying pretty fast. NOT WORTH the $70 a night fee. I would only stay here here as a LAST resort
Guide
Facilities are run down. This places needs a major make over! Bathrooms are dirty, showers are gross. Sinks to wash dishes are disgusting & right next to dumpsters. You have no privacy and sites are right on top of each other…you’re basically in a parking lot. Barking dogs right next to you can get pretty annoying pretty fast. NOT WORTH the $70 a night fee. I would only stay here here as a LAST resort
ScoutLarge sites with fire rings, picnic tables, some sites don’t have much shade and some do. Less than 1/2 mile walk to beach. Couple miles from Oceano dunes. Hot showers. Can get windy. Dog friendly.
TravelerI skipped out on Oceano and came here hoping they might have something open. Turns out they had 8 and the park ranger let me drive in to scope it out. I picked a site close to the beach and even better my Oceano reservation could be transferred. Yay. Loved this campground so much. It’s well laid out and all the sites are well spaced and clean. The evening was much quieter, with a sunset and sounds of waves. A ten minute walk to the beach and right next to the butterfly grove. I have already made another reservation to see about the butterflies when they are in season. Pismo Beach is fantastic!
Traveler
Probably just due to the time of year but this campground was way too rowdy for my taste, all the sites are close together and it seemed almost every site was a very large group, generators running after 10pm, amplified music and tv! If that’s your jam you’ll love it. I took off after 1 night.
ScoutCampground is full hookups. Lake was nice and not many boats. Ground was rough due to holes made by squirrel population. Some minor litter.
Scoutpretty easy to find, road is also easy to drive. found a pretty good level spot, definitely camping right off the side of the road. pretty nice and low key tho
Traveler
This is a wonderful campground if you're looking to escape the crowds elsewhere. We were in spot 4 which was right next to the check in board. Despite the close proximity to the road the site was very big and had plenty of trees to throw our hammocks up and relax. Next time we would likely pick spots 6-8 or 13-17 as they were a little further into the campground and away from the main road.
There is plenty of firewood to gather but I may suggest a small hatchet.
The vault toilets were clean enough for vault toilets.
My husband and I stayed Saturday to Monday and found that only a few hunters were left Sunday night and Monday morning and we enjoyed walking through the campground and checking out all the small viewpoints through the trees to the valleys below. The group sites looked spacious and awesome as well!
Pine Mountain Club was close, quaint, and the people we met were friendly.
We are keeping this spot in our back pockets for the next time we want to escape the busy city life!
GuideThis is a nicely maintained municipal water reservoir with a very large lake. No swimming allowed, but boating is. Go figure.
There are campgrounds with hookups that are only available for RVs. There is one Campground -Indian- that has a mixture of tent and RV sites with hookups available but it was under maintenance when I was here this weekend. So all the rest of the areas that do have hookups do not accommodate my truck and tent rig. And there are no 110V or 30a outlets available for people who are traveling light -with solar and a minimum amount of panels, where you might need to plug in once in awhile- they can't cover you here. Too bad no one thought of that when they were designing this place, because it's an awfully big place with a lot of sites.
So we're leaving today to find another place to weekend.
But two nights next to the lake, in the campground called Mallard was lovely as can be. Next time I'll come out with more panels to keep my pair of EcoFlow RiverPro solar generators topped up.
GuidePicked the first nook from the GPS pin but hiked up road and there are quite a few others, some shaded, some exposed. Bit of highway noise.
ScoutClean and very nice view. Easy access to the beach.
Legend
We loved camping here. The whole area has a really peaceful and mellow vibe. We reserved site #49 which was plenty big enough for our 26ft class c, but the drive through the campground to get to the site was a little narrow and tight, wouldn't recommend for larger RVs. This end of the campground is right next to the emergency exit, too, but they keep that gate locked, otherwise it would be an easy swoop in. Camp host was really nice, campground was huge, nice that there's a creek running through it which comes in handy in the hot summer months. You have to drive over some creek runoff at parts, no problem.
There's zero cell reception in this entire area, the roads leading up to the campground as well.
Fees are $35 or $37 for weekends/holidays. Pricey for what you get and for what we're used to paying for a forest service campground.
Traveler
Located on Vandenberg base which requires a membership card (military I.D.) This helps keep the camp site more private. No one goes here. It is tranquil and has trails to hike and lakes to fish in. Hunting is also allowed during select seasons. If you like quiet and keep to yourself, this is the place. There are no trash cans and a permit is required for campfire. There are a couple of port-a-pots and they are very clean. Go SpaceForce! Lastly, watch out for poison oak. Stay on the trails and all is well. Semper Fi.
Traveler
This is tragi-comedy: I was invited to a wedding in Santa Barbara. It was summer and the most fleabitten motel prices were astronomical. I began to look at campsites within driving distance, I was desperate. Booked Catchuma and thought, hoorah, I’ve defeated the tourism trap.
Well… from the moment I arrived . . . I really could not care less about the wedding. My god. I think I’ll leave it at that.
Bring binos. Boat, bring your canoe/kayak.
Ranger
We had reservations for 2 nights on an Augugst Friday / Saturday at Lopez Lake in a full-hook-up site in Bandtail (Site 38). The reviews of this place were great, and the photos were beautiful. We arrived to find a HUGE park (yes, I should have noted how many campsites there are). Check-in involved parking our van and standing in line like Disneyland. The park employees were nice though. There were big signs all around "NO FIRES" (more on this later) and I was also told at check in that there were no fires. We found our site easily enough, only to realize how closely packed the sites were in Bandtail. Some nice folks to our right had three sites - 11 kids and 21 people between them. The kids rode their bikes all over, and even onto our site (while also running around our van chasing a chipmunk). We had our daughter's dog, so tried sitting outside in the shade, only to find that in addition to the heat (it was mid 80s), there were biting flies. :( Poor puppy got bit or stung more than once. So we went in our van and turned on the AC (it could run on low with the 20A service there). Then, after dark, a dad and his young son arrive on our other side and had to back in their boat in the dark. We got out of our rig and helped them (twice) with our portable lights and guidance. In the morning, they spoke in very loud voices and we were right next door. We did take one of the trails in the heat, but they are not at all well maintained - basically trampled grass that could easily hold a snake. While the area is pretty, it is just way too crowded for our taste. Oh, and the bathrooms were dimily lit, had a couple of non-functioning toilets, and were dirty. We were ready to get out of there and will not be back. Lastly, though the fire danger was marked as extremely high and "NO FIRES" signs at check-in, along with verbal warnings of no fires, I saw two campsites had open fires in the fire pits. This blatant lack of regard for rules and safety didn't sit well with me. And no one was enforcing the fire ban. Sad.
LegendWe 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.
Legend
We love being able to camp directly on the beach, and have done so many times in Texas and in Louisiana, but wouldn't recommend it here unless you are in a 4wd. We did see 2 skoolies on the beach, but then we also saw a pickup truck stuck in the sand in the parking lot outside of the beach, so there's that.
Camping overnight is only $10, and the beach is wide open for camping. It was very busy during the day on a weekday in August, so I can imagine the weekends are packed.
This is a fun beach in a fun, low key beach town, and we love coming here.
Camping near Los Padres National Forest, California, offers a mix of beautiful scenery and outdoor adventures. Whether you're looking for a quiet retreat or a fun family getaway, there are plenty of campgrounds to choose from.
Camping near Los Padres National Forest, California, is a great way to enjoy nature and create lasting memories. With a variety of campgrounds like Cachuma Lake Recreation Area and Mt. Figueroa Campground, you can find the perfect spot for your next adventure.
Frequently Asked Questions
What camping is available near Los Padres National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, Los Padres National Forest offers a wide range of camping options, with 136 campgrounds and RV parks near Los Padres National Forest and 8 free dispersed camping spots.
Which is the most popular campground near Los Padres National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular campground near Los Padres National Forest is Cachuma Lake Recreation Area with a 4.3-star rating from 56 reviews.
Where can I find free dispersed camping near Los Padres National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, there are 8 free dispersed camping spots near Los Padres National Forest.
What parks are near Los Padres National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, there are 14 parks near Los Padres National Forest that allow camping, notably Carrizo Plain National Monument and Channel Islands National Park.
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