Best Campgrounds near Maricopa, CA

Beautiful hilly landscape. Despite the absence of trees or bushes for shadow, we had a wonderful evening here, on our way to santa barbara. At the mentioned location we soon encountered a sign saying the motorized vehicles are prohibited from that point on. We drove a bit further down the main road than the gps location suggests, and took the next road to find a spot. The area map with zones for dispersed camping is not too clear, but it seems that you can camp to a certain distance from the main road, and this distance varies. After taking the next road, we found a simple semi-prepared spot. Some warm breezes in the evening, silent night with great views of the night sky.

It’s a very simple place but I found it so peaceful being surrounded by the golden plains, the breeze through the big shaded eucalyptus trees, and hearing the owls near sundown. Theres also hummingbirds that’ll get up right in your face. I was also the only one at the site so that was nice. The area is clean, vault toilets kinda gross though. Very small campground, a couple drive in sites and a couple walk in sites but each drive in site had a picnic table, fire ring, and a metal pole hook and theres one drinking water spigot for the whole campground. So not bad!! Road was surprisingly smooth majority of way and has some paved parts but there was some washboard parts too. Road to get here was long though about 13 miles from the blm sign. There was paper maps at the sign area. I got 3 bars at the campground with AT&T but was spotty on the drive over.

Stopped in while passing through. It was memorial day weekend and Rec.gov showed 4 sites first come first serve. The entire park had otherwise been reserved. The camp host was nice and tried to push back a little saying she didn't have any spots but I showed her the app and the reservation sticker she put therefor the site for somebody the next day so it all worked out. Bathrooms were clean and they had water points around the sites. Sites were not in the best of shapes and could use someone walking around with a weedeater. Close to the boat launch which would be handy for some.

We had a really good time here without having to travel too far out of the city. Was a great quick getaway with our dog. Sites vary from small and crowded to large and spacious. We camped with our square drop trailer and had little issues parking and setting up.

It seems the campsite attracts a rowdy crowd but that's expected so close to the city. Still, noisy neighbors was definitely the most negative aspect of our stay.

Restrooms were decently clean, showers were good and quarter operated. Peacocks roam the campsite and are really cool to see. The attached park has an aviary and if you follow it to the opposite side of the campgrounds, has quite some land to walk the dog around.