Searching for the perfect place to pitch your tent near Palomar Mountain? The Dyrt can help you find the best tent campsites for your next trip. Each tent site offers quick access to one or more of Palomar Mountain, California's most popular destinations.
The Kumeyaay Lake Campground is open for Friday and Saturday night camping. The 46 campsites are available for reservation on a first-come, first-serve basis and the is $22.66 per night. On the reservation website page, go to the "Location" drop-down menu at the top of the page and select Kumeyaay Lake Campground. All cancellations must be made 14 days in advance.
$24 - $25 / night
We're an organic farm homestead. Springtime sees the field lush and green from the rains. Summer is hot and dry, but the cool evening breeze is nice. We have Red-tailed Hawks at their nest, hummingbirds, songbirds, and our own quail, chickens, turkeys and ducks to mingle with.
Campsites are in our open back pasture, "Oat Prairie at Eyrie Farm." You'll probably hear coyotes at night.
It's your responsibility as campers to be aware of our policies, including all rules, cancellation policy and check in/out times (which are local PST). These policies are FIRM.
Be advised at this time there is no toilet, it is Pack-It-Out. We will be adding a bathroom shed shortly.
Every person-- adults and kids of ALL ages-- count toward party size. Children are not free.
No RVs, trailers, or campers. No exceptions. Truck pop-up tents are fine. Additional cars after the first 2 are charged $10 each, cash on site. Carpool when possible!
NO PETS. Guests with assistance animals must sign our assistance animal contract to stay. Be advised that assistance animal fraud is a crime, and we must protect ourselves and our animals.
We are strictly unavailable after 9pm. It's best to arrive before nightfall as it's easier to fine. Once you get on our road you must LOOK for our number and signage on the LEFT side of the road (you'll receive address in your booking confirmation). Make sure you go to "Eyrie Farm" and no other place!
Follow us on FaceBook! Search for "The Eyrie Farm":)
We also sometimes host on Hipcamp, at the listing here:
$30 / night
$5 / night
Overpriced for a dirt spot, no ocean view at all. Ocean view sites full of expensive RVs that can afford the price. No market or cantina, for those you have to walk to Campland, not a short walk. Should've just stayed at Campland
Labor Day weekend. We occupied the only spot out of five. Lots of wildlife. Raccoons in the night, gray squirrel, other squirrels, many birds. So much
Clean, quiet campground located in one of the OC Parks, with plenty of trails for hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian use. I stayed here on a weekday, and there were a few couple of vacant campsites in my area, so it was an extremely quiet visit. Bathrooms were clean and well stocked for my stay. I didn’t use the showers since I was only staying one night, but I heard they were free!
Rangers were very friendly and firewood was only $5 for a decent bundle that lasted me over 2 hours.
The city of Rancho Santa Margarita is right up the hill, so you can grab food and any necessities if needed.
My site backed to the creek, so I never had people walking through my campsite.
My dog & I slept in my van, but there was room for multiple tents, and a decent amount of shade in my spot.
My spot didn’t have its own water spigot, but there was one at a site across from me.
I was fortunate that all of the campers around me were quiet and considerate. I know that it doesn’t always work out that way, and having obnoxious neighbors can really ruin your experience.
A great spot if you want to get away and enjoy some alone time. It’s a little warm in the day in august this time of year so you can’t hike around or explore too much. My girlfriend and I stopped in Julian on our way out to get a late lunch and then head to the campsite. The road is paved until you turn off Lone Creek Road and then it is a dirt road. I have a stock Rav4 and it was able to drive on it although there are a few spots you need to be careful at so you don’t scrape the bottom of your car. We only spent one night but we never saw another person during our stay
The scenery is incredible and varied from deeply forested to open meadow. There are miles of hiking trails. The campground layout is nice and for many of the loops it is possible to find a site that feels separated from your fellow campers. This place fills up during the weekends in the spring through fall seasons, so book sites early on recreation.gov. As implied by my title, there are no hookups here so any RV camping is dry camping. For RVs with a good solar array, it is possible to find open spots that keep the energy flowing throughout the day. There is one loop dedicated to longer RVs. As a personal note, I don't recommend Site 62 for RV camping - it is angled and has some erosion issues coming off of the asphalt pad. I have been to this campground several times as both a tent camper and an RV camper and have not had any problems with cleanliness of the facilities or excessively noisy neighbors.
We traveled as a group of 17 campers and were able to disperse evenly between 4 close together campsites. We were in 19, 20, 21 and 23. Even though the website says it allowed 2 cars per site we were charged for the 2nd vehicle. In each site. I had also checked online prior to make sure we would have cell service with that many people meeting us. Only those of us that had Verizon had only a single bar. The campsites in the inner ring (ours was #21) are VERY close together. Not at all private, your camp is literally up against a couple others. We had children from the other sites running all through ours and it was so close you could hear everyone else’s private conversations. #19 and #20 were on the outer circle but just enough space to park and then walk through very sticky manzanita trees into the campsite and picnic table area. None of them had much or any shade. Our saving grace was our 4th spot - which gave us enough room to have all of us sit out of the way of the sticky trees and one tree in the middle to give us a touch of shade throughout the day. It had 2 picnic tables and was much more private so we didn’t disturb anyone and we didn’t have everyone else disturbing us. The vault toilets (yes, I know what they entail, and yes, it’s summer) were horrendous and barely useable, but we had 2 within very quick walking distance of us. They do allow dogs (we had 5 dogs and 3 cats with us) and it’s a short drive into the little town of Idyllwild. It’s a campground that served its purpose in getting all of us together and of course we had a blast, but it’s not on my “must camp here again” list.
It was overall a nice campsite. Our site seemed to be pretty large it came with a picnic table & fire pit. The walk to the beach was close seemed maybe about 10 minute till we reached the beach from our site. It is on a hill you need to walk down & back up. The only down side was the bathrooms on the same road as our site were pretty dirty did not seem to have any maintenance during our stay.
Peaceful dispersed campground. Wide open great views. Didn’t even know I had neighbors until I walked around in the morning and saw neighboring campers over the hill. Clear skies when I went back in November, could get pretty windy. Saw some coyotes pass by my camp.
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.
Awesome spot, lots of sights and some even have overlooks of the entire park. Can get crowded but no one was there on a Friday night in July. Bathrooms, trash, water and even buckets to fill to put out your fire. Fire pits, benches and grills nothing more you could want.
Great rv resort. Close proximity to casino.
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
Pretty small spot off the road, does get kind of loud from cars but overall a decent and clean spots
This is a great area. I recommend you bring extra mosquito repellent. Have fun!
The pictures can be deceiving. It’s beautiful there, however, other than the picture showing flat ground, and wide space, this isn’t accurate.
This time of year, mosquitos and flies everywhere to the point where it really ruined the experience. No matter what sprays, lotions, candles or anything we tried, it was not working.
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.
This is an RV only camp. All units need to be self contained. They lock entrance gate and restrooms around sunset. Sites are about 25 feet wide, mostly level. But no separation between sites. Road noise is high. A pedestrian tunnel under the road leads to San Diego bay and an aquatic center that rents kayaks and paddle boards. Also nice hiking trails overlooking the bay and navy ships. If you ant a beach camp and don’t mind road noise or very close neighbors, this may be just for you.
Site had tree cover which had some nice shade to provide relief from the sun. Lots of room for a couple vehicles and tents. Clean bathrooms and showers, but we stayed midweek and the place was very, very minimally occupied. Good access to walking and biking trails.
There is always a spot or 2 open. Staff are always polite.
Here in late May and the bees and other bugs have been nonstop on me the whole time I've been here. It's a really beautiful area and the spots are spacious
This was a last minute Memorial Day weekend trip with my boyfriend and 2 dogs. Friday sent an email to SM.FS.DescansoRD@usda.gov requesting the free permit (after doing research and finding out you need one), filled out the form, and got it back in the same day. Easy to get there, easy directions once there just make you pass the sign that says leaving the recreation area after that you can find any spot and camp. It was a little bumpy but nothing too bad. Drove with my jeep renegade that isn’t a 4wheel drive. A little busy due to the holiday but not too bad. Cyclist riding by, vehicles, and hikers. Which was nice saying hi. Hardly any service for my carrier which is T-Mobile. Definitely will camp out here again.
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.
Saturday night in May. All other public campgrounds nearby are booked solid, but there are only 3 other groups here beside me. 1 camper told me the CG is always empty. Why? Because it's at the end of a 7.5 mile dead-end road in an OHV area, yet no OHVers here. No piped water, but the creek is flowing in mid-May of a wet winter. So peaceful. Lots of shade.
I stopped here for lunch. You're in the desert, so hot during the day. There are some trees for shade, especially for the campsites along Yaqui Pass Road. All sites have lattice-work shelters for shade over the picnic tables. Water is listed as non-potable at all faucets. Besides campsites, there are one-room cabins for rent. $35/night for the campsites is a lot, but that is state park practice in CA. National Forest campgrounds are cheaper.
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.
A pleasant campground. I was able to find a shaded campsite with no reservation on a Friday in May at 5 pm. A few bugs, but nothing outrageous. My dog's happy. I'm happy. She's enjoying a chew stick. I'm enjoying a beer.
Camping near Palomar Mountain, California, offers a mix of stunning views, outdoor activities, and family-friendly environments. Whether you're looking for a peaceful retreat or an adventure-filled getaway, there are plenty of campgrounds to explore.
Camping near Palomar Mountain, California, offers a variety of experiences for everyone. Whether you're hiking, fishing, or just enjoying the scenery, there's something for every outdoor enthusiast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Palomar Mountain, CA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Palomar Mountain, CA is Kumeyaay Lake Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 20 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 27 tent camping locations near Palomar Mountain, CA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
