Best Cabin Camping near Salton City, CA

2 outdoor pools and an indoor adult spa (102 degrees), RV sites with Power, Water and Sewer as well as tent sites. Flush toilets and hot/cold showers. This place is well maintained and the cleanest campground I have ever stayed at. Shuffleboard and Horseshoes courts, lots of hiking trails and things to see. The campground / pools are all fed from natural mineral springs. Pets are allowed within the campground and all sites have picnic table and fire-ring. Small store at the park entrance is great for the simply things you may have forgotten. They even have cabins available but they book up pretty fast. Rangers are all very friendly and helpful. Enjoyed my stay, I will be back.

Lots going on here but felt peaceful midweek in Jan. 3 spring-fed pools, hot showers quarter operated, clean flush toilet bathrooms, water, hiking trails and ample roads to walk the dog on. Mountain lion country - be alert. Friendly rangers. Clean facilities and well-kept grounds. Horseshoe pits and large group picnic areas. Cute cabins for rent - no pets allowed in those. Will definitely visit again. Many of the tent sites are close together - if the campground was full you’d have little privacy but it’s a large place and there were hardly any tent campers when I was there, though more RVs and vans in the hookup section. Tent site 106 is very private. I liked 109 it was in a kind of bird thicket with privacy from the road etc.

My wife and I stayed here in early May 2021. This was our second time at Paso Picacho after visiting here a few years ago. We were even more impressed this time around. I can't say enough about this place. The grounds are serene and well kept, the atmosphere is relaxed and most of the campers were very respectful. The campsites are huge, if you know which ones to nab with an early reservation, and the staff there are just the most delightful people on earth.

On our first night there, a couple of huge pickups showed up to the spot right above ours at midnight, and they blasted music, partied, and screamed at the top of their lungs often (for whatever reason), and we couldn't sleep. We were super bummed and had thought it was pretty much going to be an awful trip. However, we talked to the campground host and the staff at the entrance, and they were super understanding and helpful. They said that they know people come here for peace and quiet, and that they take it seriously when any campers violate their quiet hours rules.

The camp host hopped on a cart right away and sped away to the offending sites to give them a talking to and made sure to mention that if they violated the noise rules again, they would send in rangers and have them booted out of the campground. It worked like gangbusters! The rest of our trip was amazing, and we didn't hear so much as a peep from the neighboring sites (it was a big group) all weekend. The camp host followed up with us afterward and said that we could come by his site anytime and tell him if the other campers were loud again, even if it was 3am in the morning. He said, "It's no trouble. That's what I'm here for."

Awesome, awesome, awesome. The fire pit worked out great, and we were able to cook all of our meals on the grill that comes with it using the cast iron skillets we bought. They had plenty of wood for sale at the front, as well as ice. The wood price is a little steep ($8 per bundle), but all that money goes back into the park. Knowing that, it actually felt good paying them for the wood rather than buying it elsewhere.

The trails were well kept, and the views were fantastic even with the fire damage. We got to do everything that we wanted to do and then some. We even had time to go to Julian and do some shopping - check out the Cider Mill for some delicious treats!

As far as campsites go, our site (#30) was so, so great. We researched a lot online beforehand (campsitephotos.com was helpful along with this site, Google reviews, and Yelp), so we had a pretty good idea of what the site was going to look like.  But it was even better than the pictures. It was a huge site with plenty of room for 2 tent pads. The picnic table and fire pit were positioned just under a huge, climbable tree that gave us plenty of shade while we were there. The only downside to this site is that it was very close to the bathrooms. That actually bummed me out a bit when we first arrived, but it ended up not being much of an issue at all. The traffic to and from the bathrooms was very light, and the section of the bathroom building facing our site was all showers, which barely anybody used. There is also a lot of bushes and tree cover in between the site and the bathrooms, so we barely saw anybody the whole time we were there.

Reading reviews online is what helped us find such a great spot, so I promised myself  I would walk the grounds and post all of the good site numbers online when we got back. So here they are, at least in my opinion:

Top Three

30: our site- the best!

70: easily the 2nd best site on the grounds- very private, secluded, lots of bush cover, fire pit and table are far from the road- the only downside to this site it that it has very little shade, so bring a canopy or tarp to setup your own shade situation. Other than that, this site was incredible. We will probably check this one out when we go back here in the fall.

85: My pick for the 3rd best site on the grounds, although my wife disagreed. This site is surrounded by forest, trees, and bushes on 3 sides. If you don't count the front facing view, it is one of the most secluded sites in the campground. It is on the outside of a bend in the road, and there are no other sites to the left and right of it. I personally prefer a"bathroom bush" close by to save myself from having to walk to the bathrooms in the dark, and this place has tons of'em. The downside here is that the front of the campsite faces 2-3 other sites that are right across the road. If the site were a house, basically the"front door" is wide open to the campers across the way. If you had a bad group camping across from you, it might be not so fun. However, you can park your car in such a way that it would block out some of that wide open space in the front, making it more private.

Honorable Mention

44: my wife's pick for 3rd- big site, lots of shade, secluded, a little too close to the neighboring site on the left side(facing the site from the road) but nothing but road on the right side

8: Nice, big site that is not close to other campsites. Private, secluded. Lots of trees and shade. The downside to this one is that it is right across from a cabin. Depending on the campers using the cabin during your visit, that proximity to the cabin might be a bummer. However, there were no big parties at the cabins while we were there.

51: Good site, lots of trees and shade. Semi-private.

54: Good site, lots of trees and shade. Not all that private- kind of open and on a little bit of a slope.

20: Just kinda okay. Trees and shade but not very private or secluded. Good if all of the above are booked.

Visited the last 2 weeks of August. Great place for family and kids. Affordable. Campsite #295. You can fit two 10' x10' canopies to cover the bench table, and fit 2 individual tents (4-6 person) OR a bigger 12p tent however you decide to position it. It has its own Fire pit. Different campgrounds for all chosen methods (Tent, RV, Glamping, etc..) There's restrooms you can use. There's showers you can pay per use. The swim zone isn't too far from this campsite, 5-10 min walk w/ no accessories. If you have little ones, you can take them with a wagon but I'd recommend just driving your car with a few items to the zone. Bring your own shade for this campsite, your own water too. The marketplace is near the entrance BUT they only sell individual waters (No 48 pack types). You'll definitely hear your neighbors snore at night after a long day LOL.. quiet hours are from 10pm - 8am. Overall, this is a great spot. If you're lucky to snag other spots with trees covering you then great but this is still a good campsite. Happy camping! ... Oh yeah, T-Mobile no service up there (apparently Verizon, AT&T do)

There are no bathrooms or water here, but you have cell service and a convenience store very close by. This is a great spot to find a free camping site and still be somewhat in your own seclusion. The sky is really nice here at night. You can see the freeway a bit of a distance out from this location and it takes about 45mins or so get back into Joshua tree National park from here. The fire pits are in the ground so you might have to rebuild the walls above ground if they’ve been knocked down. Overall a very cool spot to check out that’s right outside of Joshua tree National park with beautiful sunset views. This is BLM land

Tamarisk Grove Campground is about 20 minutes south of Borrego Springs. It sits next to the highway but there’s minimal traffic so it isn’t terribly loud. There are tent sites as well as primitive cabins. Each site has a fire ring and table. There are also flush toilets and paid showers. There is no potable water at this campground - be sure to bring your own. The cabins are simple structures with platforms for sleeping. There are no amenities in the cabins - no electric, no water, no mattress, no linens, etc.

The campground is across the street from both the Cactus Loop and Yaqui Well trail heads. We recommend the short Cactus Loop hike over the Yaqui Well hike. Go at sunset to catch the cholla cacti backlit by the sunset.

Pros:

easy to get to, nice amenities

right next to Julian (perfect for day trips into town)

there are a few campsites where you can create some privacy (much more so than many other San Diego park campgrounds)

cool, easy trails to hike nearby

Cons:

most campsites are right on top of each other, many don't provide shade. One occasion, a family with a giant RV parked in the middle of the tent campground area, their generator/other RV components were extremely loud, and they brought two power wheel cars that their young children promptly began to drive around (adding to the sounds of other battery-powered crap) at 6am. My solace came when the batteries finally died.

rangers are constantly patrolling and there are A TON of rules for the campground ("quiet hours", no ropes or anything else tied to the trees)

the area is ridden with flies at certain times of the year- i believe it was late summer