Best Dispersed Camping near Taft, CA

Chorma Camp is the first spot you will encounter on the hike south through Cherry Creek. Situated high on a bluff it gets lots of wind, and with very little shelter around to break it, if you camp here you will get the brunt of it.

There are no amenities at any of the campsites in this area, they are all primitive dispersed camp areas.

Continuing on past Chorma if you can make it to Maple it is better campsite down in the valley.

There is a nice hike-in campsite about 1.5 miles up the Chorro Grande trail called Oak Camp. I think the other review here might be unintentionally implying that camping along the 33 is allowed. It isn't. This is from the district web page:

"Disperse camping is NOT allowed on Hwy 33, the Rose Valley Recreation Area or the Pine Mountain Recreation Area or Matilija Canyon Rd. These are Restricted Use Zones."

☆ 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.

This site is next to chorro grande trail which is about a 9 mile hike. After your long hike of you want to rest go up the mountain site across and it’s an awesome place to camp out. This is dispersed campsite. You will also come across many people parked on the side for those who hike the trails so if you go up the little hill mountain you can camp out peacefully with awesome sunrise and sunsets.

Pretty solid! Had great cell service and was a lovely drive to get there. Probably wouldn’t recommend if you have a tent or RV as the spots were a little small and rocky. But I only went a little past where the directions take you, so not sure what else is up there.

Arrived just at sunset and loved the views! It was very peaceful and far enough from the highway. It seemed like the same truck was driving up and down a couple times which was the only downfall.

Overall a good experience.

pretty 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

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

Picked 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.