Best Tent Camping near Thousand Oaks, CA

My husband and I are using our senior park pass to it’s fullest advantage. On our most recent trip, we decided to try Channel Islands and we were thrilled. First thing to know is that this trip requires some planning and flexibility. You must book your boat ride and camp site in advance and then check the day before to make sure weather permits the boat ride. Island packers provides the boat ride for both campers and day trips. We camped two nights. We departed at around 9 am and arrived at around 10:30. We had to check in by 8 in the parking lot at Ventura bay. You must not have water in your back pack, the propane must be out in a separate bin, and you are allowed only 60 lbs of “stuff” each. We took our Mountain House meals along with our jet boil, a few fruits, and a couple of sandwiches; our tent, sleeping bags, a Wenzel air mattress and were set. You take your stuff to the boat to load. On the day of our travel winds were gusting so severely that they cancelled the day trips, and it was rough! Lots of people got sick on the ride over. Upon arriving on the island, you form a bucket brigade to unload all the luggage/stuff, then a park ranger gives a brief overview of rules, mainly pack out all trash, no trash can be left on the island and to use the “Fox boxes” for all food stuff as the island foxes and ravens WILL take your stuff. You then take a short hike with all your stuff to your campsite - it’s about 1/4 mile or more, depending on your site. Each campground has multiple spigots on potable water, so no need to bring water with you. There are plenty of very clean vault toilets that are always filled with supplies including hand sanitizer. The hikes are spectacular and the trails are well maintained. Note, the hikes are challenging, when they say strenuous, they mean it! The park rangers are very helpful and accessible. The last day of our trip, we packed up our site and moved our stuff to a staging area so the next group could set up their tent. We watched the kayakers and snorkeling groups. The weather was very calm. The boat ride back was amazing, we saw schools of dolphins, the captain estimated over 2000 dolphins. He stopped so we could get lots of pictures. Note, there is no store on the island, we did have spotty cell coverage with AT&T.

Cool drive to get to the campground. You drive up and down these hilly roads up the mountain to get there. Once there, there's a parking lot that fits about 20 cars. There's about 100 yd hike to the campsites. There's a road that leads to the campsite but it's been blocked off. Only the campsite managers use that road so it's not accessible by RV, just tents. A campsite manager stays in a little trailer overnight so if there's any problems there's somebody there you can go to and ask for help. There's about six campsites and their first come first serve, no reservations. I went during the week and was the only one camping. This place is heavily used for day camping and hiking. There's not a lot of privacy because there's always lots of people passing by who are hiking and biking. You can stay overnight which I did and everything was fine but there's not a lot of privacy. The next day as I was leaving there was another guy sitting up his tent. I bet on the weekends they can fill up pretty fast. It's in Bear country so they provide food storage for each campsite also trash containers too. Each side has a picnic bench and a fire pit. The fire ban has been lifted so you can have a fire. Each fire pit had wood left at it so you didn't have to go searching for campfirewood. Bathrooms included male and female toilets but no showers or water. There's a creek that runs through the campground which makes it very pretty. I saw two to three cabins along the outskirts of the campground that I assume were for rentals. There was one family at one of the cabins the night I stayed. About a 20 minute hike and you can end up at a waterfall which is very pretty. But there are several trails to take for hiking and biking and I saw lots of people doing that. Overall a good campsite four stars. Would have been five stars if they had showers and running water. I didn't see any bears although there was an animal outside my tent at one point in the night I could hear him nosing around. So it's important to keep all of your food and anything with any kind of smell in the bear boxes

At the top of the Cuddy Valley road is a large parking lot (Adventure Pass required) for the hiking trail to the top of Mt. Pinos. Off to the other side is a dirt trail on the edge of a meadow, after about 200/300 yards is Chula Vista Campground. The camp sites vary greatly in size and flatness, so check around for the good ones.

First Come First serve camping, with some great spots overlooking the nearby meadow. The sites were clean and decently spread out, with fire rings and picnic benches.

It can get pretty windy up here so make sure your tent is staked down well. If you don't have an Adventure Pass, Mountain View Mini Mart in Frazier Park is the closest place i know that sells them. $5 a day, or $30 for the year pass. (you can get a second year pass for only $5).

Met a guy named Bob and helped set up his telescope in the parking lot, he let anyone who wanted check out the amazing night sky!

Pros: Free camping!

          Great hiking nearby.

          Shady, clean sites.

          Great sky gazing!

Cons: Lots of flies, very active during the day.

           Bathrooms were pretty messy. below average for vault toilets. Bring extra TP.

I recently moved to WA from Los Angeles so this review is legit 😁 This was and still continues to be one of my favorite campsite close to Los Angeles, I have plenty of fond memories with close friends at this site. It’s completely exposed all the way to the top, a well worth 3 mile uphill hike to three different camp sites. My favorite is the middle site where you get a clear view of the city, beautiful views at night. They say there’s no water but there is, there’s a spout located by the restroom close to the museum, you’ll have to treat it before using (but don’t take my word for it, they tend to shut it off so take plenty of water for your time there and check it out if you need more) If you continue past the middle campsite to the upper site, you’ll have plenty of space for tents and hammocks just no view due to the trees on the edge. If you continue on that trail for another 3 miles i believe, you’ll get to idlehour campground. It’s a small site right next to a creek, you can continue on to Mt Lowe campground and inspiration point. Back to Henninger, plenty of trees for hammocks and sometimes they have firewood collected. At the museum you can buy soda cans so take some change. Hauling a 24 pack of cold Modelos in my pack was not fun at all, but boy did they taste good at the top hahaha. Bugs can get annoying so carry some bug spray, hang your food and PACK IT OUT!!! Leave no trace behind.

This place had been on my bucket-list of camping forever and it takes a decent amount of planning because not only can you only access the campground by private boat, once there you have to walk in about a 1/2 mile with all your stuff. It's totally worth it however. Incredible views, perfect weather (in April!), amazing flowers and so much to see and do.

The campsite itself is "basic" in that it has a vault toilet, water, and "fox boxes" (like the bear boxes in other campgrounds) to keep all the cute but quick and greedy foxes away from your food. There's also picnic tables, but other than that make sure you bring everything you need since there's no way to pop into a local store to grab something you might have forgotten. No camp fires are allowed and all garbage must be packed out (but can be stored in the fox boxes until you're ready to leave).

At only $15/night, the camp sites are a steal, though the boat trips will add on about $80 per person round-trip (slightly less for kids). 8am is the earliest boat ride and 4:30 is the last (via Island Packers).

Summary/Tips: Do it! Especially if you love hiking, this is an amazing place. Try to get your gear down to one well-planned backpack (or perhaps one of those foldy wagons as another reviewer recommended) so you only have to take one trip to the campsite, though you can always take more trips if needed.