Best Equestrian Camping near Helendale, CA

Been here many times since it is local to me.

This place has changed a lot over the years, and not necessarily for the good, in my opinion.

What there is:

• Trailer camping
• Tent camping
• Fishing
• A playground
• Small water park
• Two lakes to fish at
• Trains, lots of them
• Bathrooms with showers
• Frisbee golf
• Picnic tables and shelters

What there is no longer:

• Paddle boats
• Horse riding stables
• Horses and cows
• Other interesting animals
• Water in the grass fields where the animals roamed
• Arenas

Beware of skunks and loud trains!

It is still a somewhat nice place to visit for a couple hours with the kids.

We have camped in a tent. The tents sites are adjacent to the lake.

Trailer camping isn't too bad, other than being adjacent to the busy railroad. Most sites have grass.

General: A mix of FHU RV sites tent sites, group sites around Horseshoe Lake and some additional dry camping and equestrian sites around Pelican Lake. There are also four RVs you can “rent” in the Horseshoe Lake area. The sites around Horseshoe Lake are close to an active rail line. And by active, I mean really active – I stopped counting after I counted 24 trains lumbering by during our short overnight stay. 

Site Quality: IMO the waterfront tent sites are the nicest. They are farthest away from the trains (but not far enough!) The other dry sites have paved camper pads; some are “doubles” which would kind of suck if both sites were occupied by people who did not know each other! (Ours was one but fortunately, this was not the case for us on a Sunday in November). 

Bath/Shower House: There were two restrooms about equidistant from our campsite, but both were very basic– no soap, hooks or shelves and no mirrors (it looked like they had been ripped off the wall). The floors were concrete, and the entire appearance was very drab. I did not use the shower. 

This was an overnight stop for us, so we did not take advantage of any of the activities (horseback riding, hiking, disc golf, fishing). There was a very nice playground in the day-use area, a reasonable walking distance from the Horseshoe Lake sites. I had called about a week ahead of time to make a reservation (the online reservation system has been down for quite some time) and was assured would not need a reservation. However, there is a gate that is locked at 4 pm and we knew we would not arrive in time, so we called and were able to make a phone reservation when our site was assigned. We were a little concerned when we saw a security guard making rounds around 10 pm (and this combined with the locked gate), we wondered if we were in a safe environment, although we did not encounter any problems. Make sure you know that the park is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (which seems a bit bizarre) so you will need to know the gate code after 4 pm and on those days (the code seems to change daily). Also, I read that seniors (62 and older), active duty military, and veterans receive a $5 discount Sundays through Thursdays but you have to go to the office and show proof and then you will receive a “rebate” a few days later (which we did). This was just an overnight for us as we worked our way back home but we would likely not stay here again.

• Easy going campground with all the necessary amenities for camping and a great spot for our large group of 18 adults & 10 kids to gather and camp out together. You will have to drive 6 miles of mountainous dirt roads to reach the property, but it takes you away from all signs of the city and surrounds you in nature when you get there, making a very nice camping experience.  The spring pools at our site were so relaxing to have all to ourselves and well worth it to reserve for our party! The deep creek hot springs were absolutely fabulous, as they were situated next to a cold creek where we could do therapeutic hot cold plunges. The hike to the hot springs was fairly tough, but we found it easily with the trail starting right on the property! Definitely recommend camping here, just make sure you download directions prior so you don't end up at the wrong place and run into a crazy guy at a shack next door!

Disregard the "closed for the season" post in the name - this campground is open.

There are a few campgrounds in this area of the Angeles National Forest. Horse Flats is not as popular as Buckhorn, and is a little less "green" with regards to the immediate scenery. It is also quieter for this reason, which is nice. The individual sites are large and spread out from each other, so it is easy to have some privacy. Make sure to get food and firewood before you start the drive up the mountain, as there is no place to purchase such supplies near the camps.

My family would camp here once a year for 4-5 days.  It is dispersed camping, so there are no hookups or designated sites.  It is primarily for off road enthusiasts, however, we just came out here to enjoy the desert and go for walks.  We would usually go toward the end of the year when it is not so hot (Oct-Dec) and have had a variety of weather over the years.  From beautiful skies, to wind, rain and snow.  The wind always picked up in the evening, so don't forget to roll up your awning.  Our rig is a 30' bunkhouse trailer being pulled by a full size 4x4 truck.  Although you don't need 4x4 and probably any car can make it out there.  You just might have to drive slow as some of the road are pretty tore up.  The camping is all over the valley and I can't see ever showing up and not being able to find a good spot (for what it is).  There will be dust and some dirt bikes, trucks and OHV's rolling around.  You will probably hear some of them long into the night.  But I think there are areas you can go to get away from a lot of it and enjoy the stars and solitude of the desert.  As you drive in you pass a ranger station.  $10 gets you water to fill up your tanks and a pass to use their dump station.

Campground Review

We come to this campground throughout the year, and its one of our favorite spots for summer camping when we're short on time. It's an hours drive from LA and because the campground is at elevation it stays cooler during the hot months. This is my third review for this campground, and one thing I will say that I've noticed over time is that as the popularity of the campground has increased, so has the noise. We've been kept awake by other campsites on three different occasions now. Part of the issue is that rangers aren't regularly monitoring in order to enforce the quiet hours. We usually only see rangers come around in the morning. With that said, we still like Horse Flats because there is usually a spot or two open if we arrive on a Saturday. Also, the sites are relatively well spread out compared to other SoCal camping options. And it's dog friendly, which is a must for us.

Things to know before coming

• bring all your water with you. There is no running water at this campground
• purchase firewood before driving up the mountain. I've unfortunately seen too many campers collecting wood around the campground to use for fires. Don't do it! Different woods burn differently and also carry differently in smoke, and the Angeles National Forest is often at elevated fire danger levels
• the drive from the base of the mountain to this campground is about 45 minutes. make sure you have enough gas and have a map / driving directions ready, because there is no cell phone service

Things to do nearby

• bouldering, just a short hike away. See more info on routes here
• hike the Pacific Crest Trail to historic Glenwood Cabin. Here is the route I mapped out if you want to pick up the trail near Bandido campground. And here is more info on the cabin
• take a scenic chair lift and play disc golf at Mt Waterman, a 10 minute drive away. More info here
• Hike Rosenita Saddle to Mt Hillyer, see route here

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products to review for some of my camping trips. On this trip, we tested out two meals from Mountain House. (See my review of other meal options in my Meander Lake campground review). After cooking these pre-made camping meals, I may never go back! On this trip we had the Noodle with Chicken for dinner and Granola with Milk and Blueberries for breakfast. They were seriously DELICIOUS. Better than anything I can cook with my backcountry kitchen set-up. Here's what I love about these meals:

• super great taste
• quick to make. These meals are ready in 10 minutes or less, some are ready as soon as you add water. After a long day of climbing or hiking, or when you're waking up in the morning, it's so nice to have food ready so quickly
• easy to make. Just add water (boiling, usually). This also means that all we need to pack is a Jetboil, which is so much more convenient than packing a stove, pots, cooking oil, ingredients, cutting boards, etc.
• lightweight, and you can choose among packaging options for more compactness

All in all, I'd say these meals are a game changer for short trips or backcountry camping , when you want to pack minimally. If you're doing a week of camping with easy access to your car, then these meals aren't necessarily your cheapest option for the whole week, but it's totally worth the money in terms of taste and convenience (so you can spend more time on other outdoor activities!).

There are only two things I'd like to see change to further improve Mountain House meals. First, there are no vegan options, and very few vegetarian options. Second, I find the serving amounts to be unhelpful in their current format, because the calories per serving are so low. For example, with the Noodle with Chicken, the pouch says "2.5 services", but there are only 220 calories per serving. If this were your sole meal item for dinner, I'd say that more like 1 serving, especially if you're consuming these meals after a day of rock climbing or hiking. So if I meal plan with Mountain House pouches, you have to calculate servings based on the calories, rendering the "servings" as advertised uninformative.

Horse Flats is a popular campground deep in Angeles National Forest.

There are a bunch of sites (more than 20) and there are vault toilets, fire pits, and picnic tables.

$12 fee per site, not sure how many cars that means but you might need the adventure pass if you have a lot of other cars parking overnight.

It's a great escape from the city, about an hour from DTLA. Popular with climbers as there's bouldering in the area.

Know before you go - it's closed from November-ish to April-ish - so check the forest website before you head out there.

When driving there, you take a left off the 2 and it's a little past Bandido Group site. Some people have a hard time finding it their first time going.