My family joined our extended family for a weekend away at Blue Jay campground. It is only an hour drive from our home in Newport Beach, but felt like we were a million miles away.

Getting to the campground is fun and gorgeous. Ortega Highway is a pretty drive and the final two miles up the mountain was steep and felt like I was driving in another country.

Campground has 50 sites that are first-come-first-serve. We got there on Saturday morning around 11:00am and there were roughly 3 sites open. We stayed at site 3 - the first site we saw - and loved.

Went on two great hikes, both to the nearby waterfalls. Each hike was beautiful.

Stopped off at a small Candy Store & Deli on Ortega Highway on the way that we loved!!

It was a fun trip we’ll do again.