roadtripper1955881

2 1/2 Times as expensive as a thing in the area at 750 pesos plus odds & ends. Moved on to a place up the road.

This must be the most reviewed campsite I’ve stayed at on campendium. And for good reason. There are about ten flat campsites in a loop around a small pond. Good cell reception, fire pits, picnic tables, & a vault toilet. At the back of the loop there is a site on the left with a pull through & one down a bit on the cliff. On the back right side of the loop is a short road down to a fenced in largish camp site on the cliff with a good view of the valley below. There are many waterfalls in the area with Toketee Falls giving a world class view. The road in off the highway is about two miles on a well maintained dirt road. The hill was steep & I slipped a bit with my 6500 lb trailer but made it just fine.

Nice quiet place to spend the night. Vault toilets, no water, no trash, lots of space for a couple of trailers. The 6 campsites will fit a car or truck & has picnic tables & fire pits. Pretty much a small parking lot with the 6 sites. I did not have internet with Verizon & didn’t try to make any phone calls.

I don’t understand why the reviews are so poor for this campground other then no cell reception (fir about 10 miles) & the crappy / lengthy road to get there. But that’s what it takes to get to a quiet remote site.
The campground is on a hill giving every site a great view of the valleys on either side.
There is a 10 mile trail(blocked fire road, last 1.5 mile primitive hike) up to Laguna mountain. Also a trail (with a waterfall about 3 miles in) to the other campsite Upper Sweetwater campground. I think it was about an 8.5 loop when I used the road to return. There’s a pretty sketchy looking rope climb down to the bottom if the falls/pool. It’s easier then it looks for adults but prolly not for children or if you have a dog. Another camper said he was going to try to follow the creek up to the falls. Don’t know if he made it. There is a trail but the way walls get pretty steep closer to the top.
Nice quiet area.

Great inexpensive base camp to explore the area. Close to Ensenada & La Bufadora. The showers are a bit scary looking but warm up top. The one on the lower level is cold. Catalina (may have butchered her name here) is nice and speaks English. She’s only there every other week. The water is murky and shallow but you can (I did) paddle out to the ocean. Beware of low tide! There were only 2 spot in the upper area with hook ups when I was there. Mostly full of full timers and trailers for rent. This campsite isn’t good for big rigs. They let me park my 16’ trailer in the day use area by the water (no hook ups). It barely fit. A bit noisy with road noise & the occasional party but bearable me. Would stay here again.

Surprising nice campground at the base of the hills & edge of a large valley. Clean with vault toilet, picnic benches, fire ring & horse corral. Good views, some nice spaces for walking. There’s a trail up to Caliente Mountain (which overlooks the campground) which starts from Shelby campground (7 miles down the road). Unfortunately there was a large group with generators running all night over the weekend. Not terrible but enough to be annoying when you come out for quiet & peace. Considering the remote location with no guns or ATV’s allowed it was daily busy with all sites full every night I was there. Wednesday-Monday.
No cell coverage for Verizon at the campground but if you go down some dirt roads about 2 miles into the valley you can get a few bars.

This is you typical campsite with pads, picnic tables, fire pits, vault toilets, & some BBQ’s. There are water spigots with potable water dispersed around the campground. Groceries and other facilities are close by and there is even Lake Elsinore about 10 miles away. Sites are close together with no privacy.
Nearly empty during the week & probably busy on the weekend. Like most places.
Biggest issues is that this place is right next to a busy highway and you can’t escape the road noise.
I would use this, as I did, for a last choice pit stops in the way someplace else.
Although, while staying here I found out that Blue Jay Campground is a mere 4 miles away. It’s much, much nicer and spread out (privacy).

Dry camping with decent views & very clean vault toilets. The area is mostly used for 4 wheelers, motorcycles, target shooting. Lots of dirt roads / routes which I use to ride my mountain bike, walks, & running. Quite during the week but insanely busy the Saturday I was there.
I think the road up was about 7 miles on a very narrow dirt road with few places to pass. Relatively smooth except for a bit of washboarding in the first mile or two. I hauled my 16 ft trailer & truck up with ease.

I enjoyed a week at Manzenita Campground which has several vault toilets, trash cans and non-potable water. The views are great from the western ridge of Manzanita. There is no cell service starting 27 miles away when you turn onto highway 2.
There is also another loop right next door called Little Pines Campground & combined they make up Chilao Campground...I think. Combined they have 41 campsites. There is also a group camp site between which is locked up and only available for reservation.
The views are great and there are a couple of nice hiking trails within walking distance of the campground and many more within driving distance coming in from the west (town). Going south there was a substantial fire and all those trails are currently closed.
Beware this area is not big rig friendly. Highway 2 has no straight-aways. It’s all curves and all uphill. It’s also restricted to 3 axels & less the 4.5 tons. Some how I missed the sign coming up And made it with 4 axels and 5 tons. Totally doable and I don’t see why it’s restricted. Gone up way worse which probably should have been restricted and wasn’t.
Anyway, try it at you own risk.
The only thing I didn’t appreciate about the campsites is about half of them are two pads in one. You literally park next to each other and share a site which has 2 picnic tables and two fire pits. Great if you have a group. Not so much if you are by yourself.
Weekdays had about 5 sites occupied. Weekend it was completely full by Saturday morning. Go late Thursday or Friday if you want to grab a site. Super quiet from Sunday afternoon til Thursday morning and surprisingly relatively quiet on the weekend.

Would definitely go here again!

This has to be one of my favorite campgrounds. Unfortunately it’s a pay campground ($20). It’s becoming the norm, so clean up after yourself so the forest service doesn’t have more reasons to increase the fees.
You do get generous campsites, some of which have some space between sites and bushes for privacy. There is also dispersed potable water spigots, vaulted toilets, and trash. Weirdly the trash is not animal resistant. Some sites are pretty big. My 40’ truck/trailer fit in several. Beware though, the final 1 mile road is steep, with tight curves, very narrow with only room for 1 vehicle, and only 2 turn outs. It’s paved, not easy, but doable.
The area is pretty and green with trees and bushes. The trailhead for the San Juan trail is just outside the campgrounds with another trailhead in the way to sites 40-50. Great for a hike or for mountain biking. The trailhead within the campground actually has lots of parking.
Section 40-50 is for tent camping and currently closed for not obvious reasons.
There is also a group site nearby which you call to reserve.
It was relatively quiet even on the weekend when all the sites filled up (nearly empty during the week). There were lots of flies but not the kind that bite. Also, the cell service was spotty for Verizon. There was a decent connection at the trailhead just outside the campground.