Boulder Oaks Eqst
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 11 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $25–$50Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 1413 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Boulder Oaks offers equestrian and family sites in the scenic Cleveland National Forest, about an hour away from San Diego, California. Visitors are drawn here for the convenience of horseback riding and day hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as picnicking in the beautiful mountain setting. Keep reading
Recreation
The national forest lends itself well to horseback riding and hiking. Boulder Oaks has direct access to a segment of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, a national scenic trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. Horseback riding is also permitted on all Cleveland National Forest roads and trails, except for nature trails.
Facilities
The campground consists of two loops. One has equestrian sites and corrals, and the other offers family campsites. The facility is equipped with one vault toilet per loop.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 3,300 ft. with oak and manzanita trees providing shade. The surrounding mountains are dotted with sagebrush, and wildflowers add color to the landscape in spring and early summer. The area is home to many species of local and migratory birds. The campground is habitat for the endangered Arroyo Toad.
Nearby Attractions
Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail
What the agency tells you
To prevent wildlife from becoming a nuisance; secure all food and trash.
Click here to learn more about Cleveland National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14 · 13 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…The facility is equipped with one vault toilet per loop. Natural Features The campground sits at…”
Around the campground
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 1058th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:46 UTC
recreation.gov lists 13 of the 14 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $25–$50 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
33 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 33 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 32 of the 33 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 33 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | 020 | type not stated | 1,538 ft | 173 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX | unnamed record | 40 ft | $20 | |||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX1 | unnamed record | 1,440 ft | 80 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX10 | unnamed record | 1,041 ft | 486 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX11 | unnamed record | 976 ft | 539 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX12 | unnamed record | 963 ft | 541 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX13 | unnamed record | 999 ft | 523 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX14 | unnamed record | 1,090 ft | 427 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX15 | unnamed record | 1,068 ft | 469 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX16 | unnamed record | 1,262 ft | 315 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX17 | unnamed record | 1,205 ft | 325 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX18 | unnamed record | 1,356 ft | 254 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX19 | unnamed record | 1,407 ft | 205 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX2 | unnamed record | 1,358 ft | 150 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX3 | unnamed record | 1,365 ft | 201 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX4 | unnamed record | 1,267 ft | 276 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX5 | unnamed record | 1,235 ft | 282 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX6 | unnamed record | 1,149 ft | 379 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX7 | unnamed record | 1,124 ft | 409 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BOULDER OAKS EQST | XXX8 | unnamed record | 1,110 ft | 400 ft | $20 | ||
| BOUL | 2425 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 85 ft | 1,925 ft | 278 ft | $25–$50 |
| BOUL | 3132 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 1,775 ft | 209 ft | $25–$50 |
| BOUL | 3536 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 1,725 ft | 250 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 021 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 1,627 ft | 291 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 022 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 120 ft | 1,712 ft | 446 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 023 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 1,697 ft | 324 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 026 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 120 ft | 1,816 ft | 426 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 027 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 129 ft | 1,972 ft | 112 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 028 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 85 ft | 1,878 ft | 222 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 029 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 59 ft | 1,954 ft | 39 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 030 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 59 ft | 1,912 ft | 97 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 033 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 121 ft | 1,784 ft | 199 ft | $25–$50 |
| SING | 034 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 1,634 ft | 185 ft | $25–$50 |
The agency files 19 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 33 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wooded Hill GroupCleveland National Forest · 8.8 miCottonwood CampgroundEl Centro Field Office · 9.7 mi
Burnt RancheriaCleveland National Forest · 9.8 miBoulder Oaks is located 55 miles east of San Diego, California. Take I-8 to the Buckman Springs Road exit. Continue east on Old Highway 80 for 2 miles to the campground entrance. Campground is located on the right hand side of the road when heading east.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Campo, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 80°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Boulder Oaks Eqst is in California’s 48th congressional district. Its representative, Darrell Issa (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →