Campo Alto Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 6 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – November 30Open May 1 through November 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tucked away high atop the Cerro Noroeste, you'll find solitude, serenity and unsurpassed scenery as you lose yourself in a pleasant grove of Jeffrey pines at Campo Alto Campground. Campsites are spacious, the air is filled with a pine-sweet scent, and you will enjoy end-of-the-road privacy. Invigorated by the fresh air, your inner hiker will hunger to head out on the Vincent Tumameit Trailhead to enjoy the scenic mountain vistas. Do your best to leave this natural setting just as you found it. The campsites have no barriers to block your view, so most modest sized RVs, and all tent campers fit well here. Keep reading
Recreation
Campo Alto Campground is best appreciated by pristine camping enthusiasts who prefer to leave the hurried life behind. Hiking into the Chumash Wilderness by day, and star gazing by night are the chosen methods of decompressing.
Facilities
This seasonal campground is open daily, May - November. There are 15 single campsites that include picnic tables and fire rings, and two group campsites. Two toilets are located near the campsites. You should plan to be completely self-sustainable for the duration of your trip. There is no potable water or electricity onsite. There is no dump station. Please bring garbage bags as this facility is "Pack it in. Pack it out." Natural Features Located at 8,250 f.t, the campground is shaded by a thick blanket of Jeffrey pine. Great views of the the Carrizo Plain to the north, Cuyama Valley, Quatal and Apache Canyons to the west, as well as views of the San Joaquin valley to the east and Lockwood Valley and Sespe ranges to the south, are also some prevalent attributes of this little piece of heaven.
Nearby Attractions
Hiking trails, biking, fishing and swimming are accessed within 30 minutes. Restaurants, gas and shopping within 15 miles at Pine Mountain Club or 25 miles in Frazier Park.
What the agency tells you
In order to contact our offices, please use the email: customerservice@pmcparks.com or view our website: CampOne.Com for answers to frequently asked questions.
Camping fee includes 1 vehicle and 1 tent, trailer or RV per site. $10 fee for each extra vehicle.
No drinking water is available.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Fires are allowed only in designated fire rings. Check local fire restrictions prior to your visit.
Pets are allowed.
No public showers in the region.
Quiet hours are 10 p.m. - 8 a.m.
This facility is 'Pack it in. Pack it out.'
Fireworks are prohibited at all times.
The nearest stores and gas are 25 miles in Frazier Park.
Some cell service can be found in the campground.
2 night minimum stay on weekends.
3 night minimum stay on holidays.
Click here for more information on Los Padres 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
- 19 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…for the duration of your trip. There is no potable water or electricity onsite. There is no dump station.…”
Around the campground
- Biking
- Visitor center
- Night sky · 951st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:54 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“$10 fee for each extra vehicle.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $2 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:54 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites
All 19 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 01 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 02 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 03 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 04 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 05 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 06 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 07 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 08 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 09 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | 13 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | 15 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | 16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | 17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $30 |
| Loop 2 | GS1 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $150 |
| Loop 2 | GS2 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $150 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mt. Pinos CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 6.0 mi
McGill Campground and Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 6.1 miLocated off Mil Potrero Highway, approximately 3 miles west of Pine Mountain Club. On Forest Road 9N27. From I-5 take Frazier Park Mountain Park Rd in Lebec. Go west 10 miles to Mil Potrero Rd and make a right. Turn left at the Mil Potrero Ranger station (Cerro Noroeste Rd-Forest Road 9N27) and proceed 6 miles to the end. The campground is at the top of My Abel. GPS: 34.8314, -119.2095
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pine Mountain Club, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Campo Alto Campground is in California’s 20th congressional district. Its representative, Vince Fong (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyVince FongU.S. Representative · California’s 20th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Vince Fong, I’m a constituent in California’s 20th district. I tried to camp at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Campo Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Campo Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Campo Alto Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Campo Alto Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Campo Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Campo Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Campo Alto Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Campo Alto Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Campo Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Campo Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Campo Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Campo Alto Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Campo Alto Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com