Cerro Alto Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:14 UTC
- A night
- $35From, per site
- Sites
- 22All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cerro Alto Campground is a well-known hiking and mountain biking paradise. It is located a short distance from the sandy beaches of Morro Bay, where visitors enjoy surfing, fishing, kayaking, sailing, scuba diving and more. While the campground offers a serene, relaxed environment, both Morro Bay and the nearby town of Atascadero offer numerous dining opportunities, shopping, museums and other activities. Wine Tasting in the Tempelton, Paso Robles Area is also a very popular experience. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy ample hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding opportunities, along with a 360-degree view of the Central California coast and inland valleys. The 4-mile Cerro Alto Trail, which leads to the peak, begins within the campground. Morro Bay beaches are less than 10 miles from the campground, offering wide sandy stretches and swimming, surfing, fishing, kayaking, sailing, scuba diving and more. An 18-hole championship golf course is located in the oceanside town.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent or RV camping. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring and grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no hookups are available. Trash collection bins are scattered throughout the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a mixed oak, pine and sycamore forest at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. It lies in a verdant canyon pass along a semiannual mountain creek. The roads are paved, but narrow, winding and single lane with turnouts to each site.
Nearby Attractions
Paso Robles, which is quickly becoming known as a premier spot for Central Coast wines, is located 20 miles from the campground. Wine tasting tours are offered daily, or visitors can select individualized tours of numerous wineries located in the area. The campground makes a great base camp for motorcyclists or day-trippers to visit the quaint, neighboring towns of San Luis Obispo, Cayucos, Harmony and Cambria, all of which are within 35 miles of the campground. Tours of historic Hearst Castle are also available. Visitors can spend time relaxing at the many available day spas located at nearby Avila or Grover beaches. Off-road vehicle trails are available on famous Pismo Beach.
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.
For guided tours of the estuary, contact the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce at (805) 772-4467.
Reservations can be made three days in advance.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Campsite reservation fee covers 6 people and 1 vehicle. Maximum number of people per site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge per person, per night after 6 people). Maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night).
Extra vehicle and person fees will be charged at the facility.
Click here for more information on the 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
- 22 · 9 tent-only, 4 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Paved pads
- 21 of 22
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring and grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no hookups are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no hookups are available. Trash…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 958th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:14 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 15 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 14 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:14 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
“Maximum number of vehicles per single site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $35 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 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 22 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 22 of the 22 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. 22 of the 22 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.
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 69 ft | 1,102 ft | 1,155 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 1,034 ft | 1,089 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 979 ft | 1,036 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 004 | walk to | 20 ft | 161 ft | 823 ft | 883 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 005 | walk to | 20 ft | 96 ft | 667 ft | 733 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 006 | walk to | 20 ft | 96 ft | 573 ft | 641 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 007 | walk to | 20 ft | 202 ft | 372 ft | 447 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 80 ft | 1,115 ft | 1,160 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 78 ft | 1,195 ft | 1,239 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 1,273 ft | 1,317 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 1,346 ft | 1,390 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 15 ft | 101 ft | 1,515 ft | 1,559 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 41 ft | 1,609 ft | 1,651 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 41 ft | 1,634 ft | 1,674 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 66 ft | 1,703 ft | 1,746 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 60 ft | 1,768 ft | 1,810 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 59 ft | 1,684 ft | 1,723 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 35 ft | 1,815 ft | 1,855 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 35 ft | 1,850 ft | 1,890 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 1,856 ft | 1,893 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 1,796 ft | 1,830 ft | $35 |
| CERRO ALTO CAMPGROUND | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 63 ft | 1,755 ft | 1,792 ft | $35 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hi Mountain CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 22 mi
Turkey Flat OHV Staging AreaLos Padres National Forest · 23 miFriis CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 24 mi
Navajo Flats CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 24 mi
American Canyon Campground27 mi
La Panza CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 28 miFrom Atascadero, travel southwest on Highway 41 for about 8 miles. Campground entrance is on the left; turn and continue south for about 1 mile to the campground. From Morro Bay, travel east on Highway 41 for about 8 miles. Campground entrance is on the right; turn and continue south for about a mile to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Atascadero, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 44°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 Septembers are colder than the September line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
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
Cerro Alto Campground is in California’s 24th congressional district. Its representative, Salud Carbajal (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. 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 moneySalud O. CarbajalU.S. Representative · California’s 24th 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 Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Salud O. Carbajal, I’m a constituent in California’s 24th district. I tried to camp at Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cerro Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cerro Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cerro 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 Cerro 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 Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cerro Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cerro Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cerro 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 Cerro 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 Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Cerro Alto Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cerro Alto Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cerro Alto Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cerro 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 Cerro Alto Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com