Chilao Campground - Little Pines Loop
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 13 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 4443 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Little Pines Loop is one of two camping loops within Chilao Campground, located just northeast of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is accessed via the Angeles Crest Highway, a scenic byway that winds through oak woodlands, chaparral, high desert terrain, and pine forests. Situated in the high country of the Angeles National Forest within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, Little Pines Loop offers cooler mountain temperatures, panoramic views of surrounding peaks and ridges, and diverse forest habitats. Camping is available for a nightly fee per site. Keep reading
Recreation
Little Pines Loop provides convenient access to hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Nearby trails include the Silver Moccasin National Recreation Trail, which connects to sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. The Angeles Crest Highway offers scenic overlooks and access to additional trailheads. Birdwatching, wildlife viewing, and stargazing are popular activities due to the campground’s elevation and minimal light pollution.
Facilities
Little Pines Loop has 43 campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and fire ring/grill. Amenities include potable water via multiple spigots, three vault toilets, bear-proof dumpsters, and large parking spurs. RVs up to 40 feet in length are allowed.
Natural Features
Little Pines Loop sits at an elevation of approximately 5,300 feet within the rugged San Gabriel Mountains, part of the Transverse Ranges. The landscape is characterized by a mix of coulter pines, manzanita shrubs, scrub oak, and chaparral covering steep mountain slopes. This high-elevation environment supports diverse wildlife, including birds, deer, coyotes, bighorn sheep, black bears, and bobcats. The campground is located less than one mile from the San Gabriel Wilderness, a designated wilderness area encompassing over 36,000 acres within the Angeles National Forest. The wilderness preserves its natural character across extremely rugged terrain, with elevations ranging from approximately 1,600 to over 8,200 feet. Vegetation transitions from dense chaparral at lower elevations to pine- and fir-covered slopes at higher elevations, offering significant biodiversity, seasonal temperature variation, wildflowers, and wildlife viewing opportunities.
Nearby Attractions
The Chilao Visitor Center is located approximately 1.5 miles east of the campground and features interpretive exhibits, short trails, seasonal programs, and a birdwatching deck.
What the agency tells you
No generators, amplifiers, live bands, or loud music. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am.
Bears frequent the area. All food and scented items must be properly stored.
Check out time is 11 am. Check in time is 2 pm.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Call (661) 269-2808 for current conditions and additional information.
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
Campground is open year-round but may temporarily close due to weather and/or road conditions during the winter months.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 44
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 41 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 44
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 13 of 43 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…water via multiple spigots, three vault toilets, bear-proof dumpsters, and large parking spurs. RVs…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and fire ring/grill. Amenities include potable water via multiple spigots, three vault toilets,…”
Around the campground
- Night sky · 1187th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 43 of the 44 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
44 sites
All 44 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. 44 of the 44 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Extra Vehicle | Extra Vehicle Fee | type not stated | $5 | |
| Little Pines | 01 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | $20 |
| Little Pines | 02 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 03 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 04 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 05 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 06 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 07 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 08 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 09 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 10 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 11 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 12 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 13 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 14 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 15 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 16 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 17 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 18 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 19 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 20 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 21 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 22 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 23 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 24 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 25 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 26 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 27 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 28 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 29 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 30 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 31 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 32 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 33 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 34 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 35 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 36 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 37 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 38 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 39 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 40 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 41 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 42 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Little Pines | 43 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
25 of 44 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Coulter Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.4 mi
Meadow Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.4 miHorse Flat CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 1.5 mi
Bandido Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 1.8 miMt. Pacifico CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 4.5 miMonte Cristo CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 5.7 miFrom Los Angeles, travel north on Interstate 210 and exit onto Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2). Continue for approximately 25.6 miles. Look for the Chilao Overnight Campground sign on the left, turn in, and follow posted signs to Little Pines Loop.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Monrovia, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 37°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Chilao Campground - Little Pines Loop is in California’s 28th congressional district. Its representative, Judy Chu (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →