Crestline Group Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 18 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
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- January 1 – December 31Open January 1 through December 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Crestline Group Campground is located in a wooded area on Palomar Mountain, at approximately 5,390 feet in elevation. Many trees including Black Oak, Cedar, White Fir and Live Oak surround the site. Crestline Group Campground is a convenient place for large families, church groups and other social gatherings of up to 50 people. The facility is a popular recreation site for visitors going to the Palomar Observatory, a world-class center of astronomical research by the California Institute of Technology in North San Diego County. Hiking, biking and picnicking are available nearby. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground makes a good base camp for visiting the Palomar Observatory Visitor Center and Palomar Mountain State Park or exploring the surrounding forest. Day hiking, backpacking, biking, picnicking and scenic driving are available in the area.
Facilities
The accessible site is equipped with several picnic tables in the campground and cooking area, as well as an accessible vault toilet. RVs with a maximum length of 27 feet can be accommodated. No electricity.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 5,390 feet in the Palomar Mountains of Southern California. The site is forested but has plenty of open space for star gazing and playing.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is adjacent to Palomar Mountain State Park and less than a two-hour drive from San Diego, California.
What the agency tells you
Contact Palomar Ranger District or the Palomar Observatory for schedule of summer special events
Click here to learn more about Cleveland National Forest
- Be sure to check current area fire restrictions prior to visiting this, or any campground. Conditions frequently exist which prohibit the use of wood and charcoal fires. Please contact the Palomar Ranger District at (760) 788-0250 or visit here for updated 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…cooking area, as well as an accessible vault toilet. RVs with a maximum length of 27 feet can be…”
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
Full this Saturdayread 14:35 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 14:31 UTC. See them
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 · 11
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 14:31 UTC
- Corral Canyon CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 8.4 mi · 16 of 19 site-nights open
- Bobcat Meadow CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 8.4 mi · 11 of 18 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 14:35 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| CRES | 1 | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 3,570 ft |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Observatory CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 2.1 mi
Fry Creek CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 2.4 mi
Oak Grove CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 6.6 mi
Bobcat Meadow Campground8.4 mi
Corral Canyon Campground8.4 mi
Dripping Springs Campground (CA)Cleveland National Forest · 12 miFrom San Diego, California, follow U.S. Highway 15 north to State Highway 76. Proceed east to County Road S6. Take S6 north to the top of Palomar Mountain. Group campground is at the junction of County Roads S6 and S7.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Valley Center, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 69°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 36°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 · a letter you can send
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
Crestline Group Campground 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 →
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 moneyDarrell IssaU.S. Representative · California’s 48th 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 Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California
Dear Darrell Issa, I’m a constituent in California’s 48th district. I tried to camp at Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crestline Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crestline Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crestline Group 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 Crestline Group Campground (Cleveland 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 Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crestline Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crestline Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crestline Group 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 Crestline Group Campground (Cleveland 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 Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Crestline Group Campground, Cleveland National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crestline Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Crestline Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crestline Group 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 Crestline Group Campground (Cleveland National Forest, California) via campanac.com