U.S. Forest Service · Cleveland National Forest · CA

El Cariso Campground

5Heads up5 fires, nearest 10 mi
Wildfire
Tenaja #001 fire · 10 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Norte fire · 17 mi away · 465 acres · 0% contained · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
Mirada fire · 19 mi away · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Henderson fire · 21 mi away · 2,079 acres · 20% contained · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
Lac-374626 fire · 33 mi away · updated Oct 17, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Right now
OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
A night
$15From, per site
Season
Year-roundOpen year-round
2,560 ftElevation
1.8 miWater · an unnamed pondOcean · 19.7 mi · to the Pacific Ocean
0.1 miW of Lakeland Village, CA
38%Tree cover
Bortle 5Night sky · 1189th darkest of 1,201 in CA
Open year-roundToday

The place

the agency’s own description

In the agency’s own words

24 sites.

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $15 with nothing added. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A night$15Per site, fromthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$30DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 5

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, from$15
Night for single unit$15
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
One night, fromDerived$15
A weekend, Friday and Saturday, fromDerived$30

Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($15), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight71°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Saturday82°Mostly Sunny1% rain
Saturday Night65°Partly Cloudy
Sunday82°Sunny

NWS forecast for Lakeland Village, CA

Typical weather

Typical October night 55°F, day 82°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 43°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

110°30°

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.

Measured at: HEMET, CA (USC00043896), 30 miles away and 749 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Wildhorse1,483 acres · 4 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Trabuco23,341 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Coldwater8,402 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Ken Calvert, official portrait

El Cariso Campground is in California’s 41st congressional district. Its representative, Ken Calvert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now. Its own recreation database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.