El Prado Group
1Heads up1 fire 42 mi away
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:52 UTC
- Sites
- 5In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
El Prado Group Campground is a great mountain getaway just one hour east of San Diego, California in the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area. Campers can enjoy cooler temperatures, unique natural areas and an extensive trail system at this mountain facility from summer through early fall. Keep reading
Recreation
The Laguna Mountain Recreation Area is known for great horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking trails. Visitors can get their boots dusty on the Laguna Meadow Trail system or access a segment of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico, through California and north to Canada. Within the campground is the El Prado Cabin which was built in 1911 and was the first Ranger's cabin in the Cleveland National Forest. Step back in time and enjoy this historical feature in the campground. Families can learn about the area's flora and fauna by attending educational programs at nearby Laguna Campground. A visitor center is a few miles down the road.
Facilities
The campground is made up of five well-spaced individual group sites in a peaceful setting adjacent to Laguna Campground. One of the group sites, Yerba Santa, is accessible and includes four tent sites. Each site can accommodate a varying number of guests ranging between 30 to 50 people, and allows a 40-ft. maximum RV length. The facility provides drinking water, flush and vault toilets and a large parking area. Part of the campground is fenced off to protect the habitat of the endangered Laguna Skipper butterfly. Visitors are asked to respect the fence boundary and comply with the maximum site occupancy.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 5,600 ft. in the Laguna Mountains. It is forested with pines and oaks that provide plenty of shade. The area is home to many species of birds, as well as the endangered Laguna Skipper butterfly. Contact Info This location is staffed. Please call (619) 354-8776 to speak with local staff.
Nearby Attractions
The Pacfic Crest National Scenic Trail, Noble Canyon National Recreation Trail, Mount Laguna Information Center
What the agency tells you
To protect the Laguna Skipper butterfly, campers cannot enter the area behind the fence; cooperation is essential in order to keep these campsites open
Click here for more information on the Cleveland 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
El Prado Group Camp and Laguna Campground share an entrance; no walk-ins are honored in El Prado Group Camp.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5 · 4 tent-only, 5 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 5 campsite records / VAULT TOILETS on 4 of 5 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 1 of 5 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 5 of 5 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Meadow
- Biking
- Birding
- Cultural Activities
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Information Site
- Mountain biking
- Scenic drives
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 993rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:52 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at El Prado Group closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 1
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Crestline Group CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 38 mi · 1 site
recreation.gov availability, read 15:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 5 of the 5 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. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| EL P | Big Sage | group tent only area nonelectric | 45 ft | 924 ft | 923 ft | 14 ft | $60–$90 | |
| EL P | Buckwheat | group tent only area nonelectric | 45 ft | 180 ft | 896 ft | 10 ft | $60–$90 | |
| EL P | Manzanita | group tent only area nonelectric | 40 ft | 395 ft | 1,460 ft | 567 ft | $60–$90 | |
| EL P | Whitethorn | group tent only area nonelectric | 30 ft | 180 ft | 1,071 ft | 172 ft | $60–$90 | |
| EL P | Yerba Santa | group standard nonelectric | yes | 363 ft | 633 ft | 155 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
LagunaCleveland National Forest · 0.5 mi
Horse Heaven GroupCleveland National Forest · 0.9 mi
Wooded Hill GroupCleveland National Forest · 2.8 mi
Burnt RancheriaCleveland National Forest · 2.9 miCibbets Flat CampgroundCleveland National Forest · 7.6 miCottonwood CampgroundEl Centro Field Office · 9.1 miThe campground is located 50 miles east of San Diego, California. Take I-8 to the Sunrise Highway (State Route S1) exit. Go approximately 15 miles north to Laguna/El Prado Campground, just beyond the 26 mile marker. Stop at the entrance station for information and site location.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mount Laguna, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 69°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 32°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
El Prado Group 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 →