Fremont Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 45 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $40From, per site
- Sites
- 1514 on recreation.gov
- Season
- January 1 – December 31Open January 1 through December 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fremont Campground is a family-friendly facility located just off California's western coast. It provides access to a variety of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, as well as some off-road vehicle trails, in a scenic area. Keep reading
Recreation
The Santa Ynez River is popular for a variety of water-related recreation. It can be accessed at nearby White Rock Day Use Area. Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, a no-body-contact reservoir, is also nearby. It offers boating, kayaking and fishing opportunities. Visitors enjoy access to a variety of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails. The Aliso National Recreation Trail is a popular, 2.5-mile loop available close to the campground. Also nearby is the 18-mile Santa Cruz Trail, which provides access to a variety of other trails in the area. The Camuesa OHV Route and its connectors are within 10 miles.
Facilities
The campground offers more than a dozen sites for tent or RV camping. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Large accessible sites are also available. Each site is equipped with a table, campfire ring with grill and a pedestal grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is located in the Lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area of the Santa Barbara Ranger District. It is situated in an forest of mostly oak trees in hilly terrain at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. The campground is full of lush greenery and is shady.
Nearby Attractions
The large city of Santa Barbara is located about 18 miles from the campground. The coast is not far beyond that.
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.
Fire restrictions (on all campfires and charcoal fires) may be imposed at any time, due to hot, dry weather conditions; check www.campone.com for current fire restrictions.
Poison oak is abundant in the area; use caution.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
All single campsite reservations are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle.
Maximum number of people per single site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge per person per night after 6 people.) Maximum number of vehicles per single site is 1 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night and parked at Paradise campground 1/2 mile down the road). 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
- 15 · 7 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 34 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…grill and a pedestal grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Coast
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Horseback riding
- Swimming
- Night sky · 953rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 25 km away
- No change
Full this Saturdayread 16:32 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 13 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:32 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 · 16
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, $40 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 16:32 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 15 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. 14 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 001 | walk to | 4 ft | 1,735 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 002 | walk to | 45 ft | 1,800 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 003 | walk to | 37 ft | 1,790 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 004 | type not stated | 30 ft | 1,738 ft | ||
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 4 ft | 1,734 ft | $40 |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 1,790 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 79 ft | 1,753 ft | $40 |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 1,740 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 1,843 ft | $40 |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 1,740 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 011 | walk to | 1,793 ft | $40 | ||
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 012 | walk to | 51 ft | 1,843 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 013 | walk to | 20 ft | 1,755 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 014 | walk to | 38 ft | 1,727 ft | $40 | |
| AREA FREMONT CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 1,740 ft | $40 |
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 · the phone number
Where it is
Paradise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 0.4 mi
Los PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 0.6 mi
Sage HillLos Padres National Forest · 1.7 mi
Sage Hill Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.7 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.0 mi
Upper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Santa Barbara, take Highway 154 approximately 9 miles to Paradise Road. Turn right and follow the road 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 Eastern Goleta Valley, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 84°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 33°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Fremont 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 Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Salud O. Carbajal, I’m a constituent in California’s 24th district. I tried to camp at Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Fremont Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fremont Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fremont 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 Fremont 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 Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Fremont Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fremont Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fremont 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 Fremont 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 Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fremont Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Fremont Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fremont Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fremont 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 Fremont Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com