Holiday Group Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 17 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
- 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 · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Holiday Group Campground is a relaxing location to enjoy nature all year long; a quick escape from the bustle of the city. It provides access to a variety of recreational opportunities, including hiking, biking and horseback riding. Surrounding trails are also fun for off-road vehicle enthusiasts. Keep reading
Recreation
The Wheeler Gorge Nature Trail begins not far from the campground. It is a relatively short, loop trail that leads through thick vegetation along the river banks and to a scenic hillside view of the area. Wildflowers are often located along the path. The 10-mile Ortega Trail, for off-road vehicle use, is popular among experienced riders. Rocky, steep terrain takes the trail to the ridgetop. The creek flows near some of the campsites and a small swimming hole is available nearby. Fishing is rough in the area and may produce a catch of trout, but the stream is not stocked. Kayaking or canoeing in the creek is not recommended.
Facilities
The campground offers one large group site for tent camping and can accommodate up to 50 people. An adjacent parking area provides space for 10 vehicles. Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available at the campground. Campfires are allowed at the campground and visitors are asked to take precaution when using propane or gas stoves and the available on-site grills.
Natural Features
The campground is situated at the bottom of Live Oak Canyon at an elevation of 2,120 feet. It is heavily shaded and the Matilija Creek runs nearby.
Nearby Attractions
Ojai is the nearest town, about 15 miles from the campground. The larger city of Ventura is about 20 miles south of the campground. The Pacific Ocean is not far from there.
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.
Water is not available at the campground.
$10.00 additional fee per vehicle per day over 10 vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 3
$10.00 additional fee per person per day over 50 people
Click herefor 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
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…area provides space for 10 vehicles. Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available at the campground. Campfires are allowed at the…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
- Night sky · 1022nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 14:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 14:46 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 · 14
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 14:46 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
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| HOLI | A001 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 1,624 ft | $150 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wheeler GorgeLos Padres National Forest · 0.4 mi
Rose Valley CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 5.5 mi
Middle Lion CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 6.7 mi
Reyes Peak CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 8.6 mi
Pine Mountain CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 8.9 mi
Reyes Creek Campground11 miFrom Ventura, travel north on Highway 33 for about 14 miles to Ojai. Turn left, continuing on Highway 33 and travel north about 9 miles to the campground.
From Los Angeles, take I-5 north and turn west onto Highway 126 for 28 miles to St. Paula. Turn onto Highway 150 and travel north for about 16 miles. Turn left onto Highway 33 and continue north for approximately 9 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Meiners Oaks, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 78°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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Holiday Group Campground is in California’s 26th congressional district. Its representative, Julia Brownley (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 moneyJulia BrownleyU.S. Representative · California’s 26th 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 Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Julia Brownley, I’m a constituent in California’s 26th district. I tried to camp at Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Holiday 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. Holiday Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Holiday 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 Holiday Group 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 Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Holiday 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. Holiday Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Holiday 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 Holiday Group 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 Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Holiday Group Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Holiday 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. Holiday Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Holiday 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 Holiday Group Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com