Horse Flats Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 6 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2726 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Horse Flats Campground is a small, high-country campground with 26 individual sites located off the Santa Clara Divide Road (3N17) in the Angeles National Forest and within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Set at approximately 5,700 feet elevation, the campground provides a peaceful mountain setting surrounded by pine forest and granite outcroppings. Keep reading
Recreation
The area offers a range of outdoor activities such as rock climbing & bouldering, hiking, nature viewing, photography, and scenic driving.
Facilities
Horse flats campground provides basic developed amenities, including: · 26 single first-come/first-serve campsites · Picnic tables and fire rings · Vault toilets Water is not available, so visitors should bring a sufficient supply for cooking, cleaning, and extinguishing campfires. Cell service is unavailable.
Natural Features
Horse Flats sits in the high country of the San Gabriel Mountains, characterized by Jeffrey pine, Coulter pine, and oak woodland, along with large granite boulders and rock formations that define the landscape. The higher elevation creates a cooler climate compared to lower foothill areas, with fresh mountain air and seasonal wildflowers.
Nearby Attractions
Angeles Crest Scenic Highway – Mountain viewpoints, trailheads, and picnic areas along the highway High-country trail networks – Access to hiking routes connecting to nearby wilderness areas Chilao Recreation Area & Visitor Center – Interpretive exhibits and additional camping options a short drive away Local climbing areas – Granite formations throughout the Horse Flats area
What the agency tells you
No generators, amplifiers, live bands, or loud music. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am.
Bears frequent the area. All food and scented items must be properly stored.
Check out time is 11 am. Check in time is 2 pm.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Call (661) 269-2808 for current conditions and additional 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
Campground is seasonally open from April through mid-November but may temporarily close due to weather and/or road conditions.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…tables and fire rings · Vault toilets Water is not available, so visitors should bring a sufficient supply for…”
- Cell signal
- Little or none
Around the campground
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:45 UTC
recreation.gov lists 26 of the 27 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites
All 27 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. 27 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Extra Vehicle | Extra Vehicle Fee | type not stated | $5 |
| Horse Flats | 01 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 02 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 03 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 04 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 05 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 06 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 07 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 08 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 09 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 10 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 11 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 12 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 13 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 14 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 15 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 16 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 17 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 18 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 19 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 20 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 21 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 22 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 23 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 24 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 25 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Horse Flats | 26 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Chilao Campground - Manzanita Loop0.0 mi
Grassy Hollow0.0 mi
Monte Cristo Campground0.0 miZuni CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 1.8 miStreamside CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 4.8 miUpper Shake CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 15 miFrom the Los Angeles / Pasadena area:
- Take Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway) until you reach the exit for the Angeles Crest Highway (CA-2).
- Exit onto Angeles Crest Highway (CA-2) and drive northeast into the mountains.
- Continue for approximately 25–30 miles (distance varies by starting point) until reaching Santa Clara Divide Road (3N17).
The agency publishes this point for 4 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Santa Clarita, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 56°F, day 81°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 44°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
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
Horse Flats Campground is in California’s 27th congressional district. Its representative, George Whitesides (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…cooking, cleaning, and extinguishing campfires. Cell service is unavailable. Natural Features Horse Flats sits in the high country of the…”