Lightning Point Group Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 7 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lightning Point Campground sits at an elevation of 6,100 feet, about 25 miles southeast of Palmdale and roughly 35 miles north of the San Fernando Valley. Nestled among Jeffrey pines, scrub oaks, and manzanita, the campground offers accommodations for both group visitors and equestrian campers. The nearby Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail is a favorite destination, providing access to a route that stretches from Canada to Mexico and showcases six of North America’s seven ecozones. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, bird watching/wildlife viewing, horseback riding/horse camping, are the biggest attractions for campers. Angeles National Forest boasts 557 miles of hiking and equestrian trails. All trails, excluding the Pacific Crest Trail, allow mountain biking as well.
Facilities
This peaceful campground has 5 group campsites each accommodating different group sizes. Campsite #1: 6 Tables, Capacity 45 Campsite #2: 4 Tables, Capacity 36 Campsite #3: 6 Tables, Capacity 45 Campsite #4: 5 Tables, Capacity 40 Campsite #5: 4 Tables, Capacity 36 2 Horse corrals located near campsites 4 and #5. Horses are not required to reserve sites. 3 double vault pit toilets located near campsites. 2 lots for overflow parking at the center of the campground.
Natural Features
Located at 6,100 feet, the area experiences warm summer days in the low 80s and cool, refreshing nights. The Angeles National Forest showcases a wide range of vegetation, with chaparral and oak woodlands at lower elevations and pine forests at higher elevations. Overall, the landscape ranges from low canyons at around 1,200 feet to rugged mountain peaks reaching up to 10,000 feet, offering diverse scenery throughout the region.
Nearby Attractions
Hop in the car and drive along the Angeles Crest Highway, a scenic byway that meanders through oak thickets, chaparral, high desert landscapes and pine tree forests.
What the agency tells you
No water or toilets available; campers must bring drinking water and a portable toilet
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
Hay must be certified weed free
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Out-of-state horses must have current Coggins test
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack in-pack out' facility
No generators, live bands or loud music
For more information on Angeles National Forest, click here
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
- 6 · 6 group, 2 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 3 of 6
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 4 of 6 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 3 of 6 campsite records
Around the campground
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 1180th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 9
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 6 sites
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 00 | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | 356 ft | 1.4 miFox Creek |
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 01 | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | 405 ft | 1.3 miFox Creek |
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 02 | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | 207 ft | 1.4 miFox Creek |
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 03 | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | 207 ft | 1.4 miFox Creek |
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 05 | group equestrian | 40 ft | 406 ft | 1.3 miFox Creek |
| AREA LIGHTNING POINT GROUP CG | 06 | group equestrian | 40 ft | 406 ft | 1.2 miFox Creek |
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
Messenger Flats CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.7 miMonte Cristo CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 4.7 miMt. Pacifico CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 8.5 mi
Meadow Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 10 mi
Coulter Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 10 miHorse Flat CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 10 miFrom Interstate 210 in La Canada, exit onto the Angeles Crest Highway (HWY 2) and drive northeast for approximately 10 miles to the intersection of the Angeles Crest Highway and the Angeles Forest Highway (County Road N3). Turn left (north) on to the Angeles Forest Highway and drive approximately 12 miles to the Santa Clara Divide Road at Mill Creek Summit. Turn left (west) onto the Santa Clara Divide and continue for about 11 miles 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 Acton, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 37°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lightning Point Group Campground is in California’s 28th congressional district. Its representative, Judy Chu (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →