Paradise Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 44 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
- $40–$80Across the site types the agency prices
- 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 · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Paradise Campground is a beautiful place to enjoy California's westernmost national forest. It provides access to a variety of recreational activities, including hiking, biking, horseback riding and more. Mountain lakes and rivers in the area offer campers plentiful fishing, boating and swimming opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The Santa Ynez River is popular for a variety of water-related recreation and can be accessed at White Rock Day-Use Area, less than half a mile from the campground. Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, a no-body-contact reservoir, is about 10 miles northwest of the campground. It offers boating, fishing and kayaking. Anglers will find an abundance of annually stocked trout. Carp and bass are also common catches. Visitors enjoy a variety of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails. The Aliso National Recreation Trail is a popular, 2.5-mile loop that begins near 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 connecting trails are available within 10 miles of the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers just over a dozen sites for single and double-family tent and RV camping. Each site is equipped with a table, campfire ring with grill and a pedestal grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Utility hookups are not provided. Parking spurs are paved and can accommodate most RVs. Firewood can be purchased from the campground host. The nearest fee dump station is about 11 miles away at Cachuma Lake County Park off State Route 154.
Natural Features
The developed campground is located in the Santa Ynez Mountains at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. The Santa Ynez River can be accessed through a tunnel beneath adjacent Paradise Road. The campground is nestled in an oak tree woodland that provides ample shade in most sites. Lush greenery blankets the campground and an open, level playing field allows for games and exploration.
Nearby Attractions
The city of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean are about 18 miles from the campground.
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.
All single campsite reservations are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
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 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night).
All Double campsite reservations are good for 12 people and 2 vehicles.
Maximum number of people per double site is 16 ($10.00 additional charge person per night after 12 people). Maximum Number of vehicles per double site is 4 ($10.00 additional charge per vehicle per night after 2 vehicles).
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
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 48 ft
- 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. Utility hookups…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Utility hookups are not provided.…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 956th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 26 km away
- No change
Full this Saturdayread 16:27 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 10 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 12 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:27 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 · 17
What you actually pay
“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 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
“Double Sites All Double campsite reservations are good for 12 people and 2 vehicles Maximum number of people per double site is 16 ($10.00 additional charge person per night after 12 people) Maximum Number of vehicles…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $40–$80 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 16:27 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 13 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 PARADISE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 89 ft | 649 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 778 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 93 ft | 799 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 004 | type not stated | 46 ft | |||
| AREA PARADISE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 867 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 763 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 53 ft | 710 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 807 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 106 ft | 686 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 63 ft | 563 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | $40–$80 | ||
| AREA PARADISE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 63 ft | 552 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 67 ft | 555 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 65 ft | 587 ft | $40–$80 |
| AREA PARADISE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 65 ft | 590 ft | $40–$80 |
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
Los PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 0.2 mi
Fremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 0.4 mi
Sage HillLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 mi
Sage Hill Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.6 mi
Upper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.5 miFrom Santa Barbara, take Highway 154 for approximately 9 miles to Paradise Road. Turn right and continue on Paradise 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 51°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 40°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
Paradise 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 Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Salud O. Carbajal, I’m a constituent in California’s 24th district. I tried to camp at Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Paradise 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 10 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. Paradise Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paradise 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 Paradise 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 Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Paradise 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 10 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. Paradise Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paradise 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 Paradise 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 Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Paradise Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 14 of the 15 campsites the agency files at Paradise 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 10 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. Paradise Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paradise 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 Paradise Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com