Pine Mountain Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 18 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 12 of the next 15 nights; a database flag says not open read 15:37 UTC
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 7All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Perfectly situated high above the Sespe Wilderness offering stunning views of the valley below and the Channel Islands in the distance lies Pine Mountain Campground. You will find yourself surrounded by moderate hills, tall pine trees and the sounds of silence. At an elevation of 6,650 feet, it offers cooler temperatures on hot summer days, and a chance to let everything else go as you take in all that nature has to offer. Keep reading
Recreation
There is one designated trail in the area, Boulder Canyon (23W03). You may also want to walk around the surrounding hills to see the views and the trees. And just a mile up the road there are a couple of trails leaving Reyes Peak Campground - Chorro Grande Trail and Raspberry Spring Trail. Drive past the gate at the end of the paved road and you will end up at Reyes Peak Trailhead.
Facilities
Pine Mountain Campground consists of six campsites fashioned in a circle with a large open area in the middle. There are tables, barbecue grills or fire rings, and one pit toilet at this campground. This is a "dry campground" so please bring your own water.
Natural Features
You will find Jeffrey pine, sugar pine and white fir trees at the campground. Along the outskirts, you'll notice chaparral species. These species include manzanita, and California sage. You may also see some scrub oak. Be dazzled by wildflowers, which are abundant in the spring and early summer. Lupine, false lupine, scarlet bugler and many others round out the scenery. Keep your eyes open for red-tailed hawks soaring above the trees. If you are lucky, you may see a California condor! Other birds in the area include woodpeckers and chickadees. Deer, bear and coyote also live in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Hiking trails, biking and fishing are all within 30 minutes from the campground. On a day trip south along Hwy 33, to the Rose Valley Road (6N31), you will find the Piedra Blanca trailhead located across Sespe Creek. The Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail (22W03) in the Sespe Wilderness will lead you to nearby massive white rocks, called Piedra Blanca! It is an easy walk for the first three miles. A principal attraction to this section of the Sespe is Rose Valley Falls. This trail to the falls begins just before you enter Rose Valley Campground. Follow it for a short half mile and you will be at the base of the falls. The cliffs at the falls are arkosic sandstone and crumble easily, so tread lightly. Rose Valley Falls is the tallest waterfall in the range and while it is an easy hike to the base of the 100-foot tall lower tier of the waterfall (0.8 miles round trip with 150 feet of elevation gain), it is adventure to reach the more impressive upper tier. Please do not climb around on steep sections or get close to the edge. You will need to park outside Rose Valley Campground to hike the trails. Another trail, the Sespe River Trail (20W13) will lead you downstream into the Sespe Wilderness. You will find some swimming holes along this walk. Remember, no mountain bicycles allowed on wilderness trails. If you would like to go on a mountain bicycle ride, take the Middle Sespe Trail (22W04) that leads up river eight miles to the west to Middle Sespe Trailhead.
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.
All single Campsite reservation fees are good for 1 vehicle plus 1 RV and up to 6 people. $10 fee for each extra vehicle and person per night will be charged upon arrival. (NO more than 8 people per site)
No drinking water is available.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
No public showers in the region.
The nearest stores and gas are 15 miles south along Hwy 33, in Ojai.
No cell service can be found in the campground but a connection can be made at South on Hwy 33 a few miles or spotty service a mile up the mountain.
Avoid hiking alone. Tell someone where you plan to go and then stick to your plans.
Avoid taking unnecessary chances-help for emergencies is miles away.
Make sure you have a first aid kit and other safety gear with you when hiking.
Bring your gnat/mosquito repellent in Spring/Summer/Fall
2 night minimum stay on weekends.
3 night minimum stay on holidays.
Click here for more information on Los Padres National Forest
Campfires are normally permitted year-round without a California Campfire Use Permit. Under some conditions, wood fires and barbecues may be prohibited in all areas of the national forest. Fires at the campground are only permitted in fire rings provided by the Forest Service. Please check for fire restrictions prior to your arrival.
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
- 7 · 7 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…barbecue grills or fire rings, and one pit toilet at this campground. This is a "dry…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…a "dry campground" so please bring your own water. Natural Features You will find Jeffrey pine, sugar…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Biking
- Night sky · 940th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and on two midweek nights after it as well. read 15:37 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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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
“$10 fee for each extra vehicle and person per night will be charged upon arrival. (NO more than 8 people per site)” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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 15:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 sites
All 7 sites
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Reyes Peak CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 0.6 mi
Reyes Creek Campground3.1 miRancho Nuevo CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 5.6 mi
Holiday Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 8.9 mi
Wheeler GorgeLos Padres National Forest · 9.3 mi
Rose Valley CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 11 miTo get to Pine Mountain Campground, follow Highway 33 to the turnoff at Pine Mountain Summit (6N06), mile marker 42.50. Turn right and follow the partially paved road another 4.7 miles. Pine Mountain Campground will be to your right.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mira Monte, CA
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
Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Julia Brownley, I’m a constituent in California’s 26th district. I tried to camp at Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 7 sites at Pine Mountain Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. Pine Mountain Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 7 sites at Pine Mountain Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. Pine Mountain Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Pine Mountain Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 7 sites at Pine Mountain Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 5 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. Pine Mountain Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Pine Mountain 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 Pine Mountain Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com