Ponderosa Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 24 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $35From, per site
- Sites
- 23All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ponderosa Campground offers visitors a beautiful location to relax and enjoy nature. It runs along the Nacimiento River, which provides a variety of recreational opportunities. Swimming, fishing and wading are all enjoyed by visitors, as well as hiking and backpacking on any of the surrounding mountain trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The Nacimiento River provides opportunities for trout fishing and wading, as well as swimming in any of the swimming holes along its course. A variety of hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking trails can be accessed within a short drive from the campground. The trails offer scenic views of waterfalls, massive redwood groves, meadows and mountain streams.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent and RV camping. Utility hookups are not available and the parking surfaces are paved. A maximum of two vehicles is allowed for each site. Additional vehicles are not allowed in the campground. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Trash collection bins are available throughout the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is situated next to the river and has a scattered canopy of ponderosa pine, oak, madrone and sycamore trees, which provide ample shade in most campsites. It is located in the Los Padres National Forest in the mountains of Big Sur at an elevation of 1,500 feet. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Mission San Antonio is a short drive east of the campground. Located in the Fort Hunter Liggett Military Base, the mission is one of the oldest in California. A museum, original aqueducts and a Native American cemetery are found here. The San Antonio Reservoir Recreation Area is located about 32 miles southwest of the campground. Boating, fishing, swimming and guided tours are available.
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.
Limit of 2 vehicles per site; additional vehicles are not permitted
RVs are not recommended to travel Nacimiento/Ferguson Road from Hwy 1. Access is available through the Hwy 101.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Reservations can be made three days in advance.
Campsite reservation fee covers 6 people and 1 vehicle. Maximum number of people per site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge after 6 people). Maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle).
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
- 23
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 7 of 23
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Trash collection…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Trash collection bins are available…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 386th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
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.
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
“Maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $35 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 23 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. 23 of the 23 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 92 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 53 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 53 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 94 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 94 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 174 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 37 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 19 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 4 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 4 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 124 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 185 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 37 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 46 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 37 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 114 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 124 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 45 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 43 ft | 3.2 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 14 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 14 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
| PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 23 ft | 3.1 mi | $35 |
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
Kirk Creek CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 6.7 mi
Plaskett Creek CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 7.8 mi
Memorial CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 9.1 mi
Escondido CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 11 miCampground is only available to access via the 101 side, the Highway 1/ Nacimiento Road Access is CLOSED.
From Monterey, Take highway 68 to the 101. Accessible through Highway 101 exit Jolon Road.
From Los Angeles/South take highway 101 to the Jolon Road exit, follow until campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Fort Hunter Liggett, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 56°F, day 74°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 45°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 Septembers are colder than the September 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
Ponderosa Campground is in California’s 18th congressional district. Its representative, Zoe Lofgren (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →