Reyes Peak Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 17 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – December 31Open May 1 through December 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 16 notices
In the agency’s own words
At an elevation of 7,000 feet, Reyes Peak Campground, rises above the Sespe Wilderness and is situated along a ridge with spectacular views of the Cuyama Badlands on one side and the Pacific Ocean from the other side. On clear days you can even see some of the Channel Islands! Keep reading
Recreation
Several trails leave the Reyes Peak Campground area. Chorro Grande Trail is located at the gate just past the last campsite. Raspberry Spring Trail will lead you north on a short one-half mile walk through the pines. It starts at the parking area on the western edge of the campground. The Reyes Peak Trail (23W04) is moderately difficult. It leads eastward into the Sespe Wilderness for 5.8 miles to the Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail (22W03). Remember, no mountain bikes are allowed in the wilderness.
Facilities
Reyes Peak consists of six campsites situated along the southwest side of the ridge. Each campsite contains a table, barbecue grill and a fire ring. There is one pit toilet located near the first few campsites. No water is available at Reyes Peak. Make sure you bring plenty of water for your stay.
Natural Features
The landscape includes Jeffrey pines, sugar pines, white fir and ponderosa pines. Wildflowers are abundant in the spring and early summer. Be dazzled by lupine, false lupine, scarlet bugler and many others. 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 within 30 minutes. Take a day trip south along Hwy 33 to the Rose Valley Road (6N31) to the Piedra Blanca trailhead where three trails can be accessed, all 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.
Camping fee includes 1 vehicle and 1 tent, trailer or RV. $10 fee for each extra vehicle.
No drinking water is available.
Everything else this campground posts · 13
No public showers in the region.
Fireworks are not permitted.
The nearest stores and gas are 15 miles south along Hwy 33, in Ojai.
Spotty cell service can be found in the campground.
Don't hike alone. Tell someone where you plan to go and then stick to your plans.
Don't take 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.
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 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…grill and a fire ring. There is one pit toilet located near the first few campsites. No water is…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…located near the first few campsites. No water is available at Reyes Peak. Make sure you bring…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Night sky · 945th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:44 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 4 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and on the one midweek night after it that the agency has released as well. read 16:44 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.” · 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 16:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pine Mountain CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 0.6 mi
Reyes Creek Campground3.0 miRancho Nuevo CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 6.1 mi
Holiday Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 8.6 mi
Wheeler GorgeLos Padres National Forest · 9.0 mi
Middle Lion CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 11 miFollow Highway 33 to the turnoff at Pine Mountain Summit (6N06) which is at mile marker 42.50. Turn right and follow the partially paved road another 5.7 miles. The total distance from Ojai Ranger Station Reyes Peak is 39 miles.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Meiners Oaks, 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
Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Julia Brownley, I’m a constituent in California’s 26th district. I tried to camp at Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Reyes Peak Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Reyes Peak Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Reyes Peak Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Reyes Peak Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Reyes Peak Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Reyes Peak Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 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. Reyes Peak Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Reyes Peak 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 Reyes Peak Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com