Rose Valley Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 15 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
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 9All of them booked ahead
- Season
- January 1 – December 31Open January 1 through December 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Break free from reality and take a scenic cruise along fabulous Highway 33 for a short drive from Ojai to Rose Valley Campground and Day Use Area. Whether you're day-tripping or camping, you can explore the running creek, visit the waterfalls, take a dip and hike the nearby trails and enjoy the local wildlife. Wildflowers and shady areas under cottonwood trees invite you to indulge in a rejuvenating nap. Removed just far enough from civilization, the night sky here is fantastic, especially when gazing north, a perfect place to view meteor showers, satellites, comets and other celestial phenomenon. Keep reading
Recreation
Rose Valley Falls is the principal attraction to this section of the Sespe. The trail to the falls begins at the southwest area of the campground between Campsites 4 and 5. Follow it for a 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. 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 an adventure to reach the more impressive upper tier. Please do not climb around on steep sections or get close to the edge. If you are not camping, you will need to park outside of the campground to hike the trails; otherwise, the day use fee for parking in the campground is $10.00.
Facilities
Rose Valley Campground has nine campsites. The campsites are very spacious, level, well-marked and well equipped with a picnic table, fire pit and/or a separate BBQ. There are enclosed trash receptacles around the park and an unlit single pit style toilet. There is no drinking water at this site; you must bring your own water.
Natural Features
Rose Valley Campground is the entry point to the legendary Rose Valley Falls, a magnificent two-tier 300-foot waterfall located on the west end of the Topatopa Mountains in Los Padres National Forest. If you are lucky, you may see coyotes, deer, bobcats, mountain lions or bears, which all live in this area. Frogs and toads, or ducks swimming on the lake, are a frequent sight as are red-tailed hawks soaring high above. Vegetation includes chamise, sage and toyon; toyon is especially beautiful in the fall and winter with its bright red berries. This area is amazing during the fall; as the trees change, you will find yourself luxuriously encased by vibrant colors. If you like wildflowers, Rose Valley offers wild rose and poppies in the spring.
Nearby Attractions
Hiking trails, biking, fishing, within 30 minutes. Day trips to the higher elevation mountains for snow play in the winter. One mile away on the Rose Valley Road (6N31) is the Piedra Blanca Trailhead where there are three trails to explore, 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.
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
No drinking water is available.
No public showers in the region.
Fireworks are not permitted.
The nearest stores and gas are 15 miles south along Hwy. 33, in Ojai.
No cell service at the campground.
Avoid hiking alone. Tell someone where you plan to go and then stick to your plans.
Avoid unnecessary risk - help for emergencies is miles away.
Carry a first aid kit and other safety gear with you when hiking.
Bring gnat/mosquito repellent during spring/summer/fall.
2-night minimum stay on weekends.
3-night minimum stay on holidays.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 9
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and an unlit single pit style toilet. There is no drinking water at this site; you must bring your own water.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Night sky · 1040th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:54 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
Every one of the 4 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and on two midweek nights after it as well. read 16:54 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 · 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 16:54 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
9 sites
All 9 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. 9 of the 9 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Middle Lion CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.5 mi
Wheeler GorgeLos Padres National Forest · 5.4 mi
Holiday Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 5.5 miThorn Meadows CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 7.6 miHalfmoon CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 11 mi
Reyes Peak CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 11 miTo get there, follow Hwy. 33 north from Ojai 14.7 miles to mile marker 25.84. Turn right at the Rose Valley Road (6N31) turnoff and follow the paved road for 3.1 miles. Turn right again at the Rose Valley Campground sign (across from the lower lake) and follow this road 0.6 miles into Rose Valley Campground. Watch out for rough sections of road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ojai, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 53°F, day 77°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December 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 · 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
Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Julia Brownley, I’m a constituent in California’s 26th district. I tried to camp at Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 9 sites at Rose Valley 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. Rose Valley Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 9 sites at Rose Valley 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. Rose Valley Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Rose Valley Campground, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 9 sites at Rose Valley 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. Rose Valley Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rose Valley 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 Rose Valley Campground (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com