Sage Hill
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 43 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 27 of the next 30 nights read 14:40 UTC
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Nestled in the Santa Ynez Mountain Range, Sage Hill Campground is a great group camping spot with easy access to the Santa Ynez River. Spend time fishing or take in the epic scenery on one of the trails designed for both hikers and horseback riders. One of the campsites is designed for group equestrian camping and includes 12 corrals and a hitching post. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishermen are likely to find carp, catfish, bluegill and the occasional bass that swim up from Cachuma. The Aliso Canyon Trail begins at the rear of the facility and continues to Upper Oso Campground, which is where the Santa Cruz Trail begins. The nearby Cachuma Lake Recreation Area is perfect for boating, fishing and kayaking.
Facilities
Each campsite accommodates up to 50 people, and the group equestrian site accommodates up to 60. Flush toilets, drinking water and paved roads are included, in addition to an extra large parking area to accommodate horse trailers. The closest dump station is at Cachuma Lake.
Natural Features
The campground sits in a flat area with some sites shaded by oak trees. Sage Hill is near the river, which flows into Cachuma Lake about seven miles west. The Santa Ynez Mountains make up part of the Transverse Range along the Pacific Coast of California. The landscape may become very dry by mid-summer.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is half an hour from the thriving beach city of Santa Barbara.
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.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
All visitors must ford the river to reach the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 9
During heavy spring rains, the river crossing to access the campground can become temporarily impassible and beyond our control. Management tries to give a 1-week minimum cancelation notice if water levels are impassable. However, in some cases, water levels can fluctuate overnight and the campground can be subject to closure. During the springtime, we ask you to please be prepared for reservation cancellation. Visit our website at www.campone.com or call 805-434-1996 for updates.
Be cautious of snakes in the area
Limit 10 vehicles per site; a $10 nightly fee is charged for additional vehicles
No swimming in Cachuma Lake; lake is designed for drinking water and body contact is not allowed
A boating fee is charged for entrance to lake
No live music or sound systems
Vehicles must park on pavement
For more information on Los Padres National Forest, click here
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
- 5 · 5 group, 1 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…equestrian site accommodates up to 60. Flush toilets, drinking water and paved roads are included, in…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…accommodates up to 60. Flush toilets, drinking water and paved roads are included, in addition to an…”
- Dump station
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 967th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 27 km away
- No change
Full this Saturdayread 14:40 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 5 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 14:40 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 · 13
What you actually pay
“a $10 nightly fee is charged for additional vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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 14:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 5 of the 5 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CABAL | CABALLO | group equestrian | 99 ft | 467 ft | 407 ft | 420 ft | $150 |
| CACT | CACTUS | group standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 290 ft | 410 ft | 679 ft | $150 |
| OAK | LIVE OAK | group standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 413 ft | 396 ft | 1,351 ft | $150 |
| PINE | PINE | group standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 290 ft | 421 ft | 938 ft | $150 |
| SYCA | SYCAMORE | group standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 413 ft | 404 ft | 1,749 ft | $150 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sage Hill Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 0.5 mi
Los PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 1.0 mi
Paradise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.6 mi
Fremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.7 mi
Upper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.4 miFrom highway 101, take highway 154 approximately 15 miles to paradise road. Turn right and continue 5 miles to Los Prietos road. Turn left past the ranger station to the camp entrance.
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 43°F, day 84°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 33°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
Sage Hill 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 Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Salud O. Carbajal, I’m a constituent in California’s 24th district. I tried to camp at Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Sage Hill 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. Sage Hill keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sage Hill. 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 Sage Hill (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 Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Sage Hill 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. Sage Hill keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sage Hill. 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 Sage Hill (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 Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sage Hill, Los Padres National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 5 sites at Sage Hill 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. Sage Hill keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sage Hill. 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 Sage Hill (Los Padres National Forest, California) via campanac.com