U.S. Forest Service · Los Padres National Forest · CA
Sage Hill Group Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 43 mi
Wildfire
Pinos fire · 43 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Cornell fire · 43 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Season
- January 1 – December 31Open January 1 through December 31
970 ftElevation
349 ftWater · Santa Ynez RiverOcean · 8.5 mi · to the Pacific Ocean
5.1 miN of Eastern Goleta Valley, CA
0%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 955th darkest of 1,201 in CA
Open January 1 through December 31Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
There are 5 group campsites. Flat area, next to river, some sites are shady, oak trees, paved roads. Tables, group barbecues, firepits, water faucets, flush toilets, R/V - no hookups. Closest dump station is at Cachuma Lake. Firewood can be purchased from the camp host. Access to the Santa Ynez River. The Aliso interpretive trail begins at this campground. There is river access to the Santa Ynez River along the last 6 miles of Paradise Road. Watch out for poison oak. One site has 12 corrals and hitching post for equestrian use, each site holds 25-50 people. Trailhead parking for the Aliso Trail. Keep reading
($10/day - or the Parks Management Company (PMC) Annual Pass can be displayed). The PMC Annual Pass is $50. Send an email to: customerservice@pmcparks.com for information about the PMC Annual Pass. Heavy rains during winter months can make river impassible; as a result, campground may be subject to short term closure. Campfires are currently allowed with a CA Campfire Permit: www.readyforwildfire.org
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…barbecues, firepits, water faucets, flush toilets, R/V - no hookups. Closest dump station is at…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Tables, group barbecues, firepits, water faucets, flush toilets, R/V - no hookups. Closest dump…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Source: Stated in the agency description
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 27 km away
- No change
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (27 km) · Oct 9, 2026
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 8
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Cactus Loop - $125.00 (up to 50 people)
Live Oak Loop - $125.00 (up to 50 people)
Sycamore Loop - $125.00 (up to 50 people)
Pine Loop $125.00 (up to 50 people)
Caballo Loop - $150.00 (equestrian site with corrals - up to 60 people)
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Sage HillLos Padres National Forest · 0.5 mi
Los PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 1.1 mi
Paradise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 mi
Fremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.7 mi
Upper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.2 mi
Sage HillLos Padres National Forest · 0.5 miLos PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 1.1 miParadise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.3 miFremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.7 miUpper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.2 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
This Afternoon95°Sunny
Tonight58°Mostly Clear
Saturday93°Sunny
Saturday Night53°Clear
NWS forecast for Eastern Goleta Valley, CA
Source: National Weather Service, LOX forecast office · Oct 16, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 40°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
80°30°
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.
Measured at: SANTA BARBARA MUNI AP, CA (USW00023190), 9 miles away and 961 ft lower
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 30, 2026
Who answers for this land
Sage Hill Group Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (27 km) · Oct 9, 2026
Reported by: USA National Phenology Network (Nature's Notebook), reported no change · Oct 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.