Sycamore Flat Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 17 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 1211 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sycamore Flat Campground is a small, developed campground located in the Big Rock Creek Recreation Area of the Angeles National Forest. At approximately 4,200 feet in elevation, it offers a peaceful setting with mature sycamore and juniper trees and easy access to Big Rock Creek. The campground features 11 first-come, first-served campsites for tents and small RVs or trailers up to approximately 18 feet. It is open year-round, weather and road permitting. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors can enjoy hiking, wildlife viewing, photography, picnicking, and exploring Big Rock Creek. Nearby trails include the South Fork Trail, Manzanita Trail, and Punchbowl Trail. The surrounding roads also offer scenic drives through the northeastern section of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Facilities
Sycamore Flat Campground offers basic developed amenities, including 11 first-come, first-served campsites with picnic tables, fire rings, and a communal vault toilet. There is currently no piped water available so campers should bring enough for cooking, cleaning, drinking, and extinguishing campfires. The campground accommodates tents and small RVs or trailers up to approximately 18 feet. Cell phone service is limited, and visitors should check current forest conditions and fire restrictions before arrival.
Natural Features
Located where the Mojave Desert meets the San Gabriel Mountains, Sycamore Flat offers a unique blend of mountain and desert landscapes. Mature California sycamores, juniper trees, and native shrubs provide shade in portions of the campground, Nearby Big Rock Creek creates seasonal riparian habitat for birds and other wildlife. Rocky canyon walls, rolling hills, and open mountain views define the surrounding scenery.
Nearby Attractions
Big Rock Creek – Popular for picnicking, photography, and seasonal recreation. Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area – Unique geologic formations with hiking trails and interpretive exhibits. South Fork Trail – A scenic trail following Big Rock Creek through the San Gabriel Mountains. Jackson Lake – Seasonal fishing, picnicking, and nearby camping opportunities.
What the agency tells you
No water available-please bring enough water for cooking, cleaning, drinking and extinguishing campfires.
No generators, amplifiers, live bands or loud music. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am.
Bears frequent the area- all food and scented items must be properly stored.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Check out time is 11 am. Check in time is 2 pm.
Call (661) 269-2808 for current conditions and additional information.
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
- 12
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 18 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 1 of 12 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables, fire rings, and a communal vault toilet. There is currently no piped water available so…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “There is currently no piped water available so campers should bring enough for cooking, cleaning, drinking, and extinguishing campfires.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Birding
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Night sky · 1144th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:45 UTC
recreation.gov lists 11 of the 12 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites
All 12 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. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Extra Vehicle | Extra Vehicle Fee | type not stated | $5 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 01 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Sycamore Flat | 02 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 03 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 04 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 05 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 06 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 07 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 08 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 09 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 10 | standard nonelectric | $20 | |
| Sycamore Flat | 11 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Jackson FlatsSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 3.9 miJackson Flat Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 5.5 mi
Mountain OakSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 5.6 mi
Deer Group CampSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 5.6 miFrom Pearblossom - Highway 138:
- From Highway 138 in Pearblossom, turn south onto Longview Road.
- Continue south and turn left onto Avenue W.
- Follow Avenue W toward Valyermo, passing the Mojave Work Center
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Piñon Hills, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Sycamore Flat Campground is in California’s 28th congressional district. Its representative, Judy Chu (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
“…small RVs or trailers up to approximately 18 feet. Cell phone service is limited, and visitors should check current forest conditions and fire…”