Upper Oso Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 41 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:50 UTC
- A night
- $40–$45When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 19In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Oso Campground provides ample opportunity for exploration of California's coastal mountains. It is a family-friendly campground, equipped with equestrian sites, and is close to a variety of trails and several mountain streams. Keep reading
Recreation
A variety of hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails begin in and around the campground, including the Santa Cruz Trail, which traverses 18 miles north to the San Rafael Wilderness. The 2.5-mile Aliso National Recreation Trail leads through scenic areas to a group campsite. Off-road vehicle enthusiasts enjoy the Camuesa OHV Route, which loops about 10 miles through the surrounding forest. Fishing and swimming are available at nearby White Rock Day-Use Area, less than two miles from the campground. The Santa Ynez River is stocked with trout in the springtime. Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, a no-body-contact reservoir, is about 10 miles northwest of the campground. It offers boating, fishing and kayaking. Anglers will find an abundance of annually stocked trout. Carp and bass are also common catches there.
Facilities
The campground is open year-round and offers around two dozen sites tent or RV camping. About 10 sites are outfitted with horse corrals and extra long, paved parking spurs. Some additional sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each site is equipped with a table, campfire ring with grill and a pedestal grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided throughout the campground. Firewood is available for purchase from the on-site campground host.
Natural Features
The campground is located in the lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area, not far from Santa Barbara. The campground has large sites scattered among plentiful oak trees that provide pleasant shade. It is situated alongside a seasonal creek, at an elevation of 1,040 feet.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is located about 25 miles north of the 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.
Poison oak may be present in the area
Additional fees of $10/night per extra vehicle will be collected at the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 4
All single campsite reservations are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle. Maximum number of people per single site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge per person per night after 6 people.) Maximum number of vehicles per single site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night). Extra vehicle and person fees will be charged at the facility.
Changing river levels can prompt campground closures during the winter.
Learn more about Los Padres National Forest
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
- 19 · 3 tent-only, 2 walk-in, 11 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- 13 of 19
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…grill and a pedestal grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided throughout the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grill. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are provided throughout the campground. Firewood is…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Swimming
- Night sky · 948th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 30 km away
- No change
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:50 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
“Maximum number of people per single site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge per person per night after 6 people.) Maximum number of vehicles per single site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle per night).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Upper Oso Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Upper Oso CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 1.0 mi
- Sage Hill Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.2 mi
- Paradise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.5 mi · 15 sites
- Fremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.9 mi · 15 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 15:50 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 19 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 19 of the 19 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. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| UPPE | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 211 ft | 3,855 ftSanta Ynez River | 263 ft | $40 | |
| UPPE | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 181 ft | 3,870 ftSanta Ynez River | 54 ft | $40 | |
| UPPE | 05 | tent only nonelectric | 162 ft | 3,891 ftSanta Ynez River | 130 ft | $40 | |
| UPPE | 06 | walk to | 20 ft | 80 ft | 3,960 ftSanta Ynez River | 286 ft | $40 |
| UPPE | 07 | walk to | 20 ft | 59 ft | 4,015 ftSanta Ynez River | 360 ft | $40 |
| UPPE | 10 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 59 ft | 4,047 ftSanta Ynez River | 347 ft | $40 |
| UPPE | 11 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 77 ft | 3,973 ftSanta Ynez River | 308 ft | $40 |
| UPPE | 13 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 61 ft | 4,106 ftSanta Ynez River | 385 ft | $40 |
| UPPE | 14 | equestrian nonelectric | 30 ft | 190 ft | 3,688 ftSanta Ynez River | 270 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 15 | equestrian nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 3,878 ftSanta Ynez River | 132 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 16 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 70 ft | 3,916 ftSanta Ynez River | 16 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 17 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 68 ft | 3,923 ftSanta Ynez River | 71 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 18 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 4,025 ftSanta Ynez River | 143 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 20 | equestrian nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 4,329 ftSanta Ynez River | 414 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 21 | equestrian nonelectric | 25 ft | 69 ft | 4,340 ftSanta Ynez River | 411 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 22 | equestrian nonelectric | 20 ft | 75 ft | 4,419 ftSanta Ynez River | 498 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 24 | equestrian nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 4,450 ftSanta Ynez River | 519 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 25 | equestrian nonelectric | 20 ft | 89 ft | 4,391 ftSanta Ynez River | 460 ft | $45 |
| UPPE | 27 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 121 ft | 4,273 ftSanta Ynez River | 345 ft | $45 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sage Hill Group CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 2.2 mi
Sage HillLos Padres National Forest · 2.4 mi
Los PrietosLos Padres National Forest · 3.3 mi
Paradise CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.5 mi
Fremont CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Santa Barbara, travel north on Highway 101. Exit onto Highway 154 and continue northwest for about 10 miles. Turn east onto Paradise Road and travel about 6 miles. Turn north onto Forest Route 5N15 and continue less than two miles to the campground.
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 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 32°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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Upper Oso 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 →