It is a pack in camp. There is a clean bathroom. No showers. Picnic tables at each site. A babbling creek and only the sounds of nature. As a primitive camp I give it 5 stars.
Sometime in August or September 2023, brand new pit toilets were added at the campground. Haven't see any homeless here in a while.
Great backpacking site for beginners. The trail in is about 2.5 miles. The 1st mile is very urban and not super pretty. The last 1.5 miles follows the stream and is beautiful and shady. There are 3 stream crossings before you reach the campsite. All along the trail are bridges, picnic tables, stone walls and benches for resting. The campsite itself is pretty with a fire ring at every site. There are several places to hitch a horse. The campground has about 6 sites in total but not every site has a picnic table. Some sites have a log to sit on by the fire if you don’t want to pack a chair. There was no toilet paper in the vault toilets and the bear safe trash cans were overflowing. There was one “long term camper” but he didn’t get us any trouble. The main trail runs just beside the campground with a steady stream of trail runners, mountain bikers and hikers. The stream runs just on the other side of the trail and is wonderfully cool and refreshing. Pack water shoes or extra clothes if you have kiddos that like to explore.
Nice places sitting around the river. We only stop by but a chair is awesome when you about to hike up along the Gould Mesa road.
Nice place to take a rest after you come down from Gould Mesa road or when you are about to hike back
The camp ground wasn't anything special at all. If I had one word to describe it, it's would be dirty as there is just bits of trash all over the campground, cordage tied to a bunch of trees, old broken tent poles, you name it, it's there. I had read beforehand that homeless people like to stay here and that is absolutely true. I do not have a problem with homeless people, but what I do have a problem with is that that took up 3 out of the 4 major campgrounds, leaving recreational and backpack users with noot as many options. There is a good water source for filtering and plenty of firewood. Although, it does get quite windy sometimes and the campground sits right in the middle of an open canyon. I would come back if I had to, but this wouldn't be my first choice.
It’s a nice accessible hike/walk for beginners. Pavement then terrain. Please don’t leave fruit peels. Just because it is biodegradable doesn’t mean it should be left there. What isn’t grown there should not be thrown there. I picked up some trash but next time I’ll be more prepaid with a trash bag.
This is one of my favorite hikes in LA. It's a 5.2 mile hike if you go left at the camp grounds. It's pretty easy and goes right along the river to a big dam waterfall. The hike back up is more challenging, but totally doable. Great place to picnic and stroll along!
Beautiful location ruined by careless campers. This would be an amazing location for an easy overnight backpacking trip, but unfortunately most people leave food out which attracts animals, and the garbage problem here is unbelievable. The warnings about bears placed everywhere are there for a reason and there's clear signs of garbage bags being ripped apart by black bears. if this sort of behavior picks up its only a matter of time before the forest service closes the campground.
