10 Best Camping in Southern California 2025

Southern California enterprise like camping beneath the stars, and various campgrounds within the locale convey huge characteristic highlights and dim night skies. From shoreline camping within the summer to winter camping within the leave, there’s a Best Camping in Southern California campground to visit each month of the year.National parks, lake, state parks, and national timberlands are common scenes for camping in Southern California.

These destinations regularly come with civilities like fire rings and a few sort of restrooms (flushing or primitive), with diverse housing for tents and RVs.The scenes at these prevalent places to camp shift broadly. Mountain backdrops, coastal scenes, and mammoth leave boulders are all in see at campgrounds in Southern California, loaning to a wide sense of enterprise. And with sunny skies and generally warm temperatures, winter camping in Southern California too tends to be prevalent.

Explore the Best Camping in Southern California

1. Jumbo Rocks Campground

Best Camping in Southern California

It’s simple to see why Joshua Tree could be an uncommon put when spending many evenings camping here. Jumbo Rocks Best Camping in Southern California is the biggest campground within the park and gives you the finest chance of securing a site.It’s encompassed by namesake boulders and shake arrangements, make for simple investigation of the strange forsake scene. And remaining the night empowers guests to involve the enchanted nightfalls of this boulder-rich locale, as well as the fantastically dim night skies.

The 124 sites at Large Rocks cater to both tents and RVs, although no electric hookups are accessible. Guests have to go to vault toilets but have to bring their own water. The campground is centrally found within the park  and close to noticeable highlights, counting Cranium Rock.Jumbo Rocks is one of a few campgrounds inside the Best Camping in Southern California. And it’s one of five that gives reservations amid the crest season between October and May.

Other reservable campgrounds incorporate Dark Shake, Cottonwood, Indian Bay, and Ryan Campground. Enormous Rocks is the biggest, and Indian Bay is the following biggest, with over 100 destinations too encompassed by solid shake formations.The stop too has three created, first-come, first-served campgrounds. The biggest, Covered up Valley Campground, has 44 destinations accessible and is inconceivably competitive on winter ends of the week and occasions. Numerous primitive camping openings moreover proliferate in Joshua Tree National park.

2. San Onofre Bluffs Campground

San Onofre Feigns Campground is an amazing RV campground on the Southern California coast. It lines the Pacific Sea with 175 locales accessible, generally catering to camper vans and recreational vehicles. These campsites simply get to the waves of San Onofre Surf Beach–home to a few of the leading surfing Best Camping in Southern California .San Onofre State Shoreline too has.The San Mateo Campground has an extra 140 sites accessible, and a 1.5-mile nature path that interfaces campers to the notorious Trestles Shoreline.

Both campgrounds have got to flushing water and coin-operated showers.San Onofre may be a mecca for Southern California sun and fun. Other prevalent exercises from the campground incorporate sunbathing, swimming, and angling. The neighboring city of San Clemente is additionally worth going by, still nowadays taking after a Spanish town by the ocean. San Clemente is additionally domestic to San Clemente State Shoreline with more feign camping accessible.

3. Serrano Campground

Serrano Campground is inside a strolling remover of the reviving waters of Enormous Bear Lake inside San Bernardino National Timberland, giving a few of the finest lake camping in California. It has over 100 campsites accessible, pleasing both tents and RVs.All of the destinations at Serrano are inside strolling separate from the Beacon Trailer Resort and Marina, where hot nourishment and other exercises anticipate.

Other experience outlets from the Best Camping in Southern California incorporate angling and water sports, as well as mountain biking and climbing with trails like the Cougar Peak Path nearby.Thirty-mile drive west from Serrano Campground, and available through the Edge of the World Beautiful Byway, the Dogwood Best Camping in Southern California is another popular place to spend the night in San Bernardino National Woodland. The 87 destinations at Dogwood are regular and as it were accessible amid the summer and bear seasons and cater best to tent camping.The neighboring and tourist-friendly community of Lake Sharpened stone is accessible from the Dogwood Best Camping in Southern California with a five-minute drive.

4. Green Valley Campground

Cuyamaca Rancho State park gives a reprieve from the tall temperatures of aBest Camping in Southern California summer, beneath an hour west of San Diego. The park is inside the Peninsular Extend at rises surpassing 4,000 feet. This increased scene bolsters a lavish oak and conifer woodland fragmented by winding streams.

The park’s Green Valley Campground could be a prevalent family campground with over 80 locales close to the Sweetwater River and its many swimming gaps. Climbing openings just like the Pine Edge Path amplify right from the campground, and all overnight clients have get to to running water and coin-operated showers.The park’s Paso Picacho Best Camping in Southern California is another prevalent put to pitch a tent or park  an RV, and the Paso Picacho Bunch Campground accommodates up to 40 campers. Both campgrounds frequently include inconceivably dim night skies that culminate for seeing the Smooth Way.

5. Manker Flats Campground

Baldy Bowl – Ski Hut Trail

Manker Pads is a high-altitude campground close to the crest of Mount San Antonio–also known as Mt. Baldy. It’s a common beginning spot for one of the leading climbing trails in Best Camping in Southern California, the generally 10-mile Baldy Circle.

The campground offers provincial housing within Angeles National Timberland. It also has easy access to Mt. Baldy Bowl Trailhead, which offers a strenuous course to the adjacent summit.The campground sits at an height of over 6,000 feet. The 21 sites available are first-come, first-served, and whereas not frequently filled to capacity, they can fill up at the end of the week. Potable water and pit toilets are accessible to each overnight client.

6. Fern Basin Campground

Fair exterior the mountain town of Idyllwild, this rustic campground highlights 22 locales and a wealth of recreational openings. Reservations are accessible for this well known campground and are recommended for the summer season. Vault toilets and consumable water are accessible to all overnight guests.

The Marion Mountain Trailhead is inside the campground and gives a strenuous 11.8-mile hike to the beat of Mount San Jacinto. But the Best Camping in Southern California is well known with peak-baggers and casual climbers alike, with various less-strenuous climbing trails too stemming all through the encompassing San Bernardino National Forest.For groceries, restaurants, live music, and one of the best little towns in California, the neighborly community of Idyllwild is less than seven miles absent.

7. Tamarisk Grove Campground

Anza-Borrego Forsake State park is one of the biggest and best state parks in California, encompassing over 600,000 acres. The best time of year to visit Anza-Borrego is between October and May, when the 100-plus-degree summer warmth subsides.One of the best campgrounds within the park  is the Tamarisk Woods Campground. It’s also one of the foremost created campgrounds inside Anza-Borrego and is centrally located within the stop. Campsites and cabins are both accessible. Guests will need to bring their own water, in spite of the fact that drinking water is available for purchase.

8. Furnace Creek Campground

While camping in a put named Passing Valley might not sound too engaging, the stark desert landscape of the biggest national park in the touching states is distant from inhospitable.The Heater Stream Best Camping in Southern California is one of the foremost available campgrounds in Passing Valley, with the park’s most prominent guest center found adjacent. A few of the prettiest spots in Passing Valley are close to Heater Stream, counting the Golden Canyons and the rousing Zabriskie Point.

Two other popular campgrounds are moreover within the Furnace Creek area of the park, including the Dusk Campground with 270 destinations accessible. It’s uncommon for all campsites to fill up in Death Valley National park. Most campgrounds in Passing Valley National park, including Furnace River and Dusk, have running water and flushing toilets accessible.

9. Moro Campground

Off the Pacific Coast Thruway fair north of Laguna Shoreline, Gem Inlet State park envelops miles of staggering shoreline and the endless inland field of Moro Canyon. This combination of canyon climbing trails and a shocking shoreline make it a popular spot for all sorts of action, counting camping at the park’s Moro Campground.The about 60 destinations at Moro Best Camping in Southern California sit on a bluff overlooking the sea.

This expansive coastal panorama is very marvelous, particularly the sunset. It can too possibly lead to exceptionally blustery conditions on blustery days.Coin-operated showers and running water are available at the Best Camping in Southern California, and more primitive camping spots are found at the hike-in-only destinations at Lower Moro Campground.

10. Doane Valley Campground

Sixty miles north of San Diego, the verdant scenery and elevated highlights of Palomar Mountain State park defy expectations of a Southern California camping involvement. The most excellent way to appreciate the rolling topography and rich woodlands of this stream-lined state Best Camping in Southern California is to spend the night at the Doane Valley Campground inside its borders. This family campground highlights 31 destinations for either tents or RVs and gets to flushing toilets and coin-operated showers.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top