Escondido Campground

Overview

Escondido Campground is one of the best kept secrets in the Santa Lucia Mountains. This family-friendly campground boasts scenic vistas that will take your breath away. Surrounded by spectacular rock formations and sprawling oaks this campground rests in a beautiful grassy meadow. The outdoor activities are endless. Hiking, biking, wildlife viewing, picnicking, and bird watching are just a few of the activities you can do while visiting this Los Padres National Forest gem.

Recreation

Escondido Campground has trailheads located near the campground and is only a short drive to multiple other trails with access to backpacking, hiking, biking and horseback riding. Hitching posts for your horses are available at the campground trailhead. Sandstone landscapes, wildflowers and wildlife are part of the experience in this pristine part of the forest.

Facilities

Open daily and year-round, there are nine campsites and each include a picnic table and fire ring. Two vault toilets are located near the campsites. You should plan to be completely self-sustainable for the duration of your trip. There is no potable water (drinking water) onsite. There is no dump station.

Natural Features

Escondido Campground has a diverse and thriving environment that contains ponderosa pine, oak madrone and sycamore trees, just to name a few. The Arroyo Seco River runs through this canyon terrain and only a short distance from the campground. A variety of wildlife viewing and backpacking opportunities await at this hidden treasure.

Nearby Attractions

Hiking trails, biking, fishing, horseback riding are within minutes of this campground. The San Antonio Mission, one of the oldest of the California Missions, is within a 15-minute drive.

Camp site features

Across 9 camp sites:

  • Picnic table: all 9 sites
  • Pets allowed: all 9 sites
  • Longest rig: 50 ft
  • Largest party: 6 people

Directions

Take Highway 101 to Jolon Road, turn onto Mission Road, to Del Venture Road. Travel 12 miles to the campground. Last 3 miles is unsurfaced.

Stay Limit

Check in from 3 PM, check out by 12 PM.

Reviews

5 reviews
5 stars
1
4 stars
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1 stars
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Aaron R
Loop:Escondido Campground
Site:
Reviewed a year ago
Late May was beautiful here! Very remote and raw terrain out here. There’s no camp host or firewood for sale. Insects were definitely irritating in late afternoon and morning. Not recommended for everyone but hardy folk will appreciate.
Holly S
Loop:Escondido Campground
Site:
Reviewed 2 years ago
Really peaceful great view of the stars at night
fan z
Loop:Escondido Campground
Site:
Reviewed 4 years ago
last 3-4 miles to the campground is real dirt road around the hill. Don't arrive after 5pm in summer because the low sunlight will make the last 4 miles very dangerous. Pet Allowed but not friendly, we didn't encounter many flies as we saw on review, but cockleburs are EVERYWHERE, my dog had her hair COATED with cocklebur so we had to keep her in tent for rest of time of whole 3 day camping.
Everto G
Loop:Escondido Campground
Site:
Reviewed 6 years ago
Bugs are no joke. We had 4 different repellants and had to use them. Once you start the fire or the wind picks up you should be good. There is a trailhead close by that you can follow down to Arroyo Seco creek. The creek is shaded and has many pools for dipping your feet and some are deep enough for swimming. Plenty newts and even some trout. If you are feeling adventurous enough you can follow the creek downstream to Eagle Creek Falls. We made it most of the way down without having to step in the water but you can travel the wading the river all the way down. Get a GPS app as you won't have service out there! Overall, very nice.
Tim D
Loop:Escondido Campground
Site:
Reviewed 7 years ago
The biggest problem with this campground was the flies. During the day they were absolutely brutal and numbered in the thousands, constantly flying around our faces and mouths. We had three kinds of bug repellent, including DEET, and they did nothing to deter them. We basically had to to stay in our tent until sunset when the flies would go away. I don’t know if there is something the park can do to manage these flies, but until it’s fixed I’m not camping here again. It’s unfortunate because the area is really beautiful and there are some fantastic geologic features out there. I can tolerate most insects and inconveniences, but these flies were a relentless force that governed every aspect of our trip. We did have a nice hike to the upper Arroyo Seco, where the trail gave us some relief from the insects. Another very important thing: The current fire status was confusing because of conflicting signage. NOT GOOD. On the Parks website and at the entrance of the park, there were signs showing that permit-holders were allowed fires. When we arrived at the campground we saw a sign that said absolutely no fires. It was difficult to tell which directions to trust because the site looked like it hadn’t had staff check on it for a couple of weeks. If this campground has some kind of special designation that gives it different fire rules than those stated online or in other areas of the park, that should be explicitly stated. If I hear things have improved, I’ll visit again.
Availability

See the Camp Sites section below to find detailed booking availability.

Popularity: Very quiet

Busiest in August, when about 17% of guest capacity is reserved. Based on 8 years of reservations.

Camp Sites

Nearby Campgrounds