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Cleveland National Forest

Spring “Pie Country” Camping

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Spring “Pie Country” Camping
April 6th – 9th 2026 (3 nights)

Julian (in San Diego County) is the perfect place to go in spring for a fantastic camping experience in the Cleveland National Forest area, served up with a slice of pie.  This hallmark little town is known for it’s old main street country charm with quaint village shops and pie bakeries.  There are a number of private and public campgrounds in the area, so we decided to sample a few to get an idea of the offerings.  We had already been to William Heise County Park adjacent to Julian on a past trip, so we selected three others a little bit farther from town.

Chamber’s Park Campground (Lake Cuyamaca)
This campground is about one and a half hours from our home in Carlsbad, California.  It’s a private campground and sits adjacent to Lake Cuyamaca (a manmade reservoir created in 1888).  Like many private campgrounds, the campsites here are closer together and more expensive than those at Regional or State or National Parks.  We chose a premium site with a lake view (#22) ($55/night plus $8 campground fee).  Electric and water hookups are included with this campsite.  We had good Verizon mobile phone coverage during our stay.  We were able to try out our new flaming hitch marker and are really happy with it!  The marker charges all day and runs all night.  We got it to illuminate the front of our trailer primarily in dark areas where someone may not see our Scamp 13′ easily at night when driving along narrow dark campground roads.

Lake Cuyamaca is an attractive small lake surrounded by lush landscape, including pines.  Nature here is abundant, with many types of birds, plenty of ground squirrels, and deer.  The large Canadian geese are bold and casually walk amongst the campers, seemingly unafraid.  And the big egrets are spectacular to watch as they fly over the lake and land along its shores.  There’s a dam at the end of the lake, and during our visit the other side was a marshy grassland.  We saw a number of mule deer grazing on the fields here.

Because Julian is only a fifteen minute drive from Chamber’s Park Campground, we spent our first full day walking Julian’s main street, perusing the shops, having lunch (at Quecho Mexican Restaurant), chatting with a PCT hiker (Julian is on the PCT hike route), and picking up a pie at one of the many pie shops.  We chose Julian Pie Company and, surprisingly, there was no line or wait to buy a pie!  This is practically unheard of here as there are usually lines out the door at the pie shops.  Our visit was mid-week and off season (April).  However, the streets, normally packed with tourists, were eerily quiet.  One of the rangers we met speculated that it was the price of gas keeping people away (currently over $6/gallon in town).

Chamber’s Park Campground attracts many families who want to fish in the stocked lake.  Trout, bass, and catfish are the main catch.  There’s no catch and release for trout — if one catches a trout they have to take it home or there may be some trouble for them.  There are a long list of other rules at this private campground we were made aware of.  Fortunately, we didn’t get in any trouble during our stay.  The highlight of our visit here was our bike ride around the lake.  It’s very beautiful along the lake’s shores.  It takes about an hour to walk its perimeter and less if riding a bike.  Bike riding can be a little tricky though as the ground is rocky and uneven on many parts of the ride (mostly at the very beginning — if leaving the campground and going right toward the tackle shop first).  The second part of the ride is through marshland, a forest, and crosses a few bridges and is much easier.

Paso Picacho Campground
Only about a ten minute drive down Highway 79 from Chamber’s Park Campground, Paso Picacho Campground is one of two public campgrounds within Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  We reserved campsite #8 ($40/night plus $8 reservation fee), which is one of the best sites (very private with a large picnic area).  There was one bar of Verizon mobile service at our campsite. There’s a threaded water spigot within the adjacent picnic area (which we utilized to refill our Scamp before departure using two connecting hoses).  Our new water fill device made this very easy!  There is a central dump at the campground exit ($10 at the time of our visit).

This campground’s sites are well spaced out and offers many nice trails.  We hiked the Paso Pacacho Trail Loop (about 1.5 miles, connected to the campground) as well as the Azalea Springs Trail (about 3 miles).  There are some much longer hikes, including one up to the top of Stonewall Peak  (strong ascent / about 4 miles round trip) for which we will have to return.

The night here was ink black during our stay.  When I opened our Scamp’s door to check on our flaming hitch marker, I could not see the ground (only darkness)!   For indoor entertainment, we tried out our new tablet swing arm — it makes watching movies great.  We had been using a mobile phone to download movies from Netflix/Amazon and play them on our Scamp TV using an HDMI adapter.  However, there were playback problems on a significant percentage of movies (due to security protocols we think).  So, instead, we now download movies onto an Android tablet and play them directly on the tablet (held close for viewing using the tablet swing arm).  It’s a very effective, inexpensive, and easy way to watch movies in the Scamp.

Note:  mountain lion and rattle snakes area warnings.

Green Valley Campground
A ten minute drive further down Highway 79 from Paso Picacho Campground, Green Valley Campground is the second of the two campgrounds within Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  This campground also feels large like the previous one, but with campsites not as private as Paso Picacho.  We reserved campsite #38, which is at the top of a hill (sharing the road with campsites #36 and #37).  Our checkout time at Paso Picacho Campground was Noon and the check-in time here was 2 p.m.  Fortunately, we arrived around 12:30 p.m. and the ranger said we could take our site early if no one was there.  It was good we arrived early, because there was no way to turn around and back in our Scamp without using campsite #37’s driveway!

After a nice lunch in the Scamp (with a piece of Julian cherry pie for dessert!), we decided to do a bit of computer work before hiking to Green Valley Falls (on the Sweetwater River), which is the most popular trail in the park.  Green Valley Falls is a very short hike from the picnic area down a steep dirt path.  Not so much a falls like Niagra (New York / Canada) or Iguazu (Argentina/Brazil), it’s more of a staggered series of two natural rock kiddie pools and slides.  We hiked down to above the pools and observed a three year old sliding down a short water shoot into a little pool and some older kids jumping into the lower pool from a rock perch about five feet above it.  What fun on a warm sunny late afternoon!

Note:  signs with mountain lion and rattle snake area warnings.

Impressions of Spring Camping Near Julian
Julian and the surrounding areas adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest are amazing places and ones which should be on every camper’s must-stay list.  Now having been to four different campgrounds in the area and enjoying them all in different ways, it’s safe to say one will not be disappointed going to any of these campgrounds.  If you are into fishing, birding, or visiting the town of Julian, Chamber’s Park Campground would be the top pick.  However, if you are into hiking and spread-out campsites, our number one choice is Paso Picacho Campground.  And, if you want some family fun playing in some natural water pools along a river, choose Green Valley Campground.  Or, do what we did, and spend a night in each and enjoy a variety of camping experiences!  And, don’t forget to pick up a pie (or at least sit down and enjoy a piece) when in Julian!

 

 

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Temecula

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Temecula
January 27th – 29th, 2023 (2 nights)

Temecula is a wine and olive tree growing region about an hour northeast of San Diego.  It gets really hot here in the summer, but is the perfect winter location to hike and go on wine and olive oil tasting tours.  It’s a great destination for a long weekend coming from Los Angeles or San Diego.  We made our trip plans last minute, so we couldn’t make an online reservation at Dripping Springs Campground (about a 20 minute drive from Old Town Temecula); reservations for the campsites are blocked four days before each date. However, we decided we would risk it and show up before noon on Friday and see if we could get a spot.  The process of getting a campsite in person is easy.  Just drive into the campground and find an open campsite and park.  We really wanted campsite #10 (a normally first come first served campsite anyway) because it is at the farthest end of the campground right near the hiking trails.  We arrived at Dripping Springs Campground around 11:30 a.m. after a short drive from Carlsbad and drove straight back to campsite #10.  It turned out to be open and we parked!  After parking, campers have thirty minutes to get a pay envelope and fill out their vehicle information and campsite number, put money (cash or check) in the envelope ($15/night for trailers), and deposit the envelope in the iron ranger drop box (located next to the host trailer at the campground entrance).

After setting up our Scamp 13’ and having lunch, we drove to Old Town Temecula to explore.  Along the way, we stopped off at the Olive Plantation, a family owned and run small olive oil farm.  The sign said tours are available on weekends, but, being a Friday, we were lucky when the owner saw us in the driveway and opened the gate!  She gave us a private tour and tasting.  Of course, they also sell olive oil, and we purchased a $25 bottle of one of their first pressings.  Although small, this olive oil farm has won global awards for the quality of their oil.  After our tour, we continued toward Old Temecula.  Many of the buildings here went up around 1883, when the Southern California Railroad brought travelers and commerce to the Temecula Valley.  Some of these old structures still stand, but have been converted to shops, restaurants, and bars.  We strolled down the main street of Old Town and also walked up and down the side streets.  There are antique shops, places to eat, an olive oil tasting room (Temecula Olive Oil Company), and even a community theater.  We spent a couple of hours wandering and then were ready to retreat to the quiet solitude of Dripping Springs Campground to relax.

Dripping Springs Campground, located in the Cleveland National Forest, is a small but very beautiful campground run by the US Forest Service / USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).   Sitting in a canyon nestled between mountains and adjacent to the Agua Tibia Wilderness, the campground has a creek that runs alongside and a number of very popular hiking and horseback riding trails.    This is also the home of the two inch arroyo toad (a species of toad endemic to California and Baja California, Mexico) whose picture is featured on a sign next to the creek.  The campground has 34 single campsites, 9 equestrian sites (although we saw tent campers using these sites), 2 horse corrals, potable water, and vault toilets.  The best sites are the ones on the farthest end, closest to the trailhead and creek (the host said if you can fit into it, including tent only sites, you can take it!).  We really enjoyed the peacefulness of site #10, which is adjacent to the creek.  We could only get Verizon cell reception at the entrance to the campground.  We downloaded movies onto our laptop at home, so we were able to enjoy cinema in our Scamp in the evenings!

We scheduled an olive oil farm tour at the Temecula Olive Oil Company for Saturday; eight minutes south of our campsite in Aguanga.  We also invited our friends Colleen and Perry (travelling from Canada and who happened to be staying at an RV park in the area for a couple of weeks).  We met at the farm at 10 a.m. and had a really interesting tour which lasted until noon.  The farm owners and tour leaders (a married couple) began their careers with extensive experience in the wine industry and worked in various roles for large corporations.  They then switched their focus to olive oil and have worked their farm for the past twenty years.  During the tour, we were given an inside look at what it takes to grow olive trees and mill olive oil, as well as told personal stories of the owners’ lives and how they came to establish the Temecula Olive Oil Company.  We sampled over ten varieties of their oil and vinegars while listening to the farm and family’s history.  With our bellies full of high quality olive oils and our minds full of olive jokes (yes, olive ‘em)…, we walked the grounds and saw some of their animals (including their pigs) before enjoying a great picnic lunch next to the magnificent olive grove.

We had two beautiful clear sunny January days during our Temecula visit, with rain approaching on Sunday.  So, we did what any meandering Scamp nomad does when foul weather approaches: we cranked up our stabilizers, hitched up, and headed out!