SoCal Dispersed Camping

[CASRUNNER]

Anybody have information on dispersed camping in SoCal? Preferably 2-3 hours from Irvine area.

My research suggested Big Bear and Coon Creek Yellow Post Sites. I know Big Bear is popular so I’ll probably won’t be lucky enough to secure one of the sites. Cook Creek has 19 of them, but also read its popular as well. Tried calling the Forest Service number listed for Coon Creek, but nobody is answering. Not sure if it’s accessible right now.

Any suggestions? Plan on setting up camp this Friday in the morning and leaving Saturday. A place with shade would be nice.

 

[smritte]

Its getting better in big bear for camping. The place has been packed with everyone off work. Go hunting for a spot early Friday morning. My last trip out there, I arrived Friday morning and I found a remote spot way on the back side, all the yellow posts were occupied and some looked like people had been there a while.
It looks like its going to be nice up there this weekend. If you dont mind a camp ground, drive past Big Pine flat and see whats open.

 

[Alain M]

I have been taking 4 days weekends as I have been working non-stop since the pandemic. Finding not too crowded places is challenging these days, and add to it the Southwest heat wave. I went to:

Coyote Flat: Dispersed camping close to Bishop, higher altitude = cooler. Great place! Few patches of trees. 4wd highly recommended.
Monache Meadow: Quite crowded but tolerable. Higher altitude, cool trail, lot of shade along the Kern river. High clearance 4wd recommended
Alabama Hills: Lone Pine area. Gorgeous scenery but shade is rare. Tons of dispersed camping, but crowded.
The Inyo National Forest is mostly open for camping, but I can't guarantee anything nowadays.
Death Valley is hot as hell! But the camping close to the Telegraph Peak trail at about 8000 ft has some very cool and cooler campsites. Space is limited.

Hope this help a little, I dont know where I am gonna go myself. The photo is from my June trip to Coyote Flat.

 

[Kenno]

Been itching to go out too.

The gf and I went to monache meadows a few weeks ago. Can confirm that it’s pretty busy. Started on a Friday afternoon with plans to stay on one of the many river campgrounds off hwy 99 for the night before continuing to monache the next morning and that was terrible. Every site along the river on the 99 looked packed to the brim. We rolled the dice found a dispersed camp spot up and away from the river called corral meadow - only one other group was there. Highly recommend that protocol for a Fri-sun trip.

We are planning on going somewhere in los padres for a night this weekend. Been scouring this map for sites that are accessible by dirt road in hopes of finding something that won’t be crowded Los Padres National Forest - Maps & Publications - it also shows locations of dispersed camping in other forests. Plugging coordinates into google maps seems to reveal how popular and photogenic these places are.

If anyone’s interested, I can update you on our plans this weekend.

 

[Deleted member 59857]

Would love to hear updates.
We did Monache in July and I'm worried that place will be destroyed. I hope they add some gatekeeper obstacles on the trail.

I'm not too familiar with Los Padres, would love to know what you discover
thanks!

Been itching to go out too.

The gf and I went to monache meadows a few weeks ago. Can confirm that it’s pretty busy. Started on a Friday afternoon with plans to stay on one of the many river campgrounds off hwy 99 for the night before continuing to monache the next morning and that was terrible. Every site along the river on the 99 looked packed to the brim. We rolled the dice found a dispersed camp spot up and away from the river called corral meadow - only one other group was there. Highly recommend that protocol for a Fri-sun trip.

We are planning on going somewhere in los padres for a night this weekend. Been scouring this map for sites that are accessible by dirt road in hopes of finding something that won’t be crowded Los Padres National Forest - Maps & Publications - it also shows locations of dispersed camping in other forests. Plugging coordinates into google maps seems to reveal how popular and photogenic these places are.

If anyone’s interested, I can update you on our plans this weekend.

 

[Kenno]

Would love to hear updates.
We did Monache in July and I'm worried that place will be destroyed. I hope they add some gatekeeper obstacles on the trail.

I'm not too familiar with Los Padres, would love to know what you discover
thanks!

I'm thinking of heading to Marian Campground on Saturday: Los Padres National Forest - Marian Campground

Google says it's permanently closed but we'll wing it since the usda site says its open. If not, we'll roam around and try Rancho Nuevo fs.usda.gov/recarea/lpnf/recarea/?recid=10994