Los Prietos Campground

Stayed on site 28. Good distance between other sites. Plenty of room and dog friendly. They provide bathrooms and running water. I suggest bringing a bucket to fill water to take back to your site. The site has a fire pit and grill. They sell wood too which came in handy. Deer came pretty close to our site and we constantly heard turkeys. There is a hiking trail about half a mile from the campground called Snyder trail. It's 3.6 miles long but the views of the hike are amazing and totally worth it. Definitely suggest the hike while you are there. The hiking trail is also the only place I got reception.

Really great spot. We had a group of 9 and stayed on a Monday and Tuesday at campsite 30. We showed up without a reservation and there was plenty of vacancy. We had a bit of a weird interaction with the site managers when we first got there - they were not very helpful and seemed a little annoyed - but it all worked out. Campsite 30 was a good spot for the size of our group with plenty of flat space for tents. It was conveniently located nearby the trash/recycling, water, and bathrooms. The bathrooms were VERY clean with flushing toilets. It was nice to be able to pick out our campsite because a lot of the sites were uneven and didn't have much flat space to pitch tents. It was very hot while we were there, so during the day we went to Red Rock, which we heard had a bunch of water holes. It was about a 5 mile drive from the campsite and another half mile hike from the parking lot to get to the first big water hole. It was a spectacular place (check out the photos) with some rocks at various heights to jump off of into the water. We were the only ones there for about 2-3 hours.

Pros: Shady oaks (at most sites) and wild turkeys wander the campground. Near Cachuma Lake and Santa Ynez River. Some of the sites are nice and roomy. CONS: -Site #13 looks like a massive branch from the oak tree fell off and cracked the table in half. The table hasn't been repaired and the site is small and in full sun. -Site #12 has no spigot (you have to access the spigot smack dab in the middle of Site #13 and it barely functions, the back of Site #11, or across the way...it's a little awkward walking through people's sites). -The bathroom nearest Sites 11, 12 and 13 shares with a couple of other sites and one of the two toilets was out of order. This causes occasional lines. NO SINKS. -The fire pit was halfway full of ash and hadn't been cleaned in between reservations. -Poison oak is part of the natural habitat so keep a lookout. The back side of our site was full of it.

Beautiful setting with friendly and hard working camp hosts. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, and grill. Water won't be too far, but you may have to walk for it. There's a "quiet section" if you don't want to be around noisy families or campground parties. A flock of wild turkeys live in the area, and they like to walk through the campground around sunrise. We woke up one morning with 20 or so wandering around our camp site. It's a unique experience. Negatives: Many of the sites have no flat surfaces for setting up a tent. You'll be rolling off of your air mattress in the middle of the night if you're not careful. Poison oak is everywhere, even in the camp sites. The restrooms leave a lot to be desired. Dark, dingy, with something resembling toilet paper that takes three hands to unroll. Some of the locks don't work on the restrooms, either. We'll definitely enjoyed ourselves and will return, but we have seen much better. ** On follow-up visits some of the hosts weren't always as friendly. On one outing our neighbors drank and partied all night without a word from the hosts.

Camped during the summer. Great weather & I loved our spot! Easy check in & there was firewood for sale. Turkeys wander the area & it was pretty quiet throughout the night. Woke up early, made breakfast & went exploring. The swimming pools were beautiful! $10 fee to enter red rock area.