Paradise Campground

On background, I’ve camped a lot… big campgrounds, backcountry, group, equestrian. I came to the Santa Ynez canyon last minute (mid-​May 2016) hoping to score one of the walk ups at Upper Oso. Denied. Getting late, last resort, I ended up here. Camp host Amber was able to accommodate me in the overflow which was PERFECT! Now you won’t be camping solo on a weekend, meaning there will be other campers, but the overflow area is spread out and under a canopy of really big oaks.
The main campground on the weekend that i was here was overrun by families with kids, screaming playing kids, which is great. Hey, they were having a blast. But at 9 pm, quiet hours go into effect and it was, well, quiet.
The overflow is for tents only. You’ll have a fire ring/​pit with an adjustable grill over each. You’ll also have a huge picnic table at each overflow site.
Potable water is available from several spigots and the bathrooms are FLUSH toilets, are clean, and were well stocked with tp.
Pets are allowed and mine met a few new friends.
Firewood is available from the host for $ 6. Spot cost me $ 20/​night.
The host, Amber, was very, very nice. Totally non intrusive, but you can tell that she won’t take any cr@p. And that is awesome.

Nice small campground. Very friendly host. Flushing toilets. There are no good stores nearby so bring firewood and supplies. The Paradise Store is a joke and quite a distance from the campground. Bring your own hand soap there are no sinks but lots of water spickets. It gets dark early because of the valley.

The host was very friendly. The campground is a small loop off the main road. There was decent shade to the double site, and a nice trail hike. Don’t expect it to be green. It’s basically a dirt flat with very few trees and little to no privacy in between sites. It has a big flat area in the middle for the kids to ride bikes or play Frisbee. The main drawback and highlight was the red ant hills in the ground. They were scary at first but very interesting to watch. There were a lot of them close to our site. The bathrooms have flush toilets, I believe, but no sinks for hand washing. No showers. The water holes nearby did have water, surprisingly. Since this is a first-​come, first-​serve campground, a lot of cars rolled through fairly quickly on the weekend, looking for spots. The double site is right next to the entrance and the water spigot.

«It sucks, i stayed years ago.» Literally was attacked by mosquitoes all night long. Ran out of firewood, and the nearest store is hours away after 4p.m. By some odd faith, i was driving through from Solvang, Ca for the weekend and my car broke down at the end of the road heading into this area. The road seems to have been paved, and they have updated with benches and tables, compared to the wooden ones in the 80’s. Nice area, scenic. But you really do need to be prepared for this camping spot. I never found a lake when i stayed the first time.

I stayed here for one night to break up the drive from L.A. to NorCal (unfortunately, still had to pay for 2 nights due to the minimum stay required). Sadly, I think I’ll just power through the drive next time…
The pros: the restrooms were very nice, some of the nicest camping facilities I’ve seen (no showers, however). Water spigots were plentiful all over the campsite.
The cons: BUGS everywhere at all times, campsites were not secluded at all, and the host did not enforce quiet hours so we had to endure very loud music pushing up to almost midnight. We were expecting a really wonderful campsite given that the drive up past Lake Cuchuma was so breathtaking, but it left a lot to be desired.
Lesson learned: book your campsites well in advance for the summer, people.

HORRIBLE camping experience… let me say that i am an experienced camper and this was horrible :(paid for 4 nights and left after 2 nights. the bugs are TERRIBLE! the host was very nice but was too busy being friends with campers to enforce rules on them. a group of campers came in and blasted really loud, vulgar music. i mean horrible, tasteless music! things that left my 7 year old asking some really inappropriate questions. UGH! camp host said nothing after us saying something to him about it. Sheriffs in and out all night due to stupidity of campers, seems to me this place is a great spot for young groups, not families. i was sad that i had to cut my trip short because of all of this!

Giving this place an extra star because I came here on Memorial Day Weekend when campground was teeming with cars, people, and dogs. We got to this campground around 8am on Saturday and we had to pay for «an extra night» since we came before 10AM… which was stupid. Clearly there was someone here the night before and paid for the spot so why are you charging us for it? Anyway, we paid for three nights and complained about it later.
Now, we were put in the overflow campgrounds, front and center of the whole area. It freaking sucked. We heard people, kids, dogs, and cars from all angles so it didn’t really feel like camping. Moral of the story: don’t come here on Memorial Day weekend without a reservation… actually just don’t come here on Memorial Day weekend.
Aside from the campground itself, it was a short drive to the ranger station and to the Aliso loop trail. BEAUTIFUL hike, make sure to take a map from the ranger station so you know which paths to take. A lot of the beginning trail was burnt in the fires last year and the river ceases to exist but once you start hiking up it’s an amazing view. There are a few swimming holes at the Red Rock area but again, since we’re in a never-​ending drought here in California, the water is scarce.
At the end of the day, I will look back at this camping trip fondly, not really because of the campground but because of the hikes and the memories made.

Dusty, flies, and the nearby river was dry. Beautiful oak trees but not the most exciting camp ground. The campground was fairly quiet, running water, aside from the toilets which were permanent structures but compost style. No campfires allowed (summer 2013).
I’d like to check it out once global warming has passed and the California drought has ended.

Paradise is a nice small campground. The sites were large and could fit multiple tents. There was plenty of shade which was nice because it was extremely hot during the days but the temperature did drop down at night. The river bed and watering holes were dried up but we did go to Lake Cachuma to rent a boat and it was a cool way to spend a hot day (no swimming in Lake Cachuma though). Campfires were not allowed due to the heat so make sure you call ahead so you don’t waste space by bringing wood. The camp host cleaned and stocked the restrooms every morning but he was not too friendly. There were plenty of critters that came through the camp at night so make sure you put all food or scented items away. There were deer that grazed in an area each morning and even came out one of the nights we were there. Overall this was a good campground and is much cheaper than camping on a lake or on the coast.

There’s been a drought for several years, so the nearby rivers and swimming hole are all completely dried up. I picked the spot from reserveamerica for the wading and swimming for kids, so was disappointed. Otherwise, it is as stated on that site: relatively quiet because not too many sites and no showers, shaded by oaks, clean. Lots of bees attracted to food and water but they didn’t sting. The host wasn’t very welcoming.
Choose a site away from Paradise Road. We enjoyed exploring nearby trails, but be careful of the poison oak. Also, I had planned to go fishing and take showers at Lake Cachuma, 10 miles away, but be warned that your Santa Ynez pass doesn’t get you in there, and it takes at least 20 minutes to drive there.
Overall, we managed to have a good time, but I wouldn’t go back.

To sum it up EW! what a disappointment! We drove all that way to find a hot dry dusty spot surrounded by tons of poison oak! NO THANKS. already had the reservation but we sat there in the RV for about two minutes and then drove away to find a place to stay.

This review is long overdue. Went here for a spontaneous camping trip with some friends back in March. It wasn’t really what we expected in terms of being secluded and feeling like it’s in the wilderness, but that mistake was on our part; we should have looked for a more «woody» campground. That being said, we made the best out of it and did enjoy the time we spent here. Even my dog enjoyed the hiking part! We stayed at campsite 5, which is the campsite closest to the paved road. In fact, we heard cars going back and forth all day/​night. We weren’t too close to the other campsites and the walk to the restroom wasn’t far, either. The little creek that you can access by walking through the tunnel under the highway is BEAUTIFUL. The view of the mountain with the water and rocks is so pretty. The water goes to your waist, so It’s also very safe for children. We also hiked 1 hour further into the mountains and found really nice hiking trails. It was actually a pretty fun experience considering we were all really new at hiking and camping. Would I come back here again? Maybe.

I came here for my first camping experience as an adult. Overall it was a fun trip. Paradise campground was nice. We came at a non-​peak weekend so it wasn’t crowded and most people were RV campers. There’s was lot of shade from the big trees at our campsite. There’s a picnic table, bbq grill, and fire pit at each site. The restrooms have flush toilets and were very clean when we were there– better than hotels on my last visit to Vietnam X_​X. At night it was very quiet and peaceful.

Myself and three of my friends met another two friends at Paradise for a weekend stay. (We traveled from the San Francisco Bay area and they traveled from the San Diego area). We booked this place in a kind of blind leap of faith as they were one of the only sites between us that had any available spots. Neither group had been here before. I was hoping it’d be decent since I was in charge of finding and booking a spot and I was afraid if it was terrible, my good friends would tie me to a tree, coat me in honey, and leave me to be eaten by ants.
We stayed from Aug 26 — 28^th 2011. Weather was sunny and warm.
I am overall very pleased with our stay! Paradise is small (about 15 sites). We booked a «Double Site» which allowed for up to 16 people, an unlimited number of tents (as long as they all fit on your allotted space), and two vehicles. We paid 5 dollars a night for each additional vehicle, and it was allowed to park right next to our spot as well. There is no special handicap accommodations but the site is overall very accessible anyway.
Getting there was pretty simple and we did not have to trail blaze any difficult off-​road route to get there which is great because my Kia would have exploded.
We were specifically at site 005 which, as far as I could tell, was the BEST spot. The grounds are overall a little communal with sites very close and I believe lacking a sense of privacy. Our site was away from everyone else and right next to the hosts’ RV’s. The site included two picnic tables, two grills, and a fire pit. It was right across from the bathrooms (4 very well-​kept flushable bathrooms) that only smelled funny part of the time. We were also very close to one of several drinkable water pumps around the facility (which lists a whole lot of things you cannot use them for that you will probably use them for anyway…).
There are no showers so you will need to perform a whore’s bath in your tent or quickly in the bathroom. The grounds, bathroom, sites, etc were very well kept. There is a black fly issue during the day and a mosquito and moth issue at night. Citronella candles and bug spray help a little bit.
The noise level differed on each day/​night we were there. My fears that we would be the loud unruly group quickly disappeared. The first night, we clearly heard a very drunken group off in the distance. Or, at least it was one very drunken man who thought every joke he told was a regular hum-​dinger. I only heard him talking and laughing. The host made it very clear that if someone does disturb you during quiet hours (from 10pm — 6am) you need only let one of them know and they will handle it. But it was distant and dreamy and the crickets mostly drowned everything out. The crickets are very loud and it will be up to personal preference as to whether they are soothing or make you want to rip your own face off. (personally, I like them!).
A group who reserved 3 spots woke the entire camp up at 7am the next morning by blasting the graduation march and other assorted party standards for about 10 minutes or so. My group allowed them to live.
The next night was much more quiet. The crickets were loud and drowned out any additional people noises. Around 3am I was awoken by the loud hoots of an owl that sounded very far off but because of the layout of the terrain and «echoability» I estimated the size of this owl to be at least 50 feet tall and several hundred pounds. It was majestic and fear inducing at the same time.
The site provided decent shade though I feel the trees were more sparse than I am accustomed to while camping. It does have the potential to get sunny and warm so bring lots of sunscreen if you are prone to spontaneous combustion when the sun hits you.
The hosts were fantastic. The two guys had awesome «F-​OFF beards» and were friendly, informative, helpful, and could snap you like a twig. They also sold firewood for $ 6 for a 5 or 6 piece bundle.
We tried to make it to White Rock but we got detoured and ended up at a fishy smelling, desolate slime hole. At this point, I figured I was going to, again, be left for dead. We went back to camp to find out that we had not walked far enough and that walking back to camp was actually longer than continuing forward to the REAL swim hole. We did make it to the real swim hole. Access to White Rock is included in your reservation.
White Rock was actually very fun. The beach is a very fine dusty/​sand so be prepared to be caked in mud if you touch it with any part of you that is wet. It’s a little intimidating to get into the water as there are varied levels of rocks. So, just fall in on top of a friend like I did. It’s efficient.
Also, there may be fisherpersons there so watch for their lines.
I’ll say 4 stars for a clean, fun, friendly environment! For not knowing what I was getting into and being fearful because it was one of the only places with spots available a month ahead of time, I was pleased and had a great time!

Yellowjackets! We liked everything about this campground except we were attacked 3 out of 4 times that we cooked. Yellowjackets everywhere. Campsite#9 — maybe its not a problem at other sites. We don’t know.

Ok the spots are spacious if you like camping in a field with 14 other camping parties. The set up leaves so much to be desired. No nature, privacy, quiet hours. Maybe if it wasn’t packed, would we have stayed after paying $ 35 for a reservation. Ended up staying at a motel in town.

Our family loves this campground… the hosts are great… this is a very kid friendly campground, there is creek a very short walk from the site, where you can go skip rocks and catch tadpoles. VERY safe for the kids, but bring your water shoes to walk over the rocks. Then the next site up from paradise is WhiteRock day site… cool watering hole to go take a dip and float around, scenery is awesome… we could NOT get to red rock by car.
Since we got so much rain this year, they have the road closed until the river is only 8″ high… as of June 11^th, it was 12″ high, so you can NOT drive, but you can bike and hike to red rock, if you want to push you bike thru a ft of river that is… I highly recommend this place with kids or without…

Thanks to the reviews written by Kelsey B and Ryan C, my family + friends + kids enjoyed exploring a weekend of camping here. The 3-​hour drive was worth the trip.
Our site was #5, right across the restrooms, next to the host. The site were mostly dirt and dusty, but it had full shade, can fit 6 tents and four SUVs. (We only had 3 tents & 3 cars).
During the night, you could hear cars and toilet flushing, but the crickets muffled the sounds. We loved having direct water-​faucet access right at our camp. It seemed all I wanted to do was wash my hands! ;) I don’t think quiet hours were enforced because you do hear the happy-​drunk-​groups a few sites down; but again, the mountain animal sounds muffle it.
Firewood are for sale $ 6 cash only. Be prepared to pay cash $ 5 per night for the additional cars. 2 is max. Paradise Store 5 – 10 mins away is a convenient store. Be prepared to spend $$ as things there are overpriced.
White Rock is a short hike away through the tunnel.
Overall, we had a wonderful time. Showers would have been nice, but our portable shower did half the trick. For some reason, all species of flies were on our site! Bug spray, firewood smoke, citronella candles helped, but bring a screened-​canopy for more comfort.
We were warned about foxes walking around the site and racoons looking for food, but never came across them. We did see a family of deer on the other end of the campground.

Paradise Campground was overall a great investment. There were definitely a few times where we were dissatisfied during our two-​night stay, but that was outweighed by the benefits of staying here. The campground is fairly close to the main city, so getting there doesn’t take very long and you still feel like you’re getting away from the urban area. The grounds itself are fairly small but spacious enough to fit everyone. There are working toilets (pretty clean, too!) but no showers. Each campsite itself includes their own individual faucet (not sink), BBQ/​grill, firepit area, picnic table, and parking space (just about enough room for 2 regular cars — but you will have to pay extra for the 2^nd car).
For the surrounding area, it’s a beautiful place. Lots of places to hike. Your campground host can give you a map but make sure that if you want to hike to the pools in Red Rock that you actually take the hiking path, not the «dirt road.» As far as we could tell, nothing was labeled so we ended up taking the wrong path. The pools in Red Rock are big and deep, but with A LOT of (smooth) rocks coating the bottom that makes it a little uncomfortable to walk into. Inevitably there will be people cliff-​diving as well — we didn’t feel like getting killed that weekend so we opted out, but if that’s your thing then that’s where you can do it. The following day we actually found a better (in our opinion) swimming area in Lower Oso camp area; little tiny rocks as opposed to big rocks we had to step on, but still deep enough to wade and get your whole body in. Plus there was hardly anyone around.
Also: check out the Paradise Store just down the road. They have awesome live music and a BBQ that we didn’t check out but that smelled amazing.
Downsides: Close to the road, campsite staff less than friendly, no showers, «quiet hours»
Upsides: Great nature nearby, easily accessible swimming, store nearby if you forget anything (we did), parking spaces right at your campsite

The campsite host, Chris, is very friendly and helpful! The site is a little too close to the road and you hear cars and RV’s whizzing by at night. The hiking around the area is splendid.