Palomar Mtn. State Park, CA ?

[ody4six]

Has anyone been to Palomar Mtn. SP in the San Diego area? I've looked up about as much info as I can, but would really like to hear from somebody who's actually been there. Thinking about making reservations for mid Aug. during the week since the kids are off school. Any site suggestions?

Tom
'01 Odyssey
'05 Fleetwood Sea Pine

[Camping Coxes]

I have not personally been there, but a friend who lives in Julian goes there frequently and says it is the best place to camp in that area.  One of those places we plan to go but never make it to.

[ody4six]

I went ahead and made reservations for mid Aug. I'll post a review when we return.

[ody4six]

Sorry for the delay in posting my review.

Doan Valley Campground is where we stayed. There are 31 sites, 11 of which are for rv. Avoid site #3. If you back up into it your door would be facing a retaining wall and there is not much space to turn the pup around by hand. I believe they state that 24' is the max trailer length although I saw a couple of TTs that seemed bigger. Great for pups. It is a no hookup CG, but there are plenty of water spigots to fill your tank.

The CG surroundings are beautiful. Lots of birds and other critters to see. It's a true mountain CG right here in SoCal. We even saw a deer. The kids loved that. They have nature trails for long and short hikes. There's also a pond for fishing. The bathrooms and showers were decent and well kept (don't forget your quarters). We were there mid Aug. and it was low 90's in the day and high 50's at night. Plenty of shade. Palomar Mountain Observatory is also about 7 mi from the CG and a sight to see.

There are two roads to get up the mountain. S6 is a 7 mi windy trip to the 5000 ft elevation or the S7 which is a 11 mi trip. If you decide to go the S7 route you will need to drive 10 mi past the S6 to get to it, resulting in an overall 14 mi longer trip. We went the S7 route and it wasn't that bad.

We'll definitely be back again. Well worth the drive.

Here are some pics.

[tplife]

We prefer "Fry Creek Campground", a USFS campground with less noise and more wildlife.  Currently it's closed for some minor maintenance but the Palomar Observatory Campground is open up the road.  We prefer Fry Creek as it's much shadier and quieter, more natural beauty to boot.  Of course, we're tent campers so you'll be dry camping with your popup.  Doan Valley is a great place to go and take a shower at for us, but I would prefer Fry Creek when at Palomar Mountain.