Caspers Wilderness Park

[KirkB]

Hi all. Anyone ever been to (or hear about) Caspers Wilderness Park in the Cleveland National Forest? It looks like a good place to take the grandsons. Thanks in advance for any response.

[waterdoctor]

I've only been by there.  DW and I took our church girls (50 of them) for a 4 day church camp at a church campground at the northern end of Hot Springs Canyon Rd (about a mile east of the wilderness area entrance, last year.  This camp is along the eastern edge of the Caspers.  From what we could see, it looked promising.  We're going back in about 3 weeks. If I get a little time, I may try to go over to Caspers to take a look.

I'know that's not any help at all, but it's my $0.02.

[griffsdad]

I have never camped at Caspers, though I live only 20 minutes away - I say this not to scare you but to keep you informed and alert - if you have small children keep an eye on them - mountain lions have been spotted in the past at Caspers and I recall seeing a sign there about mountain lions - but that is true for most parks and campgrounds in South Orange County.

[oreo57]

also NO brown pop , make sure you have a plastic cup.

[paspilot]

I've gone to Casper's a few times with my boys. There are a set of sites with power and maybe water that are adjacent to the highway. I've never stayed there, but it seems like a bad choice.  Another site is a horse site for people owned by horses to stay with their masters. The main area has really variable sites- too shady, to not a tree in sight. The really low site numbers are hilly, and the one entrance to 3 one way roads are there. The ones near the closer entrance have no shade, best spots are accessible from this entrance but further in.  Dirt road/gravel in the campsite. One central bathroom that some people drove to.  Dump station at park entrance.

It's a good place for small kids with bikes, little vehicle traffic,  playground ~300 yards away.
Ranger activities, campfire talks in the evening etc. When I went the brush was very high so we didn't do much hiking. I wasn't worried about the mountain lions- they tend to leave noisy creatures alone, but the trail clearance left me concerned about snakes.
Edwin knows to shine the flashlight on the ground you're walking on instead of everyone's face from the first trip here. He came really close to stepping on a huge spider

[Toby]

We love the place, site two or three is our first choice, very shady and large sites, the sites for full hookups off of ortega hwy are very noisy and no shade, group sites no shade just open field, camp programs very good I got to be the lion.  This is a wilderness park and no pets allowed and they do inforce it.  Every trip we seen several deer, very cool but that is what brings in the mountain lions, they havent had any problems with them however must use caution with every one using the buddy system, kids with have supervision.  Whiting ranch nearby has had lion attacks over the years the park post last lion sightings at entrance of park.

We also have hiked most of the trails, seen a few snakes just leave them alone and they leave you alone.  Heavy brush on some trails need to use caution, this is a great place to go to being so close to city has a lot to offer but from time to time some times kids try to sneak in late at night to party, but that has only happened once for us.  Hope this helps, we go when we can but now that we have a small dog added to our family we havent gone back as much as we would like.  



Rob.