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Arroyo Seco Campground
Rating Details »
5 reviews for Arroyo Seco Campground
It was my first time in Arroyo Seco area. Going south on 101 and watching the Los Padres NF hills turn from pretty green in the spring to scorched brown in the summer and fall never filled me with much desire to explore this park. That was until I was invited to tag along on a hunting trip.
As soon as you exit 101 to Arroyo Seco Road, you start noticing unexpected changes in the scenery: luscious vineyards, cute farms, and, finally, a deep canyon with a river running through it. I was almost hopeless to see water there, judging by the name Arroyo Seco, which means Dry Creek. I was pleasantly surprised.
You arrive at the Arroyo Seco Recreation Area. There is a fee that you pay at the gate. Day use is $5 per car and overnight use is $14 (http://www.recreation....). That is totally worth it because you will leave your car at the secure parking lot and nobody would break in (hopefully, you never know nowadays).
There are several scenarios for your stay:
* arrive in the morning, hike up to the river, jump from boulders into
the water all day long
* stay at the local campground (make a reservation, for some odd
reason they fill up quickly), hike to the dry lakes, hike to the river
* hike into the wilderness, camp at one of the river's sleeves, hike up
to the highest ridge the next day
The dirt road leads from the parking lot to 18 miles along the river going up and down and up and down. There are also many trails maintained by the Forest Service winding through the ridges. Bring a lot of water with you! You'll need it.
We veered off to the side road along the sleeve creek. There are no developed campgrounds in the wilderness - camp wherever you like. Pick a spot close to the water, as it gets really hot and you'd want to dip a million times in a course of an hour.
Coming back was nice and hard, hot and sweaty. While passing by people panting up the hill I heard this conversation between a little boy and his mother:
Little Boy (LB): Look, mama, I found gold.
Mama: Honey, it ain't gold, it's fool's gold.
LB: I ain't no fool, ma, but I'll still take it.
Oh, great, I thought to myself and emptied my backpack full of pyrites...
This place deserves five stars in my book. I loved the river and the vast views. It also made me happy to feel that beyond the ridges - there is a Pacific Ocean.
This is camping for dummies: Affordable car campsites. Restrooms with flush toilets and showers. General store down the road.
It got pretty loud and crowded when I was here on a Thursday and Friday night--think radios blaring, 8-person ridiculous tents with little children running around, bright lights, errant soccer balls, etc. I brought ear plugs and my friends were really jealous.
The one and only reason it gets four stars is because the gorge is AMAZING. Cool, beautiful water to swim in on a hot day, lots of rocks to climb on and jump in off of, beautiful scenery to look at. NOTHING by way of signage or comprehensible directions.
So here's the deal: You can get in to the gorge at the "day use area" down the road towards the general store (the way you came in), from a trail going down from a small asphalt lot right next to the campsites, or you can hike upstream along a road that was once open to car traffic but is now foot traffic only, keeping your eyes peeled for several VERY non-obvious traces down to the gorge on your right-hand side. (Seriously, we could not find them until we ran into some locals who showed us.) My friends and I hiked up this old road for about 2-3 miles and then went into the gorge and walked/scrambled/floated/swam downstream to the campsite. Other people apparently hike UPSTREAM to some waterfalls, but there are also traces that will put you in closer to those. The trace we took down to the gorge was a little ways past an obvious bridge, so use that to judge whether you've gone too far.
Advice about gear: Wear swimsuits and maybe shorts that can get wet. Wear old tennis shoes or even better, pick up some water shoes at Target or Wal-Mart. Bring some flotation device, whether it's a life vest, an inner tube, or even a bunch of empty water bottles in a mesh bag like we did. (They can start out with water in them and then you can drink it as you go.) A waterproof camera is priceless. You can easily make it back to camp from where we got in just past the bridge in an afternoon.
It's crazy fun, and while the campsite is crowded, the gorge itself is not--you'll run into a few other groups, but everyone else must apparently hang out by the day use area. A great weekend getaway that can be as lazy or as active as you want it to be.
This being the first place I went camping, I have to say, not bad. Not bad at all.
If you follow the fire trail and go past the bridge making kind of a U turn back around, you will find an amazing place to go cliff jumping / diving. If you go on a sunny day remember to get lots of fluids and it'll be perfect. The water is cold and the rocks are warm from the sun. Wonderful experience.
easy access drive making arroyo seco a safe bet for a weekend wilderness trip....tent and gear in tow....pitch a tent and enjoy outdoors....arroyo seco hosting full service quater showers, flushing toilets and water faucets around....."modern camping" they call it....while pit toilets the difference for "primitive camping"..if one prefer at a lower cost....not an ideal place for fishing or boating....what arroyo offers is hiking by the "gorge", waterfalls and a easy getaway.....
I've been here too many times to count and I've always had a good time. I always go in the summer(it gets pretty hot) because my friends and I go what we call "creeking". Hopefully the gorge is full with water so that you can jump off rocks! Make sure you wear some sort of shoes when you hike down to the creek. Once you are in the creek and you're going up stream, having a good grip on the rocks below becomes very important. You may stub your toe.....a lot, but it's all worth it to be out there. Bring goggles to explore and look at fish. If you're going to be out there all day, try to bring a back pack with some H20 and some cliff bars. You will get dehydrated....oh, and always bring sunscreen!!! Try creeking it up as far as you can go. I promise you will not be disappointed. Let me know if you ever reach the waterfall. The really treacherous one. That's as far as my friends and I have gone. We conquered the waterfall....barely. I got beaten up pretty bad by the waterfall and almost got taken down but luckily a friend helped me. Very important to have a buddy out there and to be careful and not do anything stupid. If you get hurt it's gonna take a long time for them to get to you. Other than that, have a great time. The campsite is fine and we always partied until late in the night. Happy camping!