We wanted to go winter camping. UMMMM.. yeah, not gonna do that again unless we have a blast furnace with us.
Visited Sunday, December 27 - Tuesday December 29, 2015.
FEES: Bring a pen. On the Kiosk at the entrance you will find an envelope with the window tag and post marker tag [$12 per night] [$10 with Adventure Pass] [$6 for Disability Pass]. Bring exact amounts. Day use pass is $5.
CHECK OUT TIME: 2pm following day.
CAMP HOST: His name is Ron. He lives there year round. He is awesome, knowledgeable, and very helpful. If you have any questions please ask him. Also say hi to his black cat Arthur. He is located on Pad #4 at entrance. Also, if there is an emergency you can contact him and he has the ability to call for assistance.
PAD SITES: 21 pads, but only 20 are available year round.
WATER: There are faucets throughout the campground. Clean, fresh, drinkable mountain water. Ice cold in December.
BATHROOM: Many throughout the campground. Plastic toilets (no metal). CLEAN! With plenty of toilet paper.
BUGS: No BUGS in December. Summer may be different.
NEIGHBORS: We went on December 27-29th so we had only one other campsite visitors (Jim and Mike).
WILDLIFE: Bears, snakes, squirrels and deer and other small critters. We saw only squirrels and Deer; a family of 7 deer which was cool.
FIRE RINGS: one per site. (please clean before and after use - DO NOT leave a messy pit!!)
TABLES: One Wooden table per site pad.
FIREWOOD: You can use the fallen wood throughout the campsite. Just bring an ax and handsaw of some kind. No need to ever buy firewood from a store.
STORE: Either stop in Azusa before coming up the mountain, or you can get some last minute emergency items at the Crystal Café which is 8 miles up the mountain from the campground.
GARBAGE RECEPTACLES: Bear Garbage cans throughout site. USE THEM!! DO NOT give bears a reason to visit you or others near you.
GAS STATION: NONE. Gas up in Azusa. There are NO gas stations anywhere on this mountain.
TRAILS: There are many trails throughout the campsite and beyond.
THE BROOK: There is indeed a small brook that runs through the campground. Between site 9 and 11 at the top of the loop is a small path towards where the brook comes out of the mountain, there is a HUGE corrugated tunnel that runs through the mountain, so you can go to the other side and see where the water comes through.
TRAFFIC: Almost no traffic going up. From Disneyland to campsite it took us 55 minutes total.
CELL RECEPTION: Cell reception stops at the bottom of the mountain where the last section of housing is.
FOOD: I pre-made our meals and had them triple wrapped in foil so they could be cooked within the foil. (1) Denver omelets. (2) Deconstructed stuffed peppers. (3) Hobo tri tip/potato/yellow pepper/onions/carrots in burgundy balsamic sauce. (4) Steaks (5) Breaded Chicken strips (6) Bacon -lots of it (7) Southwest Stuffed baked potatoes (8) cubed ham and cheese and crackers (9) junk food - chips, oreos, hot chocolate.
WEATHER: It was 36° day and 21° night. The wind was 2-6 mph days and 14-24 mph at night. STRONG! We were more impressed that our tent made it with no issues at all. No snow at the campground, but it did snow up at Crystal Lake 8 miles up the road.
If you freeze your food and items at home, you won't need ice for the cooler. It's cold enough to keep everything frozen.
You will need MANY blankets and sleeping bags if you do not have a heating system. Since we didn't, we clipped solar blankets over the top of the tent fly and then put the rain barrier over it. We then placed solar blankets inside our tent to reflect heat from the walls. We placed two blankets on the floor of the tent and then our air mattresses. Then a sleeping bag, and covered it with 4 blankets and 1 Swiss Army Blanket to cover our heads. With all this, we were super warm. Only when we had to get up to go to the bathroom did we feel the full force of the cold. We tried using fire stones in a deep pan to keep the tent warm, but it only lasted for 2 hours. Don't bring a tempurpedic type pillow or mattress with you during this type of weather, it will literally freeze solid. My pillow was a useless brick for sleeping, but was a great wind barrier between the air mattress and tent. Bring warm clothes, scarves and gloves. Bring a few pairs of gloves. One pair specifically for cooking and one for day use and one for night! you don't want to smell dirt and or food when you sleep. If you can smell it, so can the bears.
Remember, keep your dirty/stained clothes in the car and wear clean clothes to sleep in. Keep your food in the car and not in the tent.
Also, if by chance you are a diabetic, please note that at these temperatures, your glucometer will give you a temperature error. You will need to get the monitor warm first so it will register properly.
Overall we loved this little place. Had we not had our 6 year old son, we would have stayed many more days, even with the cold. NO RESERVATIONS NEEDED!! 1ST COME 1ST SERVED!!
We also went during one of the other holidays, I think it was memorial day or labor day, but man, i had never seen so many tents in such small spaces. Avoid if possible, unless someone got your spot ahead of time.
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