Agua Caliente County Park

You need to intend to come here and the trip is well worthwhile. We had a partial hook-up site with plenty of room. The park is in the middle of the high desert and there are plenty of hiking trails to keep you occupied for the week. A soak in the pools are something to look forward to afterwards.

If you are staying for a while, be sure to provision up, and gas up before you arrive. Services are a ways away. Though a visit to Julian for a day is worth the drive.

There is zero internet or cell coverage in the park. There is a “cell phone” lot about 5 miles down the road at Vallecito County Park that has good reception.

Visit for a great desert visit.

We were there while it was still hot...110 degrees during the day so we limited our hiking and outdoor activities to the mornings and evenings.

There were around 10 Bighorn Sheep that came out to graze everyday from around noon to 3 pm; most of them stayed about 200 feet away from the campsite but we watched one walk through our campsite while we were inside the RV. In the evening we had a tortoise crossing the road next to us and roadrunners come within a few feet of us while we ate dinner outside the RV.

The 2 mile Moonlight Canyon trail was filled with amazing cacti, definitely worth the effort to hike it. The park was clean; sites ranged from medium to large; the three mineral pools were excellent. Bathrooms were very clean.

This is actually the second time that I've stayed at this campground, the first being a few years ago. It's a clean, well kept campground, and both of my experiences have been quite lovely there. If it was cheaper and had cell service, I would be tempted to stay much longer than one night!

I actually had friends who had reserved the spot, and I was able to find them rather quickly, after a brief confusion of it being a little bit of a maze. Looking at one of the maps up front would have solved that with no difficulty, but I just winged it.

The "hot springs" are lovely, and the showers and bathrooms are clean and nice. There's some light hiking all around the county park itself, and a variety of different sites. I noticed a pretty good crowd of RVs this time, but the grounds were all very quiet the whole time and everyone seemed very nice.

If you leave the county park, you're surrounded by Anza Borrego Desert State Park, which has a plethora of things to do. Nearby is the Carrizo Badlands, with great views, tons of hiking, and some "off-roading" (you have to stay on the dirt roads, varying from easy to very difficult). You're also very close to the Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness Area here, but that's only accessible on foot, through a quite tortuous hike, if you're up for it. Anza Borrego's Box Canyon is also not far at all, for an easier, historically significant hiking opportunity.

There is no cell signal, even using my cell booster. That can be a lovely thing, if you're looking to get away. I'm tied down for work, so I'm limited to minimal times.

Our camping location wasn't the best quality, but was pretty nice, for a spot very clearly meant for tent campers. I imagine the spots that the RVers got were better quality. The biggest complaint about location and noise is that an airstrip is almost next-door, and helicopters were doing a lot of flying around the entire time I was there, pretty late into the night. The previous time I stayed, that was not happening, so it might just be luck of the draw.

This is rather in the middle of Shelter Valley and Ocotillo, 2 small towns. There is one small convenience store near the entrance, and those 2 towns have some minimal general stores. Anything larger is quite a ways away--again, that could be nice or bad, depending on what you're looking for.