Foster Residence Campground

The sites are big. Mostly tent camping with some RV sites. The RV sites aren’t even, but we were easily able to level. They are all back in, but easy to get in to.

My rating at 3 stars is based on camping with kids. It would be 4 stars for adults only. It is VERY quiet and mostly adults. There were not many kids at all and not a lot for kids to do. The trails had quite a bit of poison oak, which I was able to navigate through easily, but risky for kids who aren’t paying attention. There is no poison oak at the sites themselves. The creek and the river are pretty dry, so no fishing. There is a bike trail about 1/2 a mile away that takes you down to Ventura Beach. It’s a minimum of 4-5 miles each way. Ojai is close by and this would be a great site to use as a home base for going into Ojai for wine tasting.

After looking around at lots of other rv sites in the area they appeared to either be fully booked, just a parking lot, or too expensive for me, and then finally came across this one and I am impressed. There’s room to lay out, not overcrowded, a ten minute drive to the very cute town of Ventura and 10 minutes from really nice beaches. Also less than an hour from Malibu. I’m happy to be in this spot. Don’t love the added pet fees and reservation fees though but it’s small so not a huge deal. Overall, a great spot.

As others have said, site matters. This is intended to be helpful and not critical. This is a small county park campground and is pleasant for the purpose it serves. However, do not book 1 or 2 unless you have a pretty small and flexible rig. We unfortunately were traveling back north during March’s bad weather so also had a lot of mud to contend with. Once we navigated around the mud and brush, we discovered our site ‘em was riddled with trash, which we picked up. The water faucet threads were bad and we couldn’t hook up without spraying water everywhere and wasting it. You can read other reviews to see the other issues with 2. 3-8 for RVs all look much better and site 8 does appear to be the best one. In the end, we had a pleasant couple of nights and day despite the traffic noise.

Just want to qualify previous comments with a warning about sites 1 and 2. Since we were last here, we upgraded our rig and went bigger. Site 2 may be long, but it's nearly impossible to back in a large trailer. Also, sites 1 and 2 are very close to the road and have the firepits on the WRONG side of the site. We had our neighbor's firepit right outside our door. Pick sites 8 (see below), 9, or 3. Other than that, still a great county park.

As a previous reviewer noted, these notes relate to Foster Residence Campground only. The other nearby campground, Red Canyon is more suited to tents and small trailers. Foster's Residence has cement pads, though "level" is only a dream (except site 8, which is actually level), F/H 50amp, shady and well spaced. All sites are back-in and have metal picnic tables and fire ring. Bathrooms, though lacking showers are clean and maintained. Two dumpsters are available for general trash and recycling. The park is off CA 33 almost halfway between Ojai and Ventura, making day trips an easy 15 to 20 minutes to either town. Both towns have distinctive individual charms and vibe. Though the December/January floods caused massive road damage they've cleaned all that and roads are open. You can see the tragic remnants of the flooding at the edge of the park which managed to miss the actual RV sites. The park sits on a popular bicycle route between Ojai and Ventura. There is a maximum two-week stay limit. The entrance off the two-lane road was kinda tight for my 35' class towing a car. Go slow and you'll be fine. T-Mobile hotspot was 5G and surprisingly fast for being surrounded by mountains. Great birdwatching too! Many species hung out around our site. A little road noise, but it was confined to morning and afternoon commuters. I would have given "Site Quality" a higher mark except for the pads not being level.

Some of the previous reviews gave me concern but now that I’m here - I’m glad I took the chance.
Foster Residence CG has two sections - 10 concrete pad sites w/electric, water, sewer at each site - and an area that at one point in the past was probably nice for tent camping. There is a newish bathroom in between them (no shower).
The 10 sites are very nice. I would not recommend the other area. As noted, there are big gaps between the road and the camping area that we would not try to drive over. That being said, there was a rugged looking van (lifted, more aggressive tires) parked there this AM and that worked for them. The no service area is not well maintained. The CG called Red Mountain CG which is just up the road is also pretty much best suited to tents. Very glad we did not book there.
Comfortable, clean, safe & internet/cell coverage.
Sites 1 & 2 are off by themselves. Sites 3-7 back up to the road. 8-10 are very nice. We were in #10 and the only bad thing I could say is that the trash dumpsters are near us. Overall excellent site.

We brought our 13 foot teardrop trailer here and stayed in tent site #13. All the tent sites were looked slightly challenging for an RV. Most of the tent sites have a 2-5 inch drop from the paved road to the dirty, so keep that in mind when trying to get a car or RV into those spots. Many of the tent sites are uneven ground. In our opinion the best tent sites for a small RV are from best to worse: 16, 12, 15, 13, 14. There was a little bit of noise from the 33 highway but nothing extreme. Red mountain campground near by had better dry camping RV spots but is also closer to the road. There was a water spigot in the center of the tent sites and the bathrooms were clean.

The big draw for us was how close you are to main street in Ventura and the boardwalk. Great location to rest and pop over for great food and charming Ventura.

If you get the right space, this small campground is sweet! Inexpensive compared to what's available locally, this campground is in an oak forest, with full hookups and good shade on some sites. Some sites appear to be steep or, at least, not level from front to back. Nice concrete pads on all except the tent sites. Cool ocean breezes kept it comfortable in late June. No showers. The camp host was great, taking on the criminal element back in the tent area and successfully evicting them. Sites 4, 6, and 8 appear to be the best and easiest to back into. Next to a well used road.

Small campground - just 16 sites with only half good for trailers. The upper sites are for tents only. Full hookups on a cement pad. The entry to the site 5 pad was slanted, but the rear portion was flat for easy leveling. The tree limbs did present a positioning challenge, but we worked it out. Wood is for sale by turning left out of the campground and going up the road a bit. Look for pickup truck on the right with wood in the bed.

Downtown Ventura is just 10 minutes away with lots to visit. We used a self guided walking tour. Santa Barbara is 45 minutes and a great day trip.

There is some road noise with a bridge that makes a clunk-clunk sound each time a car goes over it. Never bothered us at night.