Observatory Campground

Small beautiful campground in need of some TLC. Our site’s driveway was not as wide as it could have been due to overgrowth. No fires of any kind due to extreme fire season. Appears camp host is gone for the season. Shower facilities still closed due to maintenance and/or Covid? If in a RV, access to Palomar Mountain better by way of Lake Henshaw.

Last minute trip for us. Got there early morning and snagged one of the few first come first serve sites. It was almost 100% full. Site 18 was great if you sleep in your rig (we are in a truck camper) some leveling would be nice. The site has limited shade during mid day and a stream down the back which is good for kids to explore.

Most sites are in full sun so bring shade! Seemed like allot of Girl Scout/ Boy Scouts / Indian scouts use this for group camping events. If you can book early or arrive early to snag a FF spot of which I believe there is only 2.
One set of pit toilets and at the other end are the showers (uses quarters) with flushing toilets. All our kept clean but do run out of TP so have backup.

The hiking trail was pretty with lots of changes in scenery and you cross the stream a few times. Dogs are welcome on the trail on leash and seems most people respect that rule which is great. During the summer they do astronomy talks if the speaker is available but a group of hobbyists also seem to come pretty regularly with huge telescopes and let campers look through them.

Once you pass the store/restaurant there isn't any cell service. Although if needed about halfway up the observatory trail you get service again. So maybe at the observatory you could get some too.

We spent a Thursday and Friday night here and we’re the only campers there the first night and it was so so quiet. The second night brought the rest of the campers and it was a little loud, but not too bad. The camp hosts were great and the facilities were clean. Saw tons of birds and there were burrows everywhere, probably from chipmunks who were illusive during our stay. The stars were brilliant at night and several campers came with there big telescopes. Other than the actual observatory 2 miles up the road there aren’t other attractions nearby. Mostly tent camping, but they have several sites that can accommodate small to medium sized RVs. No dump station, but fresh water is accessible every few yards. Absolutely no cell service with Verizon.

Note: We stayed here in a tent. We wanted to check out the Palomar Observatory and were planning on staying at the Palomar Mt State Park, but saw that the Observatory had their own Campground in the Cleveland National Forest, so we decided to stay here (it's called the Observatory Campground because it has a direct 2 mile trail that leads to the actual Observatory). The park is beautiful, however the Camp Host (in 3 days we never saw them and there were maybe 3 people in the whole park) or whomever runs the show is not doing their job. The garbage cans are all full and the bathrooms are seriously the worst Ive ever seen. Which is too bad because the spots are beautiful, full of trees and privacy. I'd stay here again, but only if I had my own bathroom. The road up to the State Park, The Observatory Campground and the Observatory is incredibly steep and nothing but hairpin turns... so they dont suggest taking big rigs up there. Therefore, the sites are small (we saw one B Class and the rest were tents).

There's one store a few miles away to get the basics and a few miles from that is a natural artesian water spring. Then there's the Observatory. Its fantastic! It has a picnic area, a visitor's center and you can walk through the building with the 200" telescope and its got a glass wall so you can watch everyone do their thing inside -- its really pretty neat. Also, the staff is really friendly.