Tapo Canyon

This is small little campground with full hookups. Just 2-3 miles north of 118 freeway. There are nice bathrooms with showers and playground for the kids. No wifi and the att signal came and went. You prepay on recreation.gov and go straight to your site. You can just show up and pick a spot but I wouldn't trust the phone signal to pay over the phone. It was perfect for our 2 night stay.

Tapo Canyon Campground has just 16 FHU spaces and you’ll want to have a reservation. They do not accept any cash/checks at the campground and direct you to mobile pay for same day bookings, however there is little/no cell service at the park. At least we had no luck with Verizon.

This is a great place to just hang out. We didn’t see much in the way of hiking trails or amenities, although there is a nice playground for the kids and the day use area has a large, covered picnic/bbq area for rent. There’s a big sandy horse corral which we used as an off-leash ball play area for Riley since it was unoccupied during our stay.

Sites are all FHU – 50amp, paved, and have a picnic table and firepit. There are plenty of nice shade trees and large grassy areas for play. Adjacent to the campground is the Conejo Valley Archery Range which is open on weekends.

We occasionally had a text message or email come through, but most of the time we had no Verizon service at all.

Stayed here a few nights in March. The canyon was windy and cool. The campground was very quiet, with three other campers during the mid-week. Not far from gas and groceries, but dark and quiet at night. Seems rather strange to call this tiny little county campground a "five star" locale, but there is really nothing at all wrong with the campground itself.

This park is only 10 minutes from home for us! We have been going here for years, taking the grandkids ‘camping’. They have no idea we’re so close to home.
It’s quiet, and you really feel like you’re out in the country.
Minutes to a grocery store and lots of restaurants.
I had no idea it was even there until we got into camping and found it.
Not too far off the 118, so it’s a perfect place to stop for a night.
We’ve also had Birthday parties at the big, beautiful park. Lots of family camped the weekend. Lots came just for the party since it’s so close to town.
Full hook ups.
Sites aren’t too close to each other.
Cement pads.
Level spots.
Fire pits.
Great park and playground.
Always been very clean.
About the only negative I can say is they don’t offer WiFi and there is little to no cell service. (AT&T) We can’t even get a local tv station on the antenna!

This was a beautiful spot and for the money, to be out of the hubbub of the city, was delightful! But I did get infested by ants on the last day of my stay. I was watching other rigs dealing with the same thing and spraying around outside their rigs and I thought poor them, they parked in the wrong place. And then I got hit! So heads up! Luckily I had a can of RAID roach and ant spray and it took a couple of days, but I got rid of them. I would think that if the park knew about the problem, they would’ve taken care of it somehow, as it was so clean and well taken care of there. Having only one bar of service was kind of nice in being off grid while I was there. I was visiting family and they were picking me up every day so I could catch up then.

I stopped here on my northerly migration around LA, and to visit the Presidential Library just 12 miles away. The park is one of those "Catch 22" deals where sites can be reserved more than 14 days out, but not less than, so when arriving less than 14 days out, you don't know if there is space until you get there. Miraculously, I got the last space as first come/first serve on a Saturday.

All the conveniences are only 5 miles away, yet park is fairly quiet (though a lot of locals stay here on weekends, and tend to party.) My site #7 backed up to a small creek with nice frog singing at night.

There is a great hike / mountain bike trail just 1.5 miles up the road. Check the "Nobody Hikes in LA" website for detailed turn by turn directions through the loops before you go, as there are no trail signs.

I gave this park only three stars because I had ZERO Verizon, and only a little sliver of AT&T with a Wilson Sleek booster. Otherwise, I would have given it a 4, as it is clean, and the park hosts were great!

One thing to note: There is a rule that you cannot re-enter a Ventura County Park without a 7 day lapse between stays. As I understand it, this applies to ALL of Ventura County, inland parks including beach parks Faria, Hobson, and Rincon Parkway. They could officially deny a back to back stay if they chose to enforce the rule I believe it is to prevent locals from parking for the summer, so perhaps they don't enforce the rule with out of state plates. But just a "heads up" if you are coming from one of the other parks like Rincon Pkwy...especially if you have local plates.

Read a couple of reviews on this park. Decided to unhook the dinghy & drive up for a quick look for future reference before heading on to our very high priced coastal one night destination located right next to a freeway. For half the price & no traffic noise . . . We went back & got the motorhome. What a truly great find. Concrete pads are probably only 10-12' wide, so, with slide-outs deployed, you'll likely be walking in the dirt. Precautions must be taken to avoid tracking it in. Evidence of past water coursing thru the lower sites where we were, but this is a picturesque semi arid canyon. Most sites would have provided roof mounted satellite TV clearance. Great shopping & lots of food options located at the off ramp where you exit and the next. Speaking of the off ramp, the campground- not an RV park - is located straight up the road from the off ramp. Easy coming & going! While we only stayed one night this trip, we're already planning for an extended stay in the very near future.