Los Prietos Campground — Hotel in Goleta

Camped here for two nights with the kids and friends. The first thing you notice about this place after setting up is the amount of @#$%&!? flies around! They come from everywhere and buzz and annoy the crap out of you. Fortunately when night falls, the buggers retreat back to their dung caves. But unfortunately, mosquitoes take their place. Bring mosquito repellent or you die here.

Half a mile or so beyond the campsite lies a day use area called Red Rock Trail. Walk 3/4mile and (according to the ranger) we were supposed to find a water hole "as far as the eye can see." He even tells us that along the way, ignore the small water spots. So off we went, excitedly! We saw the small water pools and continued.... 1.5 miles later, we figured we felt lost. Fortunately, we came across some hikers who told us we have already gone past this awesome water hole... And the that the puny one we saw was in fact the water hole we sought. 😭 It's a sad state of drought we're in.

We also went to the nearby lake (half way to Solvang) and that, too, was DRY. So sad.

So we camped at Los Prietos but couldn't enjoy any water activities. The kids were disappointed.

The only thing good about this campsite is its close proximity to Solvang where you can pick up some very delicious Danish pastries from...

Beautiful setting with friendly and hard working camp hosts. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, and grill. Water won't be too far, but you may have to walk for it. There's a "quiet section" if you don't want to be around noisy families or campground parties.

A flock of wild turkeys live in the area, and they like to walk through the campground around sunrise. We woke up one morning with 20 or so wandering around our camp site. It's a unique experience.

Negatives: Many of the sites have no flat surfaces for setting up a tent. You'll be rolling off of your air mattress in the middle of the night if you're not careful. Poison oak is everywhere, even in the camp sites. The restrooms leave a lot to be desired. Dark, dingy, with something resembling toilet paper that takes three hands to unroll. Some of the locks don't work on the restrooms, either.

We'll definitely enjoyed ourselves and will return, but we have seen much better.

** On follow-up visits some of the hosts weren't always as friendly. On one outing our neighbors drank and partied all night without a word...

Really great spot. We had a group of 9 and stayed on a Monday and Tuesday at campsite 30. We showed up without a reservation and there was plenty of vacancy. We had a bit of a weird interaction with the site managers when we first got there - they were not very helpful and seemed a little annoyed - but it all worked out. Campsite 30 was a good spot for the size of our group with plenty of flat space for tents. It was conveniently located nearby the trash/recycling, water, and bathrooms. The bathrooms were VERY clean with flushing toilets. It was nice to be able to pick out our campsite because a lot of the sites were uneven and didn't have much flat space to pitch tents.

It was very hot while we were there, so during the day we went to Red Rock, which we heard had a bunch of water holes. It was about a 5 mile drive from the campsite and another half mile hike from the parking lot to get to the first big water hole. It was a spectacular place (check out the photos) with some rocks at various heights to jump off of into the water. We were the only ones there for...