Thousand Trails Rancho Oso — Hotel in Goleta

Bring your cowboy boots and hat. Rancho Oso Thousand Trails is a beautiful historic horse ranch/campground near the Los Padres National Forest. Nestled between Santa Barbara and Solvang off Hwy 154, Rancho Oso is a lovely campground with a western feel. Reviews said the road was only one lane with nowhere to pass. The road is a narrow two-lane windy road and it’s slightly more than a mile from Paradise Rd to the campground. Take it slow and there is enough room for RV’s/cars to pass each other with no issues. An attentive friendly staff keep the park in good condition. Everyone we dealt with were nice and helpful with any of our questions. Each took an interest to make sure our stay was going well. On 310 acres not only are there places to camp in tents and RV’s, you can stay in one of their many cabins, Conestoga covered wagons, or even a teepee. Being a working horse ranch there are plenty of activities to keep guests busy. Horseback riding is available by making reservations with one of the wranglers at the barn. Some of the previous reviews we saw stated a problem with flies. You do need to understand this is a ranch and there are flies on ranches. There were some flies during our February 2020 stay but they were not too bad. I imagine during the summer they could be a problem. We were told that the flies are from the many oak trees in the area and not from having horses. Visit with the horses, goats, pigs, and ducks at the barn and surrounding pastures. Or go hiking on one of the many trails. We did the short waterfall hike up the hill behind the water tank. It’s a nice little ½ mile hike that crosses a small stream multiple times up to a 30’ waterfall. With the national forest so close there is some wildlife in the area. During our stay we saw a couple flocks of wild turkeys and a few deer. Two swimming pools and a hot tub are on the property for relaxing. Play miniature golf, horseshoes, basketball, volleyball or pickleball on the campground courts. Our dogs loved smelling around the small dog park area. It is just a fenced in sandy area but a good place to let the dogs stretch their legs and run a bit. Near the store is a nice area to barbeque/picnic and a playground for the kids. Plenty of washers and driers located outside under the patio covers at each of the restroom areas. They looked new, all worked and were in good shape. Priced $2.00 per wash and $1.50 to dry. You can add quarters for additional drying time. The camp store provides any necessities you may need along with videos and recreational equipment to rent. The store also has a propane filling station. Friday and Saturday evenings there are dinners and Saturday and Sunday mornings breakfasts available at the Stone Lodge. We had burgers, cowboy beans, and potato salad on Friday night for about $8 each. It was an ok meal. Saturday evening, I had the Tri Tip Dinner ($16) and my girlfriend had the Grilled Chicken Breast Dinner ($14). Both came with salad, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The Tri Tip was pretty good, but my girlfriend’s chicken was burnt and dried out. Our T-Mobile phones had no phone service and we had very limited Wi-Fi with our Verizon Hotspot. We joked that the only thing missing at this campground was a lake. While they don’t have a lake of their own, just a short drive down Hwy 154 is Cachuma Lake that is a perfect place to get out on the water if that’s your thing. A short drive to the little Danish Village of Solvang makes a fun little day trip. It’s a nice little town to explore the windmills, Danish stores and restaurants. If you’re looking for someplace to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life Rancho Oso is a the place to do it. This is one of the best Thousand Trails Campgrounds we have stayed at. We wish all of them were this nice and well taken care of. Our stay at Rancho Oso was great, and we would happily stay here again...

Where the Rules Don't Apply Rancho Oso was built on a hill in the middle of a bunch of hills. Sites are layered or teared if you will, like stadium seating. And the hills are so steep you wouldn't want to ride a bicycle very long or even walk much because its exhausting! Which is a shame because the horses are awesome to have around here. In fact, the horses may be the only thing this place has going for itself. Allow me to explain..

Quarks & Perks : First, the people, and staff for that matter, are not as friendly. Most don't wave back or even attempt to make eye contact or be courteous. It's just a different vibe. No one obeyed the 5 mph speed limit here, guess its the hills but it was annoying. I mentioned to a family of 15 getting in the pool to please rinse off first with the convenient outdoor shower but they got in anyways and when I told the manager Linda in the store she wasn't too concerned. Watched people walk through other campsites rudely and no one regarded the signs posted to not play any outdoor music. Maybe it was the full moon but several trailers we heard fighting and overall it didn't feel as safe or like a community. I was alarmed none of our paper work was checked upon entry, but I almost wish they would.

Okay, enough with the negatives, lets talk about what I did like. We were impressed with the Country Store here. First off it was open, which has been about 50% of the time around TT’s in the winter. AND it was open every day from 9am to 5pm. They offer a great selection on what you may need plus fun souvenirs.

The pools are impressive, the hot tub is almost big enough to do laps in, there's a common area just outside with tables and a dramatic landscaped fountain to lounge by. When your bored of that there is horseback riding here for about $50 per person, per hour. Beyond that, Santa Barbara has great food, I would suggest eating at La Super-Rica Taqueria. It was Julia Child's favorite place to eat!

If your looking for sewer hook-ups this park is one of the few with limited sites. You'll need a "sewer site" reservation when booking. Sewer sites are a stadium/theater seating design with 7 rows of a dozen sites each row. Lower sites have better access to the lodges but sites located on top of the hill get better cell service. River sites have small stables for your horses!

Tips:

Several miles before the entrance the is road is sometimes only large enough for 1 rig at-a-time, proceed with caution!

Come in the opposite way you would normally to park your rig initially. Because of the angle you'll have to.

Verizon and AT&T service , with booster only. Verizon was the winner here as AT&T wen't down for days at time.

They do not accept mail/packages any longer.

Horse country,...

This park is really beautiful, with a pool, jacuzzi, and large playground area, however, the administration failed to show competence in an extreme way. Additionally, their "wi-fi" was on a low-range antenna at the club-house, not reaching even the closest RVs during my stay, and there is virtually 0 cell signal there. I was able to use a cell signal booster to receive a tolerable cell signal, however, and of course, Starlink will likely work most of the time, though it is situated in a valley with a bridge passing over nearby. The major issue I ran into was because I had auto-billing set up, and had them just auto-renewing my contract with them continually so that I could stay there indefinitely. While this worked most of the time, at one point they lost my billing info somehow, and then, when I had guests who used their credit card to pay the gate fee, they charged my $700 rent to my guests credit card. Needless to say, my friends, who did not have $700 to spare until the credit card would refund it, freaked out, and the park was not helpful when we contacted them about the error. That being bad enough, several months later, the manager failed to set my lot to auto-renew, as it had the previous 6 months, and then contacted me on a Friday telling me I had something like 3 days to remove all of my possessions from the park.. I was out of town at the time, and if you've ever expanded a pop-out camper to live in indefinitely, you would know that it takes a good bit of preparation to be ready to relocate again. I ended up leaving that park in an undue rush, with the manager indicating they couldn't resolve their error for me because they had booked the spot out to someone else. It's hard not to give this location 1 star for these reasons, but it was quite beautiful and peaceful.. though the management operated as though their operation is part of the filming of...