Lower Moro Campground — Hotel in Laguna Beach

Hiked up to Lower Moro last Saturday with a 40lb pack. Took the cut across trail, recommended by the rangers, and glad I did. That trail adds about a quarter mile but disperses the elevation. It certainly had me heavy breathing. I took the ridge line trail back down on Sunday and when you get close to the ocean it turns into a very steep grade that I'm glad I didnt walk up. Campsite is well maintained with trash cans, picnic tables, and a clean vault toilet. Felt a lot like car camping once we got there, save for packing all your gear and water in and the lack of quarter showers. You need to book a reservation but individual sites are first come first serve. We got there midday and were the only backpackers there so we took the best site on top of the hill with panoramic ocean views. By sunset all sites were full and several people arriving late had to pitch their tents off to the side of established sites. This is a popular trail for day hikers and mountain bikers, who had no qualms walking right into our campsite and resting at our picnic table. If you are looking for tranquil privacy then this is probably not the place for you, at least...

Great campground but it would help quite a bit if Rangers would check who is in the campground. We camped with friends and had four spots amongst our group only to find that that the two largest spots were taken by single campers. Another group took two spots and a third took two spots. Based upon the number of campsites available, at least two people/or the other group was obviously camping without an appropriate permit for...

Nice camp area, unfortunately people come feeling they are entitled to camp there without reservations. Our group had overall 5 reservations for the 10 of us. When we got there every campsite was occupied. Meaning that of the 9 campsites, 5 were occupied by other parties. This despite every campsite being reserved per the ranger. So everyone there should have known there was no room for them but did not care and camped...