Camping at Buckhorn Campground

Buckhorn Campground is about 1 hour east of Pasadena and La Canada on the Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2). It has 35 camping spots, suitable for tent camping or no hook-up RV camping. The fee is only $12 a night, and well worth it. Elevation is about 6,500ft, well above the smog line of Los Angeles, yeilding clear skies and moderate weather.

We pulled into the campsite around 10:30am on Saturday, and managed to secure site #7. It was close to a small creek, and had a picnic table and fire ring. There were also two enclosed toilets about 80yds away and water faucet about 20yds away. We had the location to ourselves untill about 1pm, when a couple and their son arrived. They took the spot about 75yds from us. Around 5pm a mother and her 4 daughters arrived in a small RV. They took the spot about 30yds from us, up the hill. That's when things began to get loud.

The girls were between the ages of 8-14 years old, and for some reason did not know how to talk, they only knew how to yell. Of course, they probably learned this from their mother, as she constantly yelled at them for one thing or another. She yelled to set the table for dinner and breakfast, yelled at them to stay close, yelled at them to pray before meals. She did a lot of yelling. Luckily for us, they hiked the following day, and made our Sunday there very enjoyable.

Fire wood was easy to get, as there were fallen limbs and trees within short hiking distance. There was also an abundance of pine cones on the ground, and these turned out to burn rather well given their pine sap contents. We also found a large chunk of a tree trunk, about 20-inches in diameter and about 30-inches tall. It was just small enough to fit it in the fire ring... standing up. By the end of the night though, it was laying on it's side, and it burned all night, and the rest of the following day. All in all, it was a great site, one which I will return to very soon with my older kids.

One problem we did encounter were the mosquitoes. I guess the creek wasn't running that strongly, and the standing water in some spots were perfect breeding grounds for the little blood suckers. We didn't bring any repellant, as this was not our first spot for camping. We had planned to go up to 8,200ft to a place called Guffy Campground, but the road leading there was closed. On our way down the mountain we decided to stop at Buckhorn, and it turned out to be a great second choice.

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