Vallecito (San Diego County Park)

Brandon Hart

This was our first time camping in the desert. This landscape is just breathtaking. Every way you turn is picturesque. The park is well maintained and the staff was extremely friendly and welcoming. The coyotes woke us up twice with their yipping and yapping. Never experienced that before, but I’m glad I did. I would highly recommend this campsite to anyone looking for a place to relax, take in breathtaking views and go on day hikes in the area. We’ll definitely be back!

Michele Dorsey

We’ve been camping at Vallecito for many years, as we travel between Phoenix and Dan Diego twice a year. The Wildlife, wildflower and bird viewing is spectacular. Diana, the volunteer Campground host has a tremendous knowledge of the history, archeology and culture of the area. This campground is generally quiet and not busy, except on some weekends. Agua Calliente park is nearby for those who want to take advantage of the hot pools. The bathrooms and showers (have quarters) are clean and comfortable, there is cell service and water is available at most sites! Highly recommended!!

Diane Howard

This review is because it gave me what I was looking for which was peace and quiet. It's not a busy place when I was there. The playground is very basic. It looks like it's from the seventies. There is a old stage coach building, but looks like it's being redone. It's very interesting to know the history here and there's hikes close by so it's great, and very reasonably price.

Terry Carter

Excellent camping with fire rings, toilets, showers. Dianna is the super nice volunteer that keeps everything running smoothly. There's plenty of great hiking, offroading nearby. Cheers!

Bill Barnard

READ THE REVIEWS OF THIS CAMPGROUND!! Especially on the actual campground website. We wanted to experience a new park and discovered the San Diego county parks. This is our first visit to one of the parks and Vallecito was lacking a lot. The bad: - There is one central bathroom for the entire park. 2 toilets for the men's and 4 for the women's. The one shower stall that was used was humid and the toilet was out of order. There was plenty of toilet paper and the ranger kept them clean. - Flies are very abundant at the youth group site. Even with the fly traps they were pretty overwhelming in certain areas. Ant hills were also an issue in the youth group and site 16. - The playground reminded me of my childhood upbringing with scorching metal slides and sacrificing a good chunk of skin to the fun of things. Why metal playground structure in a desert? - We did understand that we were staying for the last weekend of the season and understood that it was going to be on the warm to hot side. On the camp ground brochure it states that it is on average 10° cooler. LIES! It was most definitely the same temps. - There is nothing to do within 50 minutes of the campground. - Pretty windy with no shelter for your tent. Bring extra cord and stakes to batten down the tent. - Firewood was not sold at the campground as advertised. Had to run down the road and pay almost double the price. Supply and demand got us. The good: - Decent cell service for where we were. - Great night skies. We were fortunate enough to catch the train of satellites for Starlink. It was pretty cool to watch. - Youth group site has a pretty nice grill set up to feed a lot. - Fire pits were pretty big for the youth group site. - The Park Ranger was super nice and very helpful. Some of the other reviews talk about being very quiet with minimal other visitors. I can see this being very true. It is right next to the road so you do get highway noise during the night. Maybe one car an hour.