I lived near the Las Padres National Forest for many years. It was my play ground and my home. I walked the trails, backpacked, camped and 4×4 over it. This is a wonderful forest in the sense there is a lot of open space.
It can be accessed from Santa Barbara, California to Cuyama, California and many other places along the coastal towns and valley towns such as Bakersfield, California.
The forest is a dry area covered with native grasses and scrub oak trees. It doesn’t grow the larger pines you find in most northern forest so it takes some getting used to if you are looking for that kind of envirnoment. Water is limited in the area and a lot of it is ranching land leased by local cattle ranches.
However there are many campgrounds all throughout the forest. Many of the campgrounds are free or you can stay
for a small fee. You’ll find trails leading from every campground into the forest for daily fun. Although there are no large rivers there are lots of small streams and ponds.
If you are going to enjoy the forest you have to watch for the dangers too. The biggest being wildfires. This area of California become a dry land each summer with an extreme high danger of fire so camp fires will be limited or not permitted depending on the season. In that case you must take along you own stove.
A Coleman two burner stove is perfect for a local campsite and the safety of everyone around you and for many miles.
Next are rattlesnakes. They are common in the California mountains and those of us who grew up in the area know the sounds of a rattle and can tell you how many feet away you are from ...