"Hidden waterfalls and more than 100 miles of trails through forest and meadow silently witness the regrowth of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park."
The Rancho Cuyamaca State Park is one of the most beautiful regions our backcountry has to offer. You'll definitely want to stop by during your visit with us and check out some of the beautiful landscapes, mounatin forests, meadows and miles of rolling hills. If you're staying at our site in Laguna Campground, the drive to the State Park takes about 15 minutes. Lake Cuyamaca, Cleveland National Forest and the Rancho Cuyamaca state park all border each other and you'll be in relatively close proximity to all 3 locations. The historic town of Julian is also near by. You'll have plenty to see and do during your stay with us.
The beautiful state park offers camping and hiking in an oak woodland forest, with a sprinkling of pines and lovely meadows with creeks. There are over 100 miles of trails which accommodate hikers, bikers, and equestrians. The two family camps, Paso Picacho and Green Valley, are open and on the reservation system spring through fall. Green Valley sits at an elevation of 4,000 feet and has a creek which runs through the middle of the campground. The day use area offers sets of cascades and shallow pools, great for water play on hot days.
Paso Picacho, 5 miles north, sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The most popular hikes start from this camp, including the 2 mile hike up Stonewall Peak (elevation 5,700 feet), and the 3.5 mile hike up Cuyamaca Peak (elevation 6,512 feet), both which offer breathtaking views of the deserts to the east, the coast to the west, and Lake Cuyamaca at the bottom.
Each campsite has a picnic table and a fire ring. Restrooms with flush toilets and pay showers are available.
There are no hookups. Each campground has a dump station. Firewood and ice may be purchased at the camps. Interpretive programs are offered during the summer season. Campsites are $30 per night. Reservations are necessary for weekends April through October. The camping fee includes one motorized vehicle. Extra vehicles are $10 per night. There is a limit of 8 persons per campsite. Dogs are allowed but are restricted to the campgrounds, picnic areas, and paved roads and Cuyamaca Peak Fire Road. They may not be left unattended.
Granite Springs and Arroyo Seco Environmental camps have chemical toilets, non-potable water, corrals and tent sites.
Day use visitors may use the picnic areas provided at the campgrounds for $10 per vehicle. The receipt is good for the entire park for the day. The picnic areas offer tables, restrooms, and barbeques. Visitors may also park in legal turnouts along the highway and hike for free. Fire is not allowed anywhere except in the developed picnic areas and campgrounds.
For the most current information on the park, go to http://www.crspia.org. This website also covers our tremendous volunteer program and its opportunities.
The park phone number is 760-765-3020.
Information provided here is courtesy of California Department of Parks an Recreation. For more info please visit the California State Park web-site.
You can download the State Park brochure here courtesy of the California Department of Parks an Recreation.
Many of us fortunate enough to call the San Diego / Baja California corridor home, find it hard to describe in words what a special place this area truly is. In terms of the region's wildly contrasting topography and rich bio-diversity alone, you're hard pressed to find any place like it in the world.
From our company headquarters in Mount Laguna, San Diego, you can be snowboarding in the mountains, surfing in the ocean, racing in the desert and crossing into Mexico - all in one day. You can be at the beach, desert, mountain and forest, all within an hour drive! It's a playground for the outdoorsman or nature enthusiast and synonymous with our very active lifestyle culture.
Our love for adventure travel is rooted in our San Diego Heritage. It brings us great joy to highlight all the natural wonders and bio-diversity that San Diego supports, as a world renowned travel destination.
Outfitting came very natural to us and we were fortunate that USFS Descanso Ranger District took us under their wings in 2018. In 2020, we were able to expand further south and set up headquarters in San Felipe, Baja California, where we offer a host of Baja experiences and cross border tours.
Our high altitude glamping retreats are under concession of US Forest Service in the Mount Laguna Recreation Area, where we also have concessions for event management and mountain biking services.
We continue to work closely with USFS in support of safe, responsible and forward thinking recreation growth.
Much of the uniqueness and beauty of this region is highlighted under the following quotes:
"The Central Mountain Subregion lies east of the Alpine and Ramona Community Panning Areas (CPA), west of the Desert Subregion, south of the Julian CPA, and north of the Mountain Empire Subregion. The Central Mountain Subregion is one of the most scenic areas in the County. It is a recreational and agricultural resource for the entire County. It offers its residents and visitors a place to experience tranquility and the beauty of undisturbed nature.
There are two public recreation and wilderness areas in the Subregion: Cuyamaca Rancho State Park (approximately 25,000 acres) and the Cleveland National Forest (approximately 120,000 acres).
The Subregion covers approximately 200,000 acres, 78 percent of which are in public ownership or in the Inaja, Cosmit, La Posta, or Capitan Grande Indian Reservations. The principal types of vegetation found in the Subregion are southern oak woodland, which consists of two communities: the mountain woodland and the valley woodland, the coniferous forest, chaparral, and riparian vegetation. The Central Mountain Subregion contains most of the highest mountains in the County: Cuyamaca Peak (6,512 feet), Cuyapaipe Mountain (6,378 feet), Monument Peak (6,272 feet), and North Peak (5,993 feet). Other striking features of this Subregion are: Cuyamaca Lake, a reservoir for the Helix Water District the northern tip of El Capitan Reservoir; meadows and coniferous forests; and spectacular views of the Anza Borrego Desert from the Sunrise Highway..."
"...Within the Central Mountain Subregion, we preserve and respect our venerable and historic structures in the form of lodges, halls and restaurants, churches and residences, barns, and bridges. Our compact utilitarian commercial cores represent a very small percentage of our overall land use and provide essential local services for area residents and visitors. Limited pockets of residential development spread outward from our village centers to areas where they fit well within their surroundings. The lack of tract housing developments and larger commercial centers further defines and enhances the unique character of our backcountry communities. It is the combination of 52 these factors that contribute to our quaint rural ambiance and charm.
Because of limited infrastructure and limited natural resources like groundwater, any further growth must be carefully managed. Any growth must also compliment our natural rural landscape and adhere to our community character. Our communities are gateways to recreational opportunities. We place an extremely high value on recreational opportunities provided by open space and community trails which offer pedestrians, equestrians, and mountain bikers access to federal, State and County Parks. As committed backcountry stewards, we believe in the preservation of clean air and dark skies, mature woodlands and open spaces, natural resources, and water quality. These core values are reflected in our rural lifestyles and make up some of the essential components of our community character.
The Central Mountain Subregion is perhaps one of the few remaining areas within the County that still offers visitors a chance to escape their fast-paced urban lifestyle and recall with nostalgia, the essence of life in a small mountain village. As nearby suburban populations continue to increase, it is of the utmost importance that the natural beauty of our local rural landscapes and vital character of our small villages be treasured and preserved for future generations."
Central Mountain Subregional Plan - San Diego County General Plan
This environmental policy came about as a result of over 10+ years travel across some of the most exotic destinations on the planet. From a treehouse in India’s rainforests to a tent in the sub-saharan deserts of the Red Sea; these & many other examples of sustainable tourism models have inspired our policy.
In a time when our planet needs it most, Alter Experiences LLC will set the standard for a tourism model centered around sustainability, conservation & the protection of our resources in the San Diego Central Mountain Region.
We're dedicated to pioneering business practices that encourage overall sustainability and a balance with nature conservation.
We're setting out to prove that economic growth & sustainable business practices can be achieved without plundering our resources, destroying the environment or succumbing to corporate greed.
It's time for a change in the way we live, in the way we do business and in our priorities as a society.
While we were exploring potential sites for our glamping operation, we were captivated by San Diego’s Central Mountain region & its conservation model.
These regions are some of San Diego’s most pristine & bio-diverse habitats. Our ultimate goal is to work with community partners and stakeholders to exemplify this destination as a model of sustainable tourism development.
“Cuyamaca is a scenic mountain community of Cuyamaca Peak, North Peak, Middle Peak, & Stonewall Peak. Cuyamaca is a forested area of oaks, incense cedar, white fir, and pines. Also riparian trees, such as willow, alder, and sycamore, lie along many small spring fed streams. Boulder Creek is designated a “Wild and Scenic River”. Lake Cuyamaca is located in a natural valley and covers about 100 acres. The Lake Cuyamaca meadow has fifteen sensitive plant species, is biologically one of the most important areas in the county, and is a Resource Conservation Area. The Cuyamaca Sponsor Group area has abundant wildlife, mountain lions, bobcats, deer, badgers, foxes, bald and 9 golden eagles, and over a hundred species of birds. At an altitude of over 4000 ft., Cuyamaca is characterized by seasonal color changes on the open meadows and hillsides, from wildflowers to snow…
The Cuyamaca Subregional Group area is one of the most unique scenic areas of San Diego County. It is a rural, residential mountain community, dependen on limited groundwater. Residents have a recreational lifestyle of hiking, biking, fishing, hunting, and horseback riding. They enjoy clean air and water, a clear night sky, spacious mountain views, and peace and quiet…
The desire of residents to preserve the area’s beauty of undisturbed nature will severely limit the future development of Cuyamaca…”
Central Mountain Subregional Plan - San Diego County General Plan
We are usually present for every guest check-in and place much emphasis on safety & environmental stewardship during every briefing. Fire safety is a top top priority for this region and safe fire handling practices are top on the list. Our outfitters cover other important issues such as: waste management, recreation area rules, general safety, wildlife & camping etiquette. Our orientation also covers some basic facts and information about the Cleveland National Forest. We also emphasis visitor safety and responsible travel through our marketing approach and social media activism regularly. As USFS Outfitters, it's our responsibility to be good brand ambassadors for the destination and to support the overall mission of our USFS for the Cleveland National Forest. We do our best to source locally and to partner up with local vendors and suppliers.
As USFS outfitters, we always strive to reduce our environmental impact and footprint. Our glamping operation is seasonal from mid March-November and our equipment is removed and stored away. This gives our tress a break from the tree tents and from the busy visitor season through the summer. We buy all of our Tree Tents exclusively from Tentsile and they plant 10 trees for each unit we purchase. This relationship has resulted in hundreds of trees planted over the past 5 years. All of the cleaning supplies we use are environmentally friendly and bio-degradable.
All of our lights are solar powered and so we're not dependent on any electricity to power our sites. We have recycling stations at all of our sites and provide a fully stocked kitchen, to cut down on single use plastic. We use Flame King refillable propane tanks and have a re-fill station on site. Our team is regularly involved with supporting clean-ups and other local initiatives, in support of our San Diego mountain community. We're big supporters of the SDMBA, who are responsible for much of the trail maintenance and advocacy in the region.
We continue to find ways of reducing our environmental footprint, while working towards being a radically sustainable company.
Waste reduction measures will include waste minimization, waste reuse, and recycling. We’ll place emphasis on raising awareness about pollution & moving away from plastic and other products that negatively impact our environment and wildlife.
A major part of the experience will include getting guests to start thinking about their environmental foot prints, as well as steps they can take to reduce waste and pollution. The visitor experience is designed to nurture a culture of recycle, re-use, reduce & getting people to re-think their day-to-day consumption habits.
We’ll be using a multi-media approach to engender this message, as well as workshops designed to educate and engage our guests about these serious environmental issues.
Culture and heritage will play an integral part of the overall guest experience. We’ll encourage tours to some of the historical sites in the region, as well as the nearby reservations and visitors centers. We provide on-line resources, pamphlets, and other media that will serve to educate visitors about the region’s rich heritage and culture.
We work with community partners who can assist us with providing a multitude of activities such as equestrian, water-sports, hiking, hunting, agro-tours, yoga & star-gazing.
This allows us to offer experience based tour packages in collaboration with local stakeholder, while engendering a business atmosphere that encourages overall economic growth for the community.
By visiting Alter Experiences LLC, you're already making a positive, environmental choice in destination. We need the support of our guests to conserve the natural resources of the region. There are many things you can do to get involved like joining one of our workshops, being a responsible visitor and expanding your own personal knowledge about environmental conservation and sustainable practices. Here are a few other things you can do to help us: