Wheeler Gorge

Plan to get wet playing in the creek. Ranger/visitors center across the road only open Sat/Sun but worth a visit.

Great campground. Easy access. Close to Ojai.

A couple of the ranger assistants (not sure what they're called) were extremely rude to our group, which included me and about ten 20-somethings. When we mentioned we were celebrating a birthday, they immediately assumed we would be loud, drunk, and crazy and kept admonishing us before we even reached the sites to set up. What are we, high schoolers? Not only that, they also did not give us a refund on previously reserved sites that we switched to other sites and charged us again - so we were out close to $50.
The large group across from us who had more than a dozen people had kids and babies that were constantly screaming and completely unsupervised. When the assistants came around to check the toilets, I went and talked with the assistant who was the rudest to our group and pointed out how quiet we were compared to the people across from us. I also chewed her out for making baseless assumptions just because we had a group of young people.
We'd like to go back here, but the assistants obviously need sensitivity training along with training as to how to handle money transactions. They probably pocketed the $50 cash we had to give them.
BTW, in the summer (June through September), the bugs are HORRIBLE. As are all the screaming kids running around unsupervised.

I hope that our experience was an exception to the rule, but I feel compelled to briefly share why we'll never come back to Wheeler Gorge. 1) the pit toilets smelled awful and the smell permeated well beyond the structures to our campsite that was several hundred feet away. (and it was October, not summertime.) 2) the lack of water was a pretty big pain, and there are plenty of other campgrounds nearby that don't have this restriction, and 3) the flies were absolutely awful buzzing in my eyes and ears the entire time the sun was up. It got so bad/frustrating that we left the campground and drove down to Ojai for lunch just to escape the bugs. 4) the site next to us had ~7 tents, and about 20-30 people (they were NOT at a group site!), and were partying/shouting/being drunk and swimming in the creek/playing amplified music until 2am. As one of my friends said, "They're not camping, they're having a house party at a campground." The campground hosts did nothing to stop them, and in fact seemed to be helping them park all of their cars despite the clear rules on # of cars (and people, tents) per site. Honestly, it seems like these dudes were friends with the hosts and so they just let these Ojai townies break all the rules and ruin the peace and quiet of the campground. At one point, my friend politely asked if they could turn down the music so that we could enjoy some quiet time around the fire (about 30 minutes after the 10pm quiet hours began), and it almost turned into a physical altercation because these guys were so belligerently drunk. Never again...

The spot was great! I wish we had been across the street along the river, but we were close enough and the sites were very roomy and private. We also loved that it was so close to Ojai, so we could get into town for dinner or lunch. I would also highly recommend the nearby hot springs!

Love this site! Clean, quiet, just what we need for a weekend get away. Our pup loves it too.

Be careful coming in and going out.
The road is narrow and does not allow 2 way traffic in many spots

The cites were very quiet and well spread apart with plenty of room. The creek running through the campground was very beautiful. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Granted we reserved the site during the fall when foot traffic seemed the lightest but none the less it was a great time. My only recommendation is bring LOTS of bug spray or keep your fire going whenever you’re at the cites to ward off the bugs.

TONS of bugs when we went. Noise road. get a stream front site if you can.