Camping in Lytle Creek

This last weekend was my birthday weekend, and I like to camp for my birthday. My kids and two of my sisters live in Southern California; in the San Bernardino / Riverside area (called the Inland Empire by the locals) so I looked for campgrounds centrally located in the Inland Empire to give my kids and sisters a chance to visit if they were so inclined. As my kids and one sister live in Fontana, Lytle Creek came to mind.

When I was a kid, we used to go to Lytle Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains to play in the cold, clear water. Lytle Creek was a poor kid’s playground. Lots of folks went up into the canyon to shoot, and there were several accidents, so kids whose parents had money went other places. A lot has changed over the years. There are now 2 shooting ranges, and the Rangers keep the gun enthusiasts in the ranges.

I Googled “Lytle Creek campgrounds” and came up with Applewhite Campground. I called to see if they would have any trouble accommodating us, as they don’t take reservations. The campground is run by the Ranger Service, and the ranger who answered said she had only seen it completely full once. That was good enough for me! We loaded up and headed out on Thursday morning.

When we got into the village of Lytle Creek, we stopped at the corner store for ice ($1.99 for 5 lbs!) and directions. “How far to the campground?” I asked. “Which one, Applewhite or Bonita Ranch?” came the reply. “Applewhite”, I said, then asked “Which is better?” Bonita Ranch,” he said. “They have showers.”

So, we headed back down the hill a half mile to Bonita Ranch.



The place was pretty nice, but $25 a night for water and electric, $30 for water, electric, sewer and cable TV. Applewhite was $15 a night. We asked permission to look around before deciding, and were granted permission. We found a great site (the side we chose was mostly empty, and we got an end site that was roughly twice as big as any other), and decided this place was good enough for us. The next day, for kicks, we drove to Applewhite and drove around. It was overgrown with weeds, mostly foxtails, and poorly maintained. We had made the right choice.



We set up camp and had a wonderful 2 day stay. We cooked in our Dutch ovens a lot, made a small version of the Mountain Man breakfast with some DO Biscuits for breakfast Friday morning, (my daughter came up and had breakfast with us), skipped lunch, and made Beef Stroganoff and a blackberry dump cake for dinner.





We heard there was a 90ft waterfall up the canyon a ways, so we hiked up for a look.





‘Way off in the distance, up high, you can see the falls.



We saw a little wildlife on the trail.






Finally, the falls!



We had a wonderful time, and I would recommend Bonita Ranch RV Campground to anyone!