Any BigBear camp site recommendations?

Hey everyone! I’ll be up there next month, I’ve been to bigbear many times but never to camp. Ideally I’d like a camp site with restrooms.
(Wife doesn’t really like camping so I’m trying to ease her in.. there’s no way I’ll convince her otherwise lol)

Any recommendations?

 

pine knot campground rips if its open for the season. few site are better than others!

 

I have camped at Crab Flats a few times, good amount of shade with bathrooms and close to trails for some wheelin

 

I camped Holcomb last weekend. Was fun but also full. Ton of trails to cruise around, good base camp.

 

Big Pine Flats is a nice spot and at the intersection of Coxey Rd/3N14 and Holcomb Valley Rd/3N16, so it's easy to get to a number of trails from there

 

top of heartbreak ridge trail at big bear

 

San Gorgonia Campground.

 

Crab flats is a nice area to camp at and just under 6k ft elev !!!!

 

Heartbar is a nice campground with trails near by for hiking and wheeling.

 

Camp ground is only good during the TW reunion

 

Pine knot is good. Right at base of Snow Summit. Fairly quiet yet still just few minutes from main drag in Big Bear Lake

 

Green Valley Lake campground is a bit closer than Big Bear and easy access to trails.

 

Crab Flats is one of our favorites for the shade, trees to setup hammocks, and bathrooms. If you're going with a group, you can reserve a spot at Ironwood Campground.

 

If you want a camp fire there are only a few campgrounds you can make one in up in Big Bear due to the fire restrictions, Holcomb Creek camp ground and San Gorgonio are the only two I know of, I think there's one more. Only allowed in 'developed' campgrounds with on site hosts.

Campgrounds with no hosts and dispersed camping fires are a $700 fine right now, sucks but it is what it is.

I prefer dispersed camping to developed campground camping any day of the week but it's too cold up there at the moment to not have a camp fire, so we got a spot in Holcomb Valley. Was just up there this weekend.

 

Any camp sites in big bear for fire and car camping?

 

You can only have fires in developed campgrounds in Big Bear, of which there are only a few. The two I know of are Holcomb Valley Campground and San Gorgonio Campground, I think there's one more. There are several other camp sites and several dispersed camp sites (yellow post) but you aren't allowed to have any fires at those. The developed campgrounds have a camp host on site and those are the only ones where fires are allowed in the designated pits.

Big Bear is a great place for wheeling but when it comes to camping in remote areas with a camp fire, it's not the place to go. The desert or the Sierras is better for that. With the wildfire risk in CA in recent years, the more popular areas closer to the cities are really strict on campfires.