Serrano Campground at Big Bear Lake

Serrano Campground is a very popular campsite in Southern California. There is not much lake front camping in So Cal, but Serrano Campground is as close as you are going to come! The campsite is just across the street from the lake with a few of the sites having a lake view (although you can barely see the lake through all the trees). It is a quick 2 minute walk over and you can have your toes in the water.

Location, location, location!

The best part of this campground for me is the proximity to the lake. I have a dog so I am always conscious of the dog friendliness of campsites. I visited in August and unfortunately this was at the time that blue-green algae blooms were killing dogs across the nation. Unfortunately, Big Bear Lake had confirmed blue-green algae so neither him nor I was able to go swimming. Ouch. The swimming is why I picked out this campground in the first place. Didn’t ruin the weekend, but next year I would go back in July to ensure that blue-green algae blooms have not hit yet. They tend to come in hot and dry weather.

If we could swim, I could see us bringing a beach chair and my dog’s Frisbee and sitting next to the lake all day. I would have no problem letting my dog off leash to swim in this area. Many campsites in Oregon and Northern California will literally be on the lake with your specific site having lake access. I’ve been desperately searching for something like this in Southern California and this is the closest I have found and will find based off my research.

The campsite itself

One thing for me is that the site does not feel very remote. When I think of camping, a lot of the time I think no service and no civilization close by. This is not the case here, I never lost LTE and Vons (and for that mater the rest of town) was less than 10 minutes away if you forget anything. I would necessarily call this a downside, but I never really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere and escaped civilization. In fact, one day my friends went into town to get ice cream and pizza.

While this is fine, it bugged me because I want to be in nature and not have people able to leave and go grab pizza or be on their phones! Maybe it is the Oregonian talking in me… As I write this, I am reading other people’s blogs and they rave about how close pizza and town is and not having to cook haha…personal preferences! On the plus, Big Bear is a cool town and you could easily visit a brewery on your way home and enjoy the town a tinsy bit when you are done camping.

While the site doesn’t feel remote, it does feel like you are camping once you are there. There are big trees and lots of greenery! Certainly a great change of pace in terms of scenery from the city! The campsite itself was very spacious and had brush surrounding us so I was able to let my dog off leash at the site and we couldn’t see our neighbors (Site 103). Some of the sites were more wooded and the trees were pretty spacious so you could see your neighbors very well. Campfires were fine when we visited. The bathrooms were so well kept and there are even showers on site. Very nice amenities for camping. Sometimes there is only stinky outhouses and I prefer just to bring toilet paper and go in the woods!

Things to do

Another perk of the location, is that you can rent kayaks and stand up paddle boards a quick 2 minutes walk away. I could even take my dog out on the kayak! I LOVED this. Soo fun to go out and kayak. My dog just laid on the kayak perfectly content. Lots of boats going by so made a little bit of a wake but not bad.

There is also a great 5 mile hiking trail with views of the lake right next to the campsite a quick walk away on the bike path. I didn’t go on this hike but I did walk my dog over to the trail head. It would have been so convenient and next time, knowing in advance that there is a trail head so close, I will definitely take advantage!

Lastly, I didn’t bring my bike not knowing the layout of the site (plus I have no clue if my dog will try to kill me while I am on a bike). The site links up to this large bike path that goes as far as you want to go in one direction. While you would have to go out and back, this bike path looked so amazing to bike on! Looked like so much fun, next time I will bring my bike.

Weather

Mid-summer weather is perfect in Big Bear. June can be iffy, I’ve had low 60s and some storms in June at Lake Arrowhead before. July and August you will find the best weather. Keep in mind it will be high 70s during the day which will feel a little hotter at this altitude, BUT it was low 40s at night. I was always fine around 10pm when I went to bed, but right around 3am every day I woke up freezing and had to add on layers. Plan appropriately!

Overall, I would absolutely go back

Without the algae, this site would have been SO perfect for me and my dog. When you are at the campsite, you do feel like you are actually camping. The proximity to town and the phone service many would view as a plus and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree, my personal preference is just a different style of camping! There is soo much to do here and I would give it a 5/5 for dog friendliness which is huge for me.

I think this could be an annual trip! I would highly recommend your next camping trip to be at Serrano! One note, as I said it is very popular a.k.a. you need to book 6 months in advance. If you are new to California this can be a weird concept planning out your summer camping trip in February. At this point in time, I normally don’t know what my summer schedule looks like and I just point at a random weekend and hope nothing else pops up that weekend!