Palomar Mountain

A "1 Beer" camping trip to Palomar Mountain Fry Creek campground.

Fry Creek Campground is a small "in the woods" campground a little on the primitive side. Vault toilets, faucets that don't work and not all sites suitable for tents. It has been closed for 3 years and has just opened. Still quite a deal for $12, only 1/2 the sites were taken. A half mile down the road is Observatory campground with sunny wide open flat campsites and a few handicapped and double sites. Both campgrounds are first come first served. Schad's Afoot and Afield has 3 hikes from this area and I did 2 of them. Insect repellent and mosquito netting is a must. Hiking difficulty was medium easy but it gets hot when you leave the canopy. Very scenic with lots of interesting things to observe, some very old trees, mossy rocks, look out for that poison oak! So much for the none above 5000' elevation suggestion. Even alone I kept very occupied and the self guided Hale Observatory tour was very interesting. Also there are several guided tours of the observatory every day. I regret never having come up here before, parts of it are very reminiscent of where I grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Palomar Mountain is about 75 mile from my house and took maybe about 1 3/4 hours. I-15 to Highway 76 and S-6.