This was our first trip here from the very beginning and check in was easy just pulled up to a window they already had our tags available. The sites are spacious and clean with a lot of shade.The restrooms were maintained ,clean, in the showers were hot. You can't have wood there because the fire danger but they offered propane exchange which is awesome. My family was having so much fun we wanted to extend our stay but the park was booked.Dave and the young lady in kiosk went above and beyond in order to find a place for us so that our family could continue making their memories. They offer a movie in the park for the kids ,Nice hiking ,mountain biking opportunities and all around great experience from beginning to end. My son had lost his cell phone while riding his bike and someone turned it into the front office, so even the other patrons there were amazing. read more

See all

I got a chance to camp here and it was a pretty good spot. Headed up in July and temps down below the camp area were about 10-12 degrees warmer, it was 85 with a nice breeze. Some of the spots are great and have nice shade trees, etc. Others are kind of sparse and definitely no protection from the sun. There are some very large spots and most of the spots are spacious. Some are for larger RVs. Some are walk in only, you park your car close but not in your spot. There is a trail (3.5 miles round trip) out to a little pond of water and it is a nice easy trail, mostly flat. There were no fires allowed right now, high fire danger, unless you had a stove that had an on/off button to control the flame. I did see some flames at night, that did look like fires that were not allowed but the staff was going around on their golf carts, so I assume they checked it out. The Staff keeps the place pretty clean. The restrooms were in good condition. Definitely some great views of the mountains and surrounding areas. The night time views are pretty good, you can see the milky way. Check out my photos for example. Location fantastic. Price is reasonable. Weather was good. Not too much to do, but Idyllwild is not too far away. read more

See all

We stayed at the group camp in May. The area was flat and open. There's a nice creek to hike by and in. The bathrooms were clean. Bring toilet paper since they ran out on Saturday. The non-group side had a movie night and a bunch of games. The sites are fairly large. There's a lake across the street. Might be nice in the summer. read more

This is an amazing campground! First, the county of Riverside is working to make camping fun! The weekend we visited, not only was there a movie night in a lovely meadow using an inflatable movie screen. There was also a fair Saturday morning! Each site was spacious and the bathrooms always had toilet paper and options for hand dryer or paper towel. read more

Hurkey Creek Park - Stream over road - Parks Near Me - Mountain Center, California

See all

I love living in this park but the park Ranger Vincent is super mean I bought an adventure pass and it was freezing temperature and my mom had just gotten out of the hospital and we are only there for six days and he made us move and she's handicap Vincent is not a nice park ranger but other than that I love the place read more

Lake is 20 feet low and no swimming for humans or pets. But it is close to Idyllwild so points for that. Next trip I will stay at the Hurley Creek campground read more

The staff at the front gate, young and so entitled, are by far the worse type of person to deal with. The rule that's not listed on the website they told me when I pulled up to camp was: -no detaching from trailers I literally had to go to Anza to even get cell phone reception and call my wife and make other arrangements. Shame that our tax dollars are going towards millennials employed to push their own feelings verse actually just doing what a person paid their wage and given their title actually does. Wasted a day pulling a 40 foot RV up from Claremont and had to go to Vail Lakes instead. No refund of any kind, so please allow my $900 loss be a lesson learned for you guys. Kiss their butts up front or else. Shameful read more

Super chill (May 28) 6$ per person day visit. Cash or Qr Code for online payment. Bathrooms, creek, trees, tables, idk what else you need. read more

Hurkey Creek Park - Parks Near Me - Mountain Center, California

Nice relaxing place to camp near Lake Hemet and Idyllwild with clean bathrooms and coin operated showers.

It was very pleasant during the week. The weekend was noisy. There was a church group close by with about 50 people, all small boys. So they can get pretty rowdy and loud. There seems to be a number of spots that are close together, for this purpose. So that's something to watch for. Also, no fires allowed. Which was a problem for our neighbors who were counting on cooking on their fire. On the phone, the website doesn't mention no fires. One night a large group had a fire. We told someone who was cleaning the restrooms (not sure if he was a camp host), he said he'd handle it, a few minutes later a ranger drove by in his truck and didn't stop & talk to the people, so it just seems they don't enforce rules for quiet hours or fires. It felt very unfair, as our neighbors could have really used the fire (we lent them a propane BBQ). Just beware that there will be noise on Friday and Saturday nights when the place fills up. read more

It's 11:30 pm and group in one of the group camps screaming songs very loud, non stop , where is the camp host to tell them to be quiet after 10? read more

This was a cute campground. The biggest takeaways were the location and the river. we brought a 35 ft Rv and dry camped. There are no hooks ups. It was hard to dry camp for many days with our family and that was just us. If your tent camping or like to dry camp this place is perfect for you. There are no amenities near by but one little general store a mile down the road. The road to get to our campground is a river, lit read more

See all

Made reservations for 3 three spots over the weekend. We arrived Friday around 5 and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too hot. Besides the folks that were camping with us, we had several friends stop by on Saturday for the day. We spent part of the day down at the creek where the kids enjoyed their time playing in the water. The Overall a solid 4 stars for this campsite. read more

See all

Wonderful experience. It is obvious that customer service is the top priority at this park. Don't know if that true for all Riverside Regional Parks. But Hurkey Park nailed it! We arrived a bit early (2 hours). Staff was very helpful and polite. Actually went and checked to be sure the previous campers had left. Then cleaned everything up and allowed us to begin our adventure. Showers and restrooms were cleaned regularly. Showers .50 for 3 minutes Well maintained. Every staff member was friendly, helpful and top notch. read more

Overall, not my favorite campground. The good: The park is mainly flat and there's a nice creek you can walk along. Lake Hemet is just across the road with lots of activities including kayaking and water activities. There's a huge area for snow play during the wintertime. The bad: Very little shade so the summers can get quite hot and on a busy day good luck trying to find a picnic bench under a tree. You will need a riverside country park pass which is different from an adventure pass, which is for the forest- I know, confusing! $6 per person or $50 per year per person. You can also use this lark pass at the idyllwild park as well, which I think is a much more pleasant hike. read more

We were there for a family reunion. We had the best time. The only thing is I wish they had a convenience store. Sometimes you don't want to leave for small things. read more

Been camping here for about 7 years and love this place. During the week the park is empty which is super quiet. Definitely a great place for rent camping. read more

This place is amazing, showers are $.50 for 3 minutes, bathrooms are cleaned on a regular basis, the creek was fun for the kids, and a 3 mile hike was seren and beautiful, sunscreen up and water water and bear pepper spray....on our way back to the Campsite we heard a deep dark growl/purr......couldn't really see what it was nor did we want to stay to find out. We absolutely loved it and will be back. read more

See all

The area is beautiful but one MAJOR problem is they do not enforce the noise ordinance. After 11pm the staff is no where to be found. This was my second time here and the same issue happened both times. People go here to party HARD. They literally sit around drink all day blast mariachi music then party until 3am. Yes 3am. It completely ruined our trip, we had less than 4 hours of sleep and could barely function both days we had activities planned. I told the staff on both visits and they did inform the visitors in the loud sites to quiet down the next day but they were at it again the next night but this time with native tribal chants and drums going well past midnight. This is very frustrating when you go to camp to enjoy nature with your family and kids to relax and these other people ruin the environment for everyone. This is not a family campground it's turned into a party campground unfortunately. It also made me very uncomfortable knowing how many highly intoxicated campers were all around us. Hurkey Creek owners if you're reading this, take back control of your campsite and hire security overnight to stop the loud parties. This completely ruined our experience both visits. read more

Booked a last minute camp over and was very happy. The family and I got camp site 6. Both roomy and located by all the amenities. This camp is a mixture of tents and RVs. Great atmosphere with large playing fields for mixed groups. Remember to check the current conditions. In fire season no fire pits or coals.l, come prepared. I'm with T Mobile and had zero phone service, which was kinda nice! read more

I really love this park for the scenery and there's an amazing playground for the kids but the past couple times I've gone have been a real downer. The noise ordinances are NOT enforced by any means. You may as well expect to get no sleep. I'm pretty sure my family and I stayed during the same time as someone else who posted here the other day because I can confirm the loud drunken yells mixed with mariachi music until 3AM one night and tribal music the second. I love to have a good time too, but within reason. My kids were frustrated as they got no sleep and most of the activities we planned the following days we're thrown off because we were too exhausted from the night before. I complained to the front desk and they acknowledged others had made similar complaints. It became a running joke among some of the campers in our area to rate our previous night's sleep. There's a serious lack of security at the park, and it seems all the partiers know this. Please, if you read this, actually utilize security!! Another annoyance is the showers are quarter operated. Not necessarily the fact that you have to pay for the showers, I get that, but when I went to the front office to exchange a 5$ bill for quarters I was told by the clerk they didn't have access to any quarters and that I could go across the street to the Lake Hemet store and do an exchange. If you have coin operated showers you'd think there'd at least be a way to get the coins you need. But anyways, I tried what the clerk suggested and went down to the Lake Hemet store, but they also said they couldn't break a 5 for quarters. After hauling my kids around 30 mins trying to find another store that could simply exchange for quarters, which none of them could, I finally just went back to the front office at the park and tried again. This time another clerk helped track down some rolls of quarters but apparently it was too difficult to break the roll so they requested I pay $10 instead of taking 15 seconds to break the roll in half. Rule of thumb for this campground: bring your own quarters and ear plugs and you'll probably have an alright time. read more

BIG HURK!!!! WE LOVE CAMPING HERE AT BIG HURK! Large open meadow, waters in the creek right now, and it's a fun place to visit and get the kids some sunshine read more

Kimberly is the best !!!!! Went up for a last minute camp trip and had the best time. Customer service is amazing and the campsite is clean and cozy! read more

Sometimes no shade is good. It had snowed heavily 2 days before in Idyllwild so we were looking for an easy, dry trail with a 5 year old. While it was mud and ice near Idyllwild, it was dry at Hurkey Creek Trail, first week of January. There were plenty of bugs, plants and downed logs to climb on. And the "carrot" for sticking with the hike was the great playground in the park at the end. Clean, stocked restrooms. read more

We had a blast camping here! It's beautiful and quiet and overall clean considering there seems to be a short staffing issues like many parks in California are. Gavin Newsom should pay more attention to California's nature instead of going to China! read more

Did a group caping at this site. Lot D. Campsite is clean and has hot running shower. Cost is about 50 cent for about 5 minutes of hot water. Restroom is clean with soap. They have plenty of trees around and a lot of table to use. Night out is around 10pm. So it's good for kids so it doesn't get to loud at night. read more

See all

Check in was easy and the lady checking us in was incredibly friendly. Large campsites with plenty of trees (great for hammocks). The creek was still flowing and our kiddos had a great day playing in the water. The campground was almost booked solid. Unfortunately, the camp didn't seem prepared. On Saturday evening, one of the four women bathroom toilets we used was clogged. On Sunday, not only had that toilet not been fixed, another toilet was clogged. Whatever was inside those clogged toilets had seeped into the two middle bathroom stalls and coated the floor. Three of those four stalls were out of toilet paper. In the men's bathroom, there was more of the same. The other bathroom we attempted to use also had a clogged toilet, along with the smell of marijuana throughout. Noise ordinances were not enforced and we had extremely loud groups around us partying into the early hours of the morning. read more

? are store bought pressed Duraflame logs aloud to burn...I have reservations from 8 months ago and now I am given notice no campfire aloud?

We go camping at Hurkey Creek 3-4x a year for the last 4+ years and we love it. It's a great car-camping spot for both adults and kids. There's lots of room to play games, ride bikes around the campground and relax. The adults in our group love the mountain biking right off the campground. The kids love the playground and the wide open space to run around. The rangers even turn the sprinklers on during the summer months for the kids to run around in. The bathrooms are usually quite clean unless you have some less than friendly neighbors that mess it up. That's happened a few times to us but usually it's not that bad. There are hot showers available so bring some quarters. The ranger station has wood for fires and it's reasonably priced. If you need any other supplies, there's the Hemet Market down the street a few minutes. read more

Had a great snow play time with family including kids. Easy Drive, lots of parking spots. Brought our own sleds.

Hurkey Creek is situated in the San Jacinto mountains in little town called Mountain Center. My friends and I recently went camping and ughh yeah I am not so much a camper but I will admit I had fun sans the no mirrors, no hook ups and shitty showers. There are over 100 camp sites nestled amongst tall trees and near a creek. There wasn't enough rain fall this year the ranger said so there wasn't much of a creek. However there was some still water in what should of been a creek. The cost per night is $20 per camp site as long as you are a party under 6. If your party is more than 6 people then it is an additional $20. Each camp site has it's own fire pit with a grill built on it. There is also a water faucet so that you can wash your dishes. Bring a couple of buckets a sponge and dish soap. There are bathrooms and showers which I was not a fan of. There is a park for the children to play in and trails to hike. Oh, and Lake Hemet where you can fish for trout. There is also a near by market just a mile away. Just keep in mind that the market is way over priced. I have a hard time deciding if this place is worthy of 4 stars or 3 stars. I really want to give it 3 stars because the bathrooms and the showers suck! No mirrors and no hookups for your blow dryer or flat iron. WTF. I know this is camping but seriously don't KOA's have hookups? Really it's my fault for assuming that they had hookups and mirror. I should of gone to the website before coming here. The shower has a set temperature so if you wanted warmer water you have no control over it. In fact the water pressure is also a joke. The water began to come out somewhat cold and just as it warmed up it began to trickle like a leaking water faucet. (drip drip drip drip..) That was because someone in the other shower decided to shower when I was. So, I was freezing. Oh, the showers are 50 cents for 3 minutes. So... Yeah. I wasn't to keen on the shower situation. Other than that the facilities were clean. The trails were nice. People bring their mountain bikes and ride the trails here. They also have day use of the camp site which is nice if you wanted to get away and spend some time in the mountains. The best part of the trip was the nights sky. I forgot how beautiful the sky is at night. So many stars. I haven't seen that in what seems to be forever. There is also evening entertainment here. A family of skunks which will roam the site and the bathrooms. Our first night here a skunk came rolling into our site trying to find food and began to go through our trash bag. that was laying on the floor. These skunks are very brass. So don't leave food out nor any trash. Oh.. Then there is skunks that like to play around in the bathroom at night. My friend and I tried to go to the girls room but we spotted a skunk roaming back and forth between the women's and men's showers and bathrooms. So... Just watch out please.. Ahhhh now we come to the best entertainment. The coyotes at night. There was a nearby heard of cows just about a mile away from us. We are guessing that the coyotes attacked a cow on our first night here. The howling of the beast and the cries of the poor cow freaked everyone out. Apparently the howling went on for a while and it got closer and closer to us. Yeah... The wilderness is fun. Will I come back... Hmmmm no. IF I had to go camping again it would be at a KOA. Or the ACE or The Standard. That's my idea of camping. Swiping a card and having a bed and a shower and a mirror.. (and room service) read more

See all

The park needs more security going around making sure everyone is quiet after 10... read more

See all

I give it 5 stars in the winter months or during the week. It is a great place to camp when there aren't a lot of people. Lake hemet and a small store are across the road. Great trails are out the back of the campground, and only 10 minutes from idyllwild. The group camping sites are very nice and flat and the bathrooms are great! However, on most weekends it is a disgusting place to camp. I couldn't even give it 1 star. Aside from how close all campsites are and few flat ones, the bathroom are a health hazard by Saturday night. Worst campground ever on a weekend. One more thing, rattlesnakes are plentiful. I've been there when they had to air evac a toddler who was bitten. Watch your kids. read more

It seems ironic but it's not often that one mountain bikes in the mountains and this is one of the few places where you actually are doing what the activity names. I love mountain biking here. Bobcats, deer, rattlesnakes, you will encounter them here on these trails. Beauty and mother nature are all around as you pass through soft rolling meadows or gain elevation to overlook the tree tops and nearby lake. Gorgeous views!!! It's a fantastic place to enjoy as the seasons change. The leaves are brilliantly hued in the Fall. Winter brings snow and ice but with bright sunny California days you can still enjoy the trails as the snow melts and lingers on the side. Spring brings spring flowers and Summers are perfect here as an escape from the heat down below. It always rejuvenates my spirit to be completely surrounded by Mother Nature and the mountain biking trails at Hurkey Creek are a great reminder of how therapeutic a few hours with Mother Nature can be. read more

We camped at Hurkey Creek this weekend and just got back a few hours ago. This is the second time I have been here, but it's the first time since starting a family. I really love this campground, but I have a few complaints that take my review down two stars. 1. The bathrooms were very clean the afternoon we arrived, but they quickly take a turn as more campers arrive for the weekend. The men's restroom usually had full toilets. My son was so grossed out that he ran from the men's restroom and begged to use the women's restroom. I think that if the bathrooms were cleaned more frequently, it would significantly improve things. 2. Quiet time is from 10pm-6am. The camp site next to us was very loud and kept shining their lights on our tent well past 1am. They did promptly turn off their generator at 10pm when asked though. The camp site diagonal from us played very, very loud music Saturday afternoon. As it was not during quiet hours, I didn't complain to them or park rangers, but I think it would have gone a long way if park rangers would patrol every now and then and suggest to certain campers to be more polite. 3. We stayed at camp site #4. It had great shade from the beautiful trees, but the site is torn up from rain making canals. Due to the canals, it was difficult to find a place to put our tent. We had to settle on putting it on a slope. I would recommend sites 8-12 instead. Having said all that, we will be back as the campground is really nice with the trees, weather and location. Hoping more trails are opened soon (last year's fire did a number in the area). read more

Visited here without reservations for a couple of days including Thanksgiving Day. About 1/2,the campground is closed because of fire damage. However, we had no trouble getting a space. We dry camped in a self sufficient rig, so I cannot comment on the bathroom or shower facilities. The campground was very clean. Although I would have preferred to see more garbage cans throughout the park. The spaces are gravel and include a fire ring and in some cases a picnic bench. Lots of families around enjoying themselves, but no noise issues and most of the campers were tucked in early (it was very cold). Friendly rangers. Easy in and out. Beautiful area nestled in the tall pines. Very well priced. read more

Never again. Booked months in advance. Upon arrival they stated no wood or charcoal fires. BS. They stated an email was sent out and never was. I would have canceled my reservation and went somewhere else. The day use area had charcoal BBQ's all day long but the campers got reprimanded. read more

On the plus side the bathrooms were clean and stocked. However, the campground itself is poorly managed. Our site, #85 was so riddled with various animal holes ranging from 2 inches to 8 inches across, and red ant hills to the point we struggled to find a spot anywhere in our entire site to put the tent up. There was also two distinct water ways where the rain drains straight through this site making it more difficult when planning for rain and tent placement. There was no enforcement of quiet hours and generators were running most of the night. Not sure if another area of the campground would have been better. read more

Hurkey creek is a gem that was saved by firefighters during the Cranston fire. There are closures in certain camping spots but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the opened spots. Lake hemet is just a few miles away and Thomas mountain is just four miles away for hiking and biking. Camping is $25 bucks and if you wanna bring your doggy it's just an extra $2 bucks. All proceeds go to keeping the park beautiful. Come enjoy this county park. read more

We were first timers at Hurkey Creek Labor Day weekend 2014. We tent camped. 1. The camp sites are pretty close together. You can easily hear neighbors conversations, snoring, smell what they are cooking, etc. not a big deal if that's not an issue and you are prepared. We generally prefer larger sites, but this is a good set up for group camping. 2. The bathrooms were dirty, out of toilet paper, smelly, and over run. Yes, it was a holiday weekend, but that's not an excuse for restrooms in this condition. I don't think the staff checked, cleaned, or restocked once. Definitely a big negative. 3. The large grass area is great and definitely a plus for this campground. Our kids had a great time playing. They ran the sprinklers Saturday afternoon, which was odd timing, but the kids loved getting wet and playing in the water. Strangely they left one large sprinkler on for several hours and finally turned it off close to evening. Not sure if it was forgotten or what, but this was definitely not California drought protocol. Kind of a contradiction since the creek of Hurkey Creek is 100% dry. 4. There is absolutely no enforcement of the 10pm curfew, or general noise issues. We had loud music and loud conversations beyond 10pm. This wasn't really a problem, but also a big contradiction to all the signage referencing the quiet hours. A campsite across the grass field played very loud Latin style music several times a day. There was no enforcement of keeping music within ones site, this was pretty annoying. They were pretty far away and we certainly weren't the only ones that heard it all afternoon. The only patrolling we experienced was the morning we were to leave, they kindly reminded us of check out time. Not that the staff needs to police the area, but reminding some campers of the rules of the campgrounds, as well as common courtesy would have been nice. Not sure if we'd camp here again. I would like to try it on a non-holiday weekend, but even that seems risky. I'd consider camping here again if I was in a group, using 3 or so sites nearby, and with advance planning to carefully choose the sites. I'd bring extra toilet paper and prepare our campers for more of a party style camp atmosphere. Probably my least favorite campground after 4 summers tent camping in several local locations. read more