Angeles National Forest · California
Overview Monte Cristo Campground is a small, developed campground located off the Angeles Forest Highway (County Road N3) in the Angeles National Forest and is part of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Positioned at about 3,600 feet elevation, it’s one of the closer forest camping options to the Los Angeles area, offering scenic mountain and high-desert views. The campground includes 19 first-come, first-serve campsites suitable for tents, trailers, and RVs up to approximately 30 feet, with a few larger double sites available.
Sites at Monte Cristo Campground are reserved through Recreation.gov. Sites here can be reserved in advance through the official system, and they are claimed fast — cancellations then trickle back all season, unannounced, at any hour of the day or night.
| Total sites | 20 |
|---|---|
| Site types | Standard |
| Book through | Recreation.gov |
| Official listing | Recreation.gov |
Because sites are booked months ahead, a steady share of reservations get cancelled as trips fall through. Each cancellation instantly returns that site and those nights to the official calendar — first-come, first-served, no waitlist, no announcement. Refreshing the booking page yourself, every few minutes for weeks, works in theory. In practice, the people who get these sites are the ones who hear about the opening first.
ItOpened scans the Recreation.gov calendar for Monte Cristo Campground around the clock. When a site matching your dates and your vehicle opens, you get a text with a direct link to it. You book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. We never book, hold, or resell — your fee pays for monitoring, and openings are first-come, so speed is the whole game.
| Crystal Lake | Cancellation alerts available |
|---|---|
| Table Mountain (Angeles) | Cancellation alerts available |
| Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area | Cancellation alerts available |
| Pyramid Lake - Los Alamos Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Chilao Campground - Little Pines Loop | Cancellation alerts available |
| Chilao Campground - Manzanita Loop | Cancellation alerts available |
| Mountain Oak | Cancellation alerts available |
| Horse Flats Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Sycamore Flat Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Grassy Hollow | Cancellation alerts available |
| Appletree Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Lake Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Lightning Point Group Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Bandido Group Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Jackson Flats | Cancellation alerts available |
| Peavine Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Meadow Group Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
| Coulter Group Campground | Cancellation alerts available |
Page data refreshed 2026-10-29. Site facts come from the official directory listing for Monte Cristo Campground; cancellation statistics come from our own scanning logs.