Manker Campground

There is a small fee of $20 / day for the first vehicle and $5 for the second one to be paid using the envelopes by the entrance. There are some OK facilities and water near each campground spot. It is nice place and clean. We visited the place 27th and 28th of September 2025 and Ranger told us no fire in the fire pits, no fire in the BBQs, no gas fire! We could only cook in our vehicle! Or perhaps if you have an induction cooktop that would work!

We visited this campground over last weekend Oct12/13. There is no option to book the campsite through online portals. All campsites are first come first serve basis. We reached the campground around 11.30a.m on Saturday morning. There were couple of unoccupied sites. One thing to note in these campsites is that the sites are not flat. So, checkout all sites for flatness to setup your tent before finalizing on one. The restrooms are equipped with paper towels, pit-hole toilets. The campsite is equipped with grill, fire-pit, picnic table, and water. One advantage with these campsites is that there is 11.5mi hiking trail just adjacent to it. We did hike a total of 4mi at our own pace. I plan to do 11.5mi hike in our next camping. We were not allowed to light the campfire in the night due to "high fire alert - Santa Ana winds". So, we spend time inside tent playing Uno. Overall, we had wonderful experience camping here.

Great place for some free snow play. Was really crowded January 1st 2020. Took about 2 hours to get up the hill (same for going down at the end of the day but made for great sunset pictures) in dead stop traffic. And it was pretty hard to find a spot to park. Bathroom line was about a 30 minute wait. Lots of slopes for sledding with kids and some pretty steep ones for teens and adults. Overall had a fun snow day. *Please remember to always "Leave No Trace". Pack in what you pack out. Help keep our parks clean for others to enjoy 🌲

Not crowded March 2, 2026

I love this campground, it’s secluded from town and if you want to go explore baldy you can stay the night, very inexpensive we stayed here for two nights and we had the chance to hike to the waterfall nearby. The family loved it. Perfect in the summer and early fall, avoid in winter it can get in the lows at night time unless you into winter camping.

Great place to get a snow experience. Make sure you visit the place before chain restrictions are ON. The camping ground has benches and restroom facilities. We visited on mid January. The place had nice snow and we managed to experience a snow shower as well.

The campground itself is vey nice with clean restrooms and a nice ranger overseeing the place. Some of the people that use it, don't know the camping rules so they trash it and are not respectful to others or nature. I would defiantly choose to camp on the weekday for a nicer experience if possible. Two great trails close by (Baldy/Ice House).