Crab Flats Campground

I was a little nervous at first that this campground was going to be very noisy. Being an off roaders campground mainly, I thought we would be disturbed by the noise of atvs and dirt bikes. However, this was not the case! Everyone here was very respectful of quiet time and it was pretty empty for a summer weekend.
Getting here is the hard part. It’s about five miles of off roading and a water crossing portion at the end. Make sure you have the right car!
The sites themselves are very nice — a picnic table a fire pit and nice trees everywhere. You’re not too close to your neighbors and there are plenty of empty sites to be secluded. The bathrooms are pit toilets (gross) so place make sure you bring your own soap to wash your hands after.
Plenty of beautiful sites to see and things to do. I’ll be coming back soon for sure!

We’ve been here twice so far. ⁸⁄₂₀₁₄ and ⁵⁄₂₀₁₅. As mentioned there is a big puddle, okay small pool of water you have to drive through. If you have a Camero you’re not getting through. This year was much deeper than last. A truck is recommended.
The road up is super bumpy, if you get car sick bring a bag. We learned the hard way. Twice.
The camp ground it’s self is ok. We get the best site (IMO) and we’re pretty hidden. Some sites are wide open, literally on top of your neighbor, which I guess could be cool.
If the sound of dirt bikes and ATV’s bother you, don’t visit. It’s a constant but they’re always pretty respectful and shut it down plenty early.
This time we went the fire pits were filled with ash, we couldn’t start a fire. Now I know what you’re thinking– duh it’s a fire pit. Yes, but we’re talking months worth of ash.
The vault toilet was gross! Maybe 3 levels past gross. You could smell it way before you went in.
It seems to get really packed on the weekends so I’d reserve in advance.
Bring beer, a sleeping bag, and have fun!

Have camp here for 4 years in a row now and have never had a issue till this past weekend (Labor Day Weekend) Rangers were on our backs didn’t let us breath tried to shut us down every way they could but too bad for them we were paying customers and had all out ducks in a row!!! Let everyone else pass with all the non compliant things they were doing but had to come and try and bust out Balls every 4 hours… If u want to have a great vacation with camping, bomb fires and ATV’s do not come here they suck! Plus they do NOT clean there rest rooms often which is horrible since they are porta potty style restrooms uuugghhhh!!! Yuck

#1. 1 — 2 foot deep water pond you must drive through right before the campsite. No low sitting cars, water could get into your intake and screw up your engine. Translation: You would be stuck, stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Plenty of people and vehicles around to assist but you might need to be towed out. Everyone we saw seemed to have trucks and SUV’s, no problem. Motorcycles can go around the water on a side embankment.
#2. Green sticker OHV’s, motorcycles in summer months. Rangers come around and they do check. I heard they’d write up a red sticker bike even if it was parked at your camp. Reason: brought there with the intent to ride. Just what I heard.
#3. Crab Flats campground is all laid out with 8×8 post stumps in the ground. They made each campsite very narrow and at hard angles for you to back a trailer in. Totally ridiculous why they did this. In fact, if you’re planning on bringing a toy hauler, you can forget 90% of these campsites, you’ll never be able to maneuver or back them in. So I made a list of the only campsites that you can back a small 19 foot toy hauler into. #1 spot is the best (straight shot backing into, you’ll have to drive through the whole campground to position yourself to back in. Also the posts in spot #1 give narrow access at the beginning, but definitely doable) #5 is at an angle but NO POSTS! So, you’ll have an easier time trying to back into this wide open spot. #6 and #12 have posts and at an angle, but a little wider. #18 narrow posts but it is a straight shot making it easier to back into. All the rest are very narrow and hard angles so NO BIG TRAILERS for these ones. We saw many tents, small small trailers for bikes. In fact, we were the only toy hauler there and LUCKY enough to get spot #6 (the wider one) because our original reservation had us in #9 which we tried, but could not maneuver into. #6 was a designated open spot, no reservations, first come, first serve. I repeat, we were lucky that no one was in #6 !!!
#4. ATV’s should beware of the black diamond roads and trails. Huge rocks can damage the underside. My sons went out, one ATV had a chain come off the sprocket and a hole in the engine casing! I had to 4 wheel drive it just to get to them and haul the quad out of there! Extremely challenging and dangerous 4 wheel drive roads out there. Not for the inexperienced! Motorcycles seem to work best in and around Crab Flats.
#5 On a high note: Cell phone reception was excellent out there. We always had 3G & 4G reception!
#6. This is a remote family campground, everyone had the good manners to keep their noise level low, no loud drunks or blaring loud music here. But that was just our weekend, so who can say this always happens?
#7. Vault toilets were clean, water spigots at various spots around the camp. Campfires in the fire pits only.
Final thoughts: Kind of a long winding dirt road just get here. You will really be out in the boonies at Crab Flats. Make sure you remember to pack in everything you think you might need. We had fun here with my family, it’s nice to ride a dirt bike or an ATV around the pine trees. Certainly a change of scenery from the desert regions we always ride at! NEVER RIDE ALONE!!!

I love this campground — although a hot shower would be nice… perfect for a few daysfor riding your dirt bikes or ATV’s…beautiful trails, nice campground but a little too much dirt for me and to get water it’s a hike… all in all you cant beat it for your OHVing… would def stay again

The entrance to this place is very hard to find! It is a dirt path so you can easily miss it. You also have to drive through a small pond/​creek on the dirt path to get to the campground.
The camp host is very talkative and he drives around to collect trash from the bins everyday. Also during our stay, there was a bear that raided the cooler of meat in the adjacent camp at night. Store your food properly people! You are not very far from your neighbors but not very close either. My only complaint is the outhouse, its clean but smells horrendously.

Been here twice, good for ATVs. There’s nice trails around the area. If you’re looking to party out here without children, this may not be the place, depending on how rowdy you plan to be. This is a family destination, and there are alot of children out and about. It didn’t cramp our style, we just kept the language at low volume, so as not to offend the sensibilities of others. Camping spaces are large, it’s at a good price, and the attendant isn’t too bad.

We had an excellent time camping in Crab Flats. The campground was pretty hard to access but that was half the fun — it’s quite an adventure! An off-​reading adventure, to be more precise. You basically have to traverse a rocky dirt road for about 20 – 30 minutes before you get to a stream/​pond which you will have to cross to get to the campground. The stream was undoubtedly the trickiest part. You definitely have to have some kind of sport vehicle or a vehicle with some kind of lift. You don’t necessarily have to have an off-​roading vehicle. A 4 Runner was just fine for us. The trick with the pond is to keep going and don’t slow down or get stuck in the middle. The water was about 1 – 2 feet high when we went, so it went up to about the middle to upper part of the tires of the car. You definitely don’t want to do this with a low suspension vehicle — you have to have a mini-​van at the very least to reasonably do this. Also, be prepared to possibly have mechanical problems afterwards. The guys in front of us got water in their engine (or something — I am clearly not an expert at cars) and were stuck for a bit.
You should definitely have a GPS on hand to access this road.
Once you get to the campground, it’s great! The setup is awesome. You’re close to neighbors but not that close. The sky is crisp and beautiful up there, as it is throughout the mountain.
It’s also conveniently close to Big Bear Village and Lake and also Lake Arrowhead and Lake Arrowbear. Obviously you still have to cross that road and that stream every time you want to get back to the campground, but if you’re up for the challenge, it should be fine and it’s a lot of fun, in my opinion.

I went camping at Crab Flats with Devin R over a long weekend in the Spring. I was put at ease immediately after a windy trip up Arrowhead. Our campsite was around the corner from a hospital… relief. We set up camp and saw an amazing array of wildlife during our trip: bats, squirrels, birds, strange insects, spiders. We had a frightening encounter with a rattlesnake, it hissed and shook its tail wildly! It’s mouth was wide open, the serpent channeled Medusa.
The ranger was super nice and helpful. There was almost no one else at the campsite besides her and her dog! We had our choice of campgrounds, I chose one with a clean picnic bench towards the edge of the territory. The hiking trails offer a picturesque panorama of the mountains. The trails go through a range of terrains, through boulders, around a dry creekbed, under the cover of trees. I think the name is Crab Flats because he soil is very sandy, and some of the flora looks like underwater seaweed.