Pines Campground
Restoration Project
Essential Ojai
Hey all you Ojai hikers! Some of you long timers will remember the former glory of Pines Campground, up Horn Canyon, beginning at Thacher School. This campsite is dear to me and my family. First the drought and then the fire changed it dramatically. With permission from the Los Padres Forest Service we are getting it back into shape. We hope to finish the site before the end of 2023 or early 2024, but it is already looking much better.
Check this page for updates and add your images, thoughts, and questions to the Forum.
At some point soon, with the direction of the Forest Service, new trees of some kind will go in, to join the seven pine trees that have endured. Subscribe and we will email you updates.
August 2024
The creeks are flowing well. The spring at the camp has stopped. The camp needs to be cleared again, which we can do by mid-September.
I've been hiking to the Pines as long as I can remember. I'm sure as a young child I complained the entire way. I come from a large family, with aunts and uncles who love Ojai and love our mountains. From the very beginning, we camped at the Pines (among many other places in our region), played flashlight tag, drummed and played guitar, told scary stories, and worked our way up to the Ridge. In 1987 my mother, Cristina Gilman (unmarried name Mellein), died in an accident at Wheeler Hot Springs, where we both worked. We placed her ashes at the Pines and planted trees there. In 2007 my grandfather Page Gilman died and his ashes are there as well. Coming full circle, all of my children (now adults) have hiked and camped there, and soon my new grandson Ezra (born April 2023) will make his way there... probably complaining the entire way, until he complains that he can't get back there fast enough. Click on the images below for more details.
Andy Gilman
Director of the
Agora Foundation
This is a young tree in our back yard, grown from a pine nut from the Pines Campground, began by my aunt Julia.