Palomar Mountain hiking and camping info

A little piece of the east coast (trees, shade, water, snow!) right here in San Diego. A real nice change of pace for locals, with camping and hiking opportunities. The trees here are surprisingly fat (esp, in the state park) and gnarled, which make for great photo ops and climbing.

There are three campgrounds, one in the state park, and two in the national forest.

Palomar Mountain State Park - campground, and most of the trails on the mountain.

Observatory campground - National forest, slightly cheaper than state park. Some of the spots are nicely nested in the trees, and some are out in the wide open, so be sure to book the type you want. Pay showers and flush toilets (free). A short trail leads to Fry Creek Campground.
There is also a trail to the observatory.

Fry Creek  - National forest campground, slightly cheaper than state park. Lots of good tree cover. The Fry creek trail leads to the state park, after a fashion.  About halfway along there is a bunch of unmarked roads (take the one going down hill), and then there is an unmarked trail just after a hairpin turn in the road. The unmarked trail is really hard to find, and somewhat hard to follow (there are plastic ribbons tied to the trees that help).  Watch for the poison oak along the trail. A GPS or at least a compass and a sense of direction is required! The trail is probably possible to find on a really old map of the state park, as it was official at one point and time, and just isn't maintained any longer.

Other info:

Current weather - conditions on the mountain tend to be a little cooler than the rest of San Diego, due to the elevation, but not much! Also, it does rain here, so it's worth checking before you go. 

Trail map inside the state park.

 Nate Henderson Grade road - hikable dirt road up the mountain - partially in the trees.
The Palomar Observatory is open 9 to 4.