Stay At A Yurt At Cachuma Lake

The second stop of our winter break road trip was the Cachuma Lake campground near Santa Barbara. According to Google Maps, the driving time from Ronald Reagan Library should have been about an hour and half. However, it took us a grueling 5.5 hours! I blame it on the fact that I-5 was shut down due to snow and everyone and their mother decided to take the 101 instead.

How to Reserve A Yurt

Cachuma Lake has seven lake-side yurts available. Reservations can be made online here and range from $75-$100 per night, depending on the size. If you are not going to arrive at the campsite before 4 or 5 p.m., be sure to call ahead and let the ranger know. I called since we we were stuck in traffic, and the ranger kindly left the light on for our yurt and left the key inside for us. Since we arrived in pitch black darkness, our yurt was a bit difficult to find on our own, but thankfully we made it! Such a relief!

I reserved the Sage yurt for two nights right after Christmas. We could not even see the lake until the next morning, but what a view!

The Amenities

Each yurt has a door with a lock. The window coverings can be rolled up or down.

The Sage yurt is one of the smaller yurts available, sleeping 4-5 people. There were two bunks, with one of the bunks having a bigger mattress on the bottom. This worked our perfectly for our family of four. The kids slept on the top bunks (they still think this is fun!) while D and I slept on the bigger bottom mattress. We used the other empty mattress as a storage area for all of our stuff. We brought sheets to cover the mattresses and then used our sleeping bags and extra blankets on top. It was actually quite comfortable compared to camping! I seriously slept like a baby!

Besides the bunks, there was one small table and a small space heater. There was also an overhead light and a couple of electrical outlets. We brought an electric kettle to heat up water for cup o’ noodles, oatmeal and coffee/hot chocolate. There was also a fire pit right outside each yurt.

At night we played Bananagrams and Spot It, and read books in our cozy yurt. It was nice to spend some quality family time together.

The Restroom Situation

The closest bathroom was a bit of a trek from our yurt. It was perfectly fine during the day, but kind of a pain at night. However, the bathroom was one of the cleanest we have used at a campsite. Part of the reason may have been because it did not seem to be getting much use from fellow campers. (Who else is crazy enough to camp in December?) We never even ran into one other person while using it! I should also mention that here was a trio of port-a-potties that were closer to the yurts. D used one of them at night, but it was pretty bad, so this is not recommended!

A Spectacular View

Each yurt has a wrap-around deck that maximizes the lake view. Our deck had two plastic chairs for hanging out.

The Sage, Poppy and Lupine yurts have a nice sunset view, while the Oak, Sycamore, Pine and Redwood yurts reportedly have a glorious sunrise.

You could also see tons of stars once the sun went down. The nights we stayed in December were definitely cold (mid 30’s), but the space heater really helped. I would highly recommend the Cachuma Lake yurts if you are looking for a budget-friendly yurt experience in Southern California.