Ghost Camp : Nature: Forest Service budget cutbacks force closure of once-crowded Crystal Lake grounds, and many other such facilities, to overnight visitors.

It looked like a camper’s fantasy.

Adam Eichler stood under a cobalt blue mountain sky and surveyed the Crystal Lake campground in Angeles National Forest on Saturday afternoon.

It was the first day of the long Memorial Day weekend, but Eichler had his pick of any campsite that caught his fancy. And he could have chosen any one of a couple dozen empty tables to use for a picnic with his family.

There was no holiday crush, no jockeying for parking places, no blaring radios, no idling cars to churn smog into the glorious air. And all this a mere hour and a half drive from Downtown Los Angeles.

Why then was Eichler upset?

“I am not a happy camper,” he proclaimed as his year-old daughter, Chelsea, snoozed on his shoulder.

The fantasy, it turns out, was a bad dream. Crystal Lake is a virtual ghost camp, a victim of U.S. Forest Service budget cuts.

Eichler and his wife, Gina, traveled to Crystal Lake with their three young children Friday night. The Huntington Beach family planned to spend the long weekend camping with another couple and their four children.

But when they arrived at Crystal Lake, they learned the grounds are now open to day use only and closed to overnight camping.

The families, who had traveled in a recreational vehicle and a minivan, pulled their vehicles onto a cement slab at the end of a road, and all 11 people squeezed into the RV for the night.

“It was ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ all over again,” Eichler said. “It was not a nice adventure because we couldn’t even have a campfire and roast wienies.” (At this time of year, open fires are not allowed outside the campground.)

Still, he admitted, the children enjoyed it.

“It was basically the parents who had to deal with the kids,” he said.

Facing another night in the RV, the parents were seriously considering a bailout.

“We can take the kids to the park,” Eichler said. “It’ll be the city life now.”

The Eichlers and their friends were among several dozen families turned away Friday. A roadside sign at the entrance to Angeles National Forest notes that the campground is closed to overnight stays, but the sign is easy to miss from the highway.

Victor and Domitila Flores missed the sign and were turned away. The couple, with their two young children, slept in the family car next to the road.

But on Saturday, the Floreses had set up their new blue tent at a campsite in the Crystal Lake grounds, knowing full well it would have to come down and they would have to leave by 5 p.m.

“I didn’t want to set up the tent,” said Victor Flores, “but the children said, ‘Papa, that’s why you bought it.’ ”

The cost-saving rules, which went into effect at Crystal Lake last Labor Day, prohibit more than just overnight camping. Under the new regulations, only hikers may use the area on weekdays because the grounds are closed to vehicles except on weekends.

National forests nationwide are facing similar budget-driven cutbacks. In the Mt. Baldy Ranger District, which includes Crystal Lake, 90% of the overnight campsites have been closed.

The new rules are also threatening the livelihood of the people who run the Crystal Lake Store.

Annette Denis, 66, and her brother-in-law Armand Denis, 67, have operated the rustic little store for the past dozen years. On previous holiday weekends their establishment would have been jammed with campers, hikers and fishing enthusiasts.

But Saturday the store was nearly empty. On a weekend that would ordinarily pack Crystal Lake with about 1,500 campers, there were only about 200 people in the area.

“We’re senior citizens trying to make a living and we’re not doing too well with it,” Annette Denis said. “I don’t know how long we can stay.”

“What aggravates me more is the people can’t come up and enjoy this,” Armand Davis said, gesturing toward the towering, pine-studded mountains. “It’s their campground.

“Why the U.S. Forest Service can’t get money to open this campground, I don’t understand.”