1. I was in California Hot Springs, camping with friends.2. I was trying to show a fellow camper the difference between a plane and a satellite, he had never seen a clear sky without light pollution.3. At first I thought the object was a plane because of the initial blink.4. The object was stationary like a star. It blinked once, which is what got my attention. the second blink seemed to be brighter and slightly larger. The third blink was almost like a camera flash. It was more of a directed light. It did not light up or brighten the area of the campground but almost like someone turning on a flashlight directed at your eyes. Afterwards the object continued to blink about 4-7 more times. With less light that the 2nd and 3rd flash.5. When the bright flash hit my eyes I had turned my head and looked at my fellow campers, asked them if they had seen the flash and then showed them the object. We talked about how it was not flashing in any type of pattern and how dark the area was when there was no light flashing. They confirmed the sighting and as we watched it stopped blinking.6. It just disappeared. Stopped blinking. We watched the area in and within about 30-60 seconds, what looked like satellites from two different directions seemed to cross the sky in that area... not exactly in the path of what we had seen but just below it in reference to the horizon.I have camped up there many time and I have seen lots of activity in the sky in regards to passing satellites and planes; however, this was different and left me feeling uneasy. I have never reported anything like this and feel a bit silly now but if there is an explanation for what I and my friends saw I would be VERY happy to hear it.