RE: no reservation beach side camping in california

[wavemaker]

 
hey all you california campers,
 
 id like to find a (no hookup) no reservation seaside campground, in or about san diego area
 i have 2 little dogs that im bringing so they have got to be allowed..
 i dont need a regular campground but a place i can popup for about 5 days
 a campground would do but i dont need any hookups...
 we havent picked a date yet but it will be soon...
 Thanx in advance
 Dean

[Camping Coxes]

 wavemaker
This is pretty difficult to do.  The beach campgrounds in the area are pretty rough, but they fill up very fast.  I wouldn t  plan on staying at any of them without a reservation.  Good luck.

[forestwalker]

 wavemaker
Would probably have to be a privately owned park-not a state,or county park.Still,call ahead.

[Ab Diver]

 wavemaker
Dean, I don t think you re gunna find anything like that down there. Too many people, not enough beach. SoCal members would know better than I, but the closest place like that I can think of is that beach north of Ventura along Hwy 101 where lots of rigs are parked bumper to bumper. Can any Ventura-based Snickers confirm this? What say, gsm x2 (Scott) ?
 
 I do know a nice California beach where you can do exactly what you have in mind, but it s about 600 miles out of your way...

[griffsmom]

 wavemaker

 

ORIGINAL:  wavemaker
 id like to find a (no hookup) no reservation seaside campground, in or about san diego area
 

 I m not sure such a thing exists, and I ve lived here all my life![]
 
 You might try San Clemente State Beach; it s just North of the San Diego county line.  They have hook-up sites for campers, but OC Camper has also camped in the tent section (no hook-ups) with her camper.  There is also San Onofre SB in that same area.  It has 2 sections: San Mateo, about 1.5 miles from the beach, which has hook-up sites for campers, no hook-ups for the tent area, but you could probably camp with your camper in that section as well.  The second section of San O is the Bluffs, a paved access road that runs parallel to the freeway and the train tracks.  It s noisy!!!  The beach there is nice (Trail 4 has a nicely formed wave if you surf)  but to get to the beach, you have to walk about 1.25 miles down a paththat cuts through the blufffs.  The walk down isn t so bad, it s the walk up that can be a bit tiring.  Unless you re looking to camp mid-week, you ll probably be hard-pressed to find an opening.  And all of these cgs require reservations (thru ReserveAmerica).
 
 Closer to San Diego is San Elijo SB. Again reservations are necessary through RA, and if you don t already have them, forget it until about November or December if you re looking to camp there on a weekend.  The view of the beach at San Elijo is nice--again good for surfing--but the cg itself is a little bit (but not much) more than a paved parking lot, with everyone jammed in.  The weekend we stayed there, the campers were a bit rowdy, and quiet hours were ignored.  Camping etiquette didn t seem to be high on their list either, except for the very nice people next to us who showed us how to light our hot water heater.  (It was our maiden voyage and they had a Sun Valley just like us!)  Oh yeah, the train runs by there quite often as well.  [>:]
 
 The only beach that I know of in SoCal that doesn t allow reservations is Jalama Beach up by Santa Babrbara.  Sites are given out on a first-come basis, and campers line up early in the morning to get a spot.  You need to have a back up plan for Jalama in case you don t get a site.
 
 Hope that helps at least a little bit.  Good luck with this! Let us know if you find out any gems![]
 

[Dee4j]

 wavemaker
the only way you re going to get in any where w/o a reservation is a private park
 My best Guess would be campland on the bay  http://www.campland.com
 but that depends on weekdays or weekends
 Good Luck

[gsm x2]

 wavemaker

SoCal members would know better than I, but the closest place like that I can think of is that beach north of Ventura along Hwy 101 where lots of rigs are parked bumper to bumper. Can any Ventura-based Snickers confirm this? What say, gsm x2 (Scott) ?

 Dave--you got it right.  That s the county park right along the highway.  There are also two small campgrounds tucked on spits of land along that road too and two state parks and a private campground right next to the Ventura River.  Don t know the reservation procedures...seems that if we don t travel at least 100 - 300 miles from home, it just isn t camping.
 
 G-Whiz:  Why do we drive 250+ miles to go camping?  Oh yeah--NNC and SCC people.  That s it.  []
 
 gsm x2

[Unregistered]

Anyone interested in primitive camping right on the beach?  This is between San clemente and Oceanside.  Only between Friday nite and Sunday nite though.

Wil      wthoms2000@yahoo.com

[Unregistered]

they're  first come first serve... no reservations. Good Luck, you'll need it.

wavemaker


 

 Dave--you got it right.  That s the county park right along the highway.  There are also two small campgrounds tucked on spits of land along that road too and two state parks and a private campground right next to the Ventura River.  Don t know the reservation procedures...seems that if we don t travel at least 100 - 300 miles from home, it just isn t camping.

 

 G-Whiz:  Why do we drive 250+ miles to go camping?  Oh yeah--NNC and SCC people.  That s it.  []

 

 gsm x2

[Unregistered]

It's very unlikly, however you can try to drive up to any beach campsite without a reservation.  There are sometimes cancellations, or no-shows.  I have camped at Refugio, Malibu Creek, Morro Strand, Bolsa Chica, El Capitan, South Carlsbad, and San Onofre without reservations.  For each time that I did get a spot I was turned away at least once.  I havn't tried this method since I became a family man, but it was fun when I was in high school and college.

wavemaker
This is pretty difficult to do.  The beach campgrounds in the area are pretty rough, but they fill up very fast.  I wouldn t  plan on staying at any of them without a reservation.  Good luck.