Carpinteria State Beach

Carpinteria, CA.
Friday, November 4, 2011


Carpinteria is located just south of Santa Barbara, CA. A small town that boasts "The Worlds Safest Beach". I don't know how safe it is, or what it is safe from, it is a VERY nice beach. The park is located at the end of the towns main street, Linden Ave, making it a close walk to all of the towns amenities, (Grocery stores, restaurants, small markets and much more). There is a real nice micro brewery that serves their beer right across the RR tracks.

   There are 4 loops total, the third (Santa Rosa) of which is the most popular but I don't really like it because it is just plain cramped!! It is the only loop with full hookups, but in most spots you can't fit your truck in the spot with your trailer and you are just a couple feet away from the next guy. Also parking the RV is extremely difficult due to the narrow roads, it can be done, but the guy across from you might have to move a little, no fun. 

Loop 1: (Anacapa) No hookups. Single room restrooms. Fire rings and tables.
Loop 2: (Santa Cruz) No hookups. Single room restrooms. Fire rings and tables.
Loop 3: (Santa Rosa) Full hookups. Stalled restrooms and showers. Extremely narrow roads

• Row 1: beachfront medium driveways
• Row 2: longest driveways, small yard
• Row 3: short driveway, tiny yard
• Row 4: medium driveway, big yard
• Golden spot: 124. Corner beach side spot.
• Other golden spots: 76 146 134, see picture

Loop 4: (San Miguel) Wider roads.

• Row 1: Beachfront, short driveway.
• Row 2: W/E hookups, longer driveway, tiny yard.
• Row 3: W/E hookups, shorter driveway, tiny yard.
• Row 4: No hookups, short driveway, big yard.

Site 59, loop 2, close to dump, no hook-ups, good non hook-up spot.

Site 72 has an open area outside your door, but NO satellite reception anywhere on the site.
Site 76 is the best in the back row.

Pros: 

• Walking distance to town
• Great beach
• Nice restrooms
• Great ocean and island views
• Good AT&T cell coverage

Cons:

• "Prison guard" like rangers and old & ugly, power hungry, camp "Hosts".
• Tough to get a reservation
• Cramped RV loop
• Sewage smell in loop 1

	Visitor Center [Map]		Hike 'n Bike [Map]
	Entrance [Map]		New play area near Linden. [Map]
	Raccoon prints coming out of fire ring. [Map]		To the north. [Map]
	Oil platforms and an island [Map]		To the south [Map]
	2 laned dump station [Map]		River [Map]
			Spot 76 [Map]
	Spot 146 [Map]		Spot 134 [Map]
	Loop 3 spot [Map]		Wildlife [Map]

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Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area (BVARA)

Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area, Lake Webb (Website)

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This HUGE campground is located in the south end of the San Joaquin Valley about an hour and a half north of Los Angeles off of the I-5. Theoretically this is a perfect campground, however there is a problem that I will describe later. First off let me say that the sites are HUGE here. My site had full hook-ups, a pull thru driveway, a concrete pad with fire pit, table and tree as well as a huge lawn and even a small beach. Very nice for the RV'er. If you are tent camping, you are in for trouble. Here is a camping map.

   There are boat launching facilities, a land and water gas station, what looked like a nicely stocked store/food bar, TONS of overflow parking, dump station, a playground and lots of room to roam. You can ever moor your boat at the campsite, some people were sleeping in theirs. I drove around the place in the morning at it looked like there are hundreds of sites here even though their website doesn't show it, see this.

***WARNING! This video is near site 15, the noise is deafening!***

I was in site 47, which I would shoot for next time. The sites across the st. had the hookups on the wrong side. Don't camp anywhere near site 15, there was some kind of pump , a REALLY loud pump going non-stop. 

   The restrooms are worse than in most inner-city parks, one toilet, (some with a door), one urinal and one, well kind of a sink thing, this can was disgusting! And there is one restroom for about 30 campsites, good luck with that. The problem I had with this place is the bugs. I was there at the beginning of September, hot but still not in the real heat of the summer, however the flying insects made it miserable. We arrived just after dark, set up camp and had to rush inside the trailer to escape the flying, gnat type things, ALL LIGHTS OFF!! They still got in but I was able to get rid of them by removing a vent screen and turning on the exhaust fan in that vent. After I started a fire, they thinned out a little with the smoke. In the morning there was a breeze coming off of the lake and there were no bugs out, well, that I could see. When I walked around my trailer, the side away from the lake was COVERED with flys hiding from the wind. When it stopped, the swarm was on! Hopefully this is only a summer problem.


Pros: 

• Nice lake
• Close to home
• Huge spots

Cons:

• Horrible restrooms
• Flying insects

	My site, they are HUGE!! [Map]		Sunrise over the lake. [Map]
	The "beach" and an island. [Map]		My entire site, I've seen group sites that are smaller [Map]
	The cool 20' concrete slab with table and fire ring [Map]		Restroom and playground [Map]
	Backward hookups on inner side of road [Map]		Inside, a 1 holer for about 30 HUGE campsites. Bring an RV! [Map]
	Rules [Map]		What happened to rule #9?? [Map]
	Land and water gas stations. [Map]		Store and gas. [Map]
	Sign [Map]		No shortage of overflow parking, ACRES! [Map]
	Islands, palm trees and silos. [Map]		You can keep your boat in the water at your site. [Map]

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Wine Country RV Park

 

Wine Country RV Resort  (Website)
Paso Robles, CA.
Friday, September 2, 2011

While not really "real" camping, this place is really the only place in El Paso De Robles to stay in a RV, with the exception of the one north of town which does not look like a place I would want to stay. I believe it was about $75 a night for a nice spot, all full hookups and not unlike any other place, there are good and not so good spots. They have premium spots, pull thrus, concrete, decomposed granite and a couple dirt spots. Some up against a block wall, on a hilltop, right next to the next guy or up against the vineyard next door with an awesome view and great sunsets! Our favorite is spot 87 because it is one of the few vineyard spots where the vegetation  is minimal leaving an unobstructed view of the grapes, but that may change in time (See picture of spot 87). There are no fire pits in the sites and I don't know if you can bring your own.

        We like to go here in October because of the harvest festival, lots happening at various wineries as well as wine tasting at the RV park in the clubhouse. The pools here are nice but usually full of kids, however the jacuzzi is AWESOME! A fairly new spa built amongst concrete rock formations complete with a waterfall and a gas firepit. And best of all, NO KIDS ALLOWED!

    The winery next door is Eos, formerly Firestone. The people there are quite bitchy but the wine was good and you get there by going through a gate from the RV park and walking up in between the vines, it's very cool. There is also a nice waterpark across the street. The also have a small store on-site with all the usual stuff, but this store has lots of wine and wine accessories.


Pros:

• The jacuzzi 
• Close proximity to wineries
• Not too many screaming kids
• Friendly staff
• Good AT&T cell coverage

Cons:

• Reservations can't be made online
• Some highway noise

	Trail to the winery next door. [Map]		Love it! [Map]
	The awesome adult spa. [Map]		Grillin!! [Map]
	Squee chillin near the vineyard. [Map]		Tasting all weekend in the clubhouses. [Map]
	Local wildlife [Map]		Sign [Map]
	Spot 87 [Map]		Grilling in a vineyard [Map]

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Morro Strand State Beach

Morro Strand State Beach

Monday, July 4, 2011

Morro Strand State Beach, not to be confused with Morro Bay State park or even Morro Strand State beach day use, is located roughly halfway between Morro Bay and Cayucos, California. This campground seems to be an abandoned beach parking lot that has been resurected as a beach camping paradise with breathtaking views of the infamous Morro rock as well as the Pacific ocean. The beach here is a wide, flat
sandy seaweed cemetary, but with the amazing aroma of sea air and rotting, stagnant runoff water that must be traversed to reach the rough but shallow surf. If you do decide to spend the day on the sand here, setup your daycamp on DRY and SEAWEED-FREE real estate or you could get eaten by sand bugs or end up fishing your belongings out of the rapidly rising water! Pay Attention!
81 spots, no hookups. Center spots share a tiny grass area with the people across from you, nice only if you are camping with friends. Oceanside spots are pretty small also, not really good for tents, but ok for RV's. The inland spots are the biggest and if you get the right one or ones you can have a HUGE area (See picture of spots 55 & 56.) The beachfront sites don't have a view anyway, just a dune and vegetation.


Pros:

• No hookups (Can be a bad thing too)
• Near ocean and town
• Well maintained

Cons:

• No hookups 
• No campground showers

	My site from the road above. [Map]		The beach, the booth and the rock! [Map]
	The rock from the beach. [Map]		The entrance [Map]
	The stairs to the road above. [Map]		Spots 55 and 56 [Map]
	The center median. [Map]

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