This is a beautiful setting for a southern Calif. ocean side park. It's large but sites we saw are spaced nicely apart. The park was almost empty, which surprised us at this time of year. We were unable to find pull throughs and hookups, as stated at the Calif. State Park website. We dry camped. There were no rangers in attendance and users had to register and deposit the fees self-serve. Clean and handy. We will stay here again. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is no longer an RV park, but an uppity, high-end, no-cars-allowed-in-the-park neo-wannabe-Native American Chumash mishmash "refined rural retreat". Basically, all the rv pads were converted to cabins, ranging from canvas tents to cedar cabins. Rates run from $135 to $305 per night. The web site has a history link, which goes all the way back to the creation of the earth by the Great Spirit. The real
story comes at the end, where a new owner converted the park to high-end cabins, and is trying to make a buck using New Age philosophy disguised as a reverence for Native American (Specifically Chumash) culture. It's nice enough, I suppose, but very expensive and pretentious and not really for RV'ers. If I wanted to stay in a
canvas tent cabin, I would pay $49 in Yosemite, not $150 in Goleta. Feel that wind? It's your money blowing away! We camped here in a Campground Cabins.
Review Rating
[ 5 / 10 ]
1999
$25
We stayed here for about three months in 1999. It is the closest campground (with electricity) to Santa Barbara. Very rustic, lots of trees, running creek. There are two dump stations, or for long term stays they offer pump out at no charge. It's about 20 mi north of Santa Barbara, but is the best place to stay if you are visiting SB. We camped here in a camper.
Dry Camping and full, but what a lovely place! Traffic noise from the freeway was kind of a drag but clean and do-able. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Rural, dry-camping. Our site 65 was awful, no where near the ocean, across from the old dump station, next to the freeway and not even wide enough for our awning to open. On the plus side, its Reserve America state beach: cheap and woodsy. Just choose your campsite carefully. We may or may not stay here again. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Good over night stop, nice and cool after a long drive from the desert! Great beaches around for shell collectors. A little windy, so watch your hats. Nice place to make a day stop while going north or south. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is a wonderful campground. It is not an RV park - but there is one across the street - nearly 4xs the price and not as good a location. Few sites have ocean views (and would have a lot of foot traffic passing by), but they are all a short walk. I think the previous reviewer was wrong about the length limit. My site had a 30 ft limit, but other sites are longer. I saw some pretty big RVs. Also, about half the sites were occupied by RVs of some sort. You can book up to six months in advance, and the park is usually full. OTOH, if you keep checking the site, you can get cancellations. That is what we did. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Nice park. Mostly for tenters. Only one section accommodates any RV/Trailer longer than 20 feet. The views from some sites is great, most do not look over the ocean. The campground is up high above the beach with trails and stairs down to the water. Overall a nice place to get away for a weekend. We camped here in a Motorhome.
The campground is nice, but the rules aren't enforced. Dogs that barked all day long. Cars parked in places that they shouldn't, like on the grass at the bike and camp area. Showers were clean but no hot water. We will come back again because we enjoy camping here. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This state park campground is right by the ocean. Unfortunately it's also right by Highway 101, so the traffic noise and train noise was loud all night (even with ear plugs). The sites have fire pits, picnic tables, grass and trees. Most of them looked level and were large widthwise, but not always lengthwise. A newer bathhouse was cleaner and nicer than an older one, but overall neither was as clean as the one we used at San Simeon (and that was a Saturday night as opposed to a Wednesday, go figure). There were a lot of tent campers. The park only allows generators between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., which makes preparing breakfast difficult. We camped here in a Motorhome.
The beach here is beautiful. If you are lucky enough to get a spot (they book up 6 months in advance), enjoy the ocean. The sites are nothing exciting, very old pavement, more like gravel and no hookups, dump station, etc. There is a great bike path that goes from Refugio State Park to El Capitan State Park about 2.5 miles away that has beautiful views. We camped here in a Motorhome.