What are some good places to camp on a trip from San Francisco to San Diego?
I'm going to be traveling by car from San Francisco to San Diego over the course of a week and a half, camping in a tent along the way. Since I have a week to make this trip, it doesn't matter if I take a roundabout route (for example, going inland all the way to the Sierra Nevadas wouldn't bother me).
What are some good places for me to camp on the trip? I prefer to be as secluded as possible, to get away from it all. Also, the cheaper the better!
Thanks!
As I see it, you have 2 choices: Beach route or inland route. Doing both would take you a lot more than a week.
If you want to head inland, you can always take off from S.F. and head to Lake Tahoe. It is about 5 hours to drive. Then, I'd head south into Yosemite. Your only downfall about these two places is that it is summer and you might be hard-pressed to find a campsite. NO JOKE–in Yosemite Valley you usually have to reserve a campsite 6 months in advance. You might have more luck finding sites that are outside the park. (From Lake Tahoe to Yosemite, take highway 395) After Yosemite you could either stick with the 395 and head to Death Valley, then Interstate 10 to Joshua Tree. You could also leave Yosemite on the 120 and head to Interstate 5, which can take you to places like King's Canyon and Sequoia National Park, and then into the LA area.
If you wanted to go the beach route, skip the 1 (it will take much, much more than a week) and go on the 101. It gives you easy access to Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Big Sur, and San Simeon (Hearst Castle is a must see!), Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, The Santa Monica Mountains (you can hike there to see where the show MASH was filmed), Hollywood, and then to Interstate 5 which will drive down the Southern California coast and into San Diego.
My husband and I have done these trips many times and they are fabulous either way. It just depends on what you want to see. The coastal route offers many beach sites to camp. For a good reference on camping, I would recommend the book "California Camping;" that's our Bible.
Have fun!!!!
December 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Well - I don;t know if it is cheap, but Yellowstone National Park is a beutiful gem
References :
December 19th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Coastal trip would be Monterey, Redwoods, Santa Barbara, San Clemente and San Elijo… all the states parks along the way.
Inland check out Mammoth, Bishop/Lone Pine and Tehachapi.
References :
December 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am
New Brighton State beach in Santa Cruz is beautiful. You camp in the trees and have access to the beach. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=542
Then there is a San Onofre State Beach just north of San Diego where you can camp right at the beach.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=647
Then in San Diego a good place to camp is right on Mission Bay at Campland. This is nice because your close enough to everything but isolated enough to feel like camping.
http://www.campland.com/
References :
http://www.campland.com/
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=647
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=542
December 19th, 2008 at 7:08 am
As I see it, you have 2 choices: Beach route or inland route. Doing both would take you a lot more than a week.
If you want to head inland, you can always take off from S.F. and head to Lake Tahoe. It is about 5 hours to drive. Then, I'd head south into Yosemite. Your only downfall about these two places is that it is summer and you might be hard-pressed to find a campsite. NO JOKE–in Yosemite Valley you usually have to reserve a campsite 6 months in advance. You might have more luck finding sites that are outside the park. (From Lake Tahoe to Yosemite, take highway 395) After Yosemite you could either stick with the 395 and head to Death Valley, then Interstate 10 to Joshua Tree. You could also leave Yosemite on the 120 and head to Interstate 5, which can take you to places like King's Canyon and Sequoia National Park, and then into the LA area.
If you wanted to go the beach route, skip the 1 (it will take much, much more than a week) and go on the 101. It gives you easy access to Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Big Sur, and San Simeon (Hearst Castle is a must see!), Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, The Santa Monica Mountains (you can hike there to see where the show MASH was filmed), Hollywood, and then to Interstate 5 which will drive down the Southern California coast and into San Diego.
My husband and I have done these trips many times and they are fabulous either way. It just depends on what you want to see. The coastal route offers many beach sites to camp. For a good reference on camping, I would recommend the book "California Camping;" that's our Bible.
Have fun!!!!
References :