camping on the beach?

[Tiki21]

so there is tent camping at silver strand?

[futbol]

Let me ask a friend who would know.

We camped as a group (Scouts) in tents last year on the Crown Cove side. It could be that they only allow groups/organizations to stay there.

I'll post here once he lets me know.

[futbol]

Got a quick reply from my camping friends... (my notes at the end):

• The campsite on the bay side of the Silver Strand State Beach (SB) is just for groups and it is a hassle to reserve.
• There is a parking lot on the Silver Strand that can be used by self contained RVs for camping.
• Fiesta Island is only for Youth Groups. If they believe that you are family camping they will not let you use the site. I once tried to reserve it for Cub Scout Pack Camping, and once I called it Family Camping they would not let me have a reservation no matter how much I tried to explain that we were a Youth Group.
• Campland on the Bay is a private campground on Mission Bay. It tends to be pricey, but it is an option.
• San Elijo SB and South Carlsbad SB are campgrounds between the beach bluff and the coast hiway. Summer Time reservations are very difficult to get. I seem to remember that you can make reservations 6 months in advance, and they tend to sell out an entire month worth of reservations within minutes of the first reservation day. For instance, for an August weekend, you can submit your reservation request online on February 1st. The campsites on the ocean bluffs are preferred, because the ocean drowns out the hiway noise, but you pay a premium for these sites.
• I am not that fond of San Onofre SB. You basically camp on the old hiway which in parallel to I5. And it is a good walk to the beach.
• I prefer San Clemente SB over San Onofre SB. You can still hear I5, but you are a little further from the freeway. It feels more like a campground. You still need to walk to the beach.
• I have found it a little easier to get reservation at San Clemente than at San Elijo or South Carlsbad.
• I have camped at Doheny SB near Dana Point. You camp very close to the beach. I don't remember the time of year I was there but the beach was not that great for swimming.
• There is primitive beach camping on Pendeleton, but you need some sort of a cnnection to get this woked out.
• I believe that there is also a campground at the south end of San Diego Bay located in Chula Vista, possibly a KOA campground.
• Those are the only ones I (we) can think of that are accessible to the general public. The State beaches are typically tough to get into this time of year, they usually book up the day the reservations are available.
  

If you know someone with a military ID, try to reserve a spot at Camp Pendelton's beach. They have cabins, big fire rings, and lots of room.

I actually liked San Onofre SB. The walk down to the beach was not that bad (5 minutes) and not too noisy. Some lots fill with people who party through the night.

[scratchNsniff]

The closest I know of is up by Pismo Beach/Grover Beach. $10/day, no reservations needed, you can drive on the sand and it's RIGHT on the beach. It's rough though, mostly self contained RVs with quads so it's a quick drive to the dunes for them, but it's a long walk to the outhouse if you don't have those things. The sand tore my friend's bumper off trying to get our (rental!) car out though and we were exhausted and covered in sand by the time we left. This was all because my out of state friends just thought you could roll up on a beach anywhere and camp, one of them even wanted to sneak into what looked like a power generating station. I'm not that much of a rebel.