Southern California Beach Camping
August 5th – 11th, 2023 (6 nights)
When the weather gets hot, the best place to direct your travel trailer is toward the California coast. And, with so many fantastic locations from which to choose, it may even be possible to book a few beach campsites at the last minute! That’s exactly what we did when we needed a short trip to test out some new systems on the Scamp (and also enjoy some cool ocean breezes). Using the Reserve California website, we were able to find stray single night availability campsites (often from last minute cancellations or gaps in reservations) and piece several together from different beach campgrounds to create a nice trip along the coast. The Reserve California website is great because it shows many campground locations within a given area, so that if the one you are searching is booked there are others pictured which may show availability. To see a short video we made on our trip, click here.
Gaviota State Park (Gaviota, “meaning Seagull in spanish”)
Located about thirty minutes north of Santa Barbara, Gaviota State Park is a small parking lot style campground adjacent to a nice beach. We were camped in site #038 ($45/night + $7.99 reservation fee, good Verizon cellphone coverage) toward the back of the campground. There are water spigots, but no other hookups here. We read it can get quite windy here (sometimes blowing away tents), but it was calm during our stay. When we arrived, we inadvertently started testing our Scamp systems when we discovered that, even though our water pump was on, we had no water at our sink! Fortunately, I remembered what our plumber Oscar had taught us – if you don’t use your plumbing for a while, your water pump can lose its prime. I removed the PEX connection at one side of the pump, and, with the pump on, let the water squirt out for a couple of seconds. Then, I reattached the PEX and the pump’s prime was restored and the water worked! Phew!
The public pier (with a boat hoist) is now closed due to damage sustained from past storms. One of the most striking features at the campground is the 811-foot span, 80 feet high Gaviota railroad trestle (erected by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1900) which towers over Gaviota Creek as it enters the Pacific Ocean. The trestle is one of Amtrak’s most photographed landmarks anywhere in the country. To capture a photo of the trestle with a train passing over, use Amtrak’s train tracker to get an idea when the train is coming. We found that trains arrive at the trestle within about 15 minutes of leaving or arriving at Gaviota station. Freight trains also pass over the trestle but their schedules may be harder to determine.
In addition to enjoying the beach (swimming, relaxing, kite flying, fishing), there is a nice trail (strenuous, 3 miles round trip) that goes to the Gaviota Wind Caves up in the mountains behind the campground. Walk up Hollister Ranch Road toward Hollister Ranch (adjacent to the campground station entrance) and access the trail at the top of the grade through the gate on the right. The dirt path leads up a strenuous mountain trail to the striking sandstone caves with distant ocean views. Hollister Ranch Road also makes for a nice walk adjacent to and above the ocean and we could spot several dolphin pods on a morning walk. You can also drive north down the road, but there is a guard gate at the entrance to Hollister Ranch which is only open to residents and workers. Hollister Ranch is a gated 14,000 acre private residential community amidst a working cattle ranch. Some of the residents include filmmaker James Cameron, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and musician Jackson Browne. There is much controversy here about the ranch and its residents blocking public beach access to its pristine beaches (among some of the best surfing beaches in the country). For a detailed article on this click here.
An interesting recent study by UC researchers using motion activated cameras found a myriad of unexpected animals visit the beach here (including coyotes and bears)!
Emma Wood State Beach (Ventura)
Emma Wood State Beach is about an hour and a half south of Gaviota State Park. We stopped along the way at the Winchester 76 gas station in Goleta to dump ($7.50). Emma Wood State Beach campground is “primitive” with no hookups (no bathrooms, electricity, or dump, not even water spigots). Only travel trailers are allowed and they must be self-contained with bathrooms (tents are not permitted). We had site #055 ($40/night + $7.99 reservation fee, good Verizon cellphone coverage) which was incredibly close to the water’s edge (we estimate waves breaking less than 30 feet from the rear of our Scamp at high tide!). A notice on the parks website says “high tides may close the campground at any time.” Looking and listening out the Scamp’s back rear window facing the ocean made us feel like we were on a boat. The breaking waves were loud, masking any possible road noise from Pacific Coast Highway above. Even the occasional train passing by was hard to hear.
Due to the proximity to downtown Ventura and an excellent bike path, there’s a lot to see and do at the campground. We went out to lunch with our friends Cheryl & Hugh to Andria’s Seafood Restaurant in Ventura Harbor. They serve nice salads and all types of fish as well as burgers. We hadn’t seen our friends for some time, so it was nice catching up. We strolled through the harbor after lunch and checked out the boats and shops. We also stopped in the Channel Islands National Park visitor’s center and at the transportation company shop, Island Packers Cruises, to find out about how to visit the Channel Islands (boats to the Channel Islands National Park islands leave from this harbor). Back at the campground, we walked along the bike path which goes on almost all the way to downtown Ventura. Many of the campers here brought their electric bikes and were riding the path. Downtown Ventura is really quaint and inviting with a lot of interesting shops and restaurants. The old Mission Basilica Buena Ventura here can be viewed for free during masses or by paying the $5 entrance fee. We will bring our bikes the next time we visit this campground.
Thornhill Broome Campground (Pt. Mugu State Park, Malibu)
Only about thirty minutes south of Emma Wood State Beach, Thornhill Broome Campground is right on the sand (quite a distance back from the water). We had site #17 (31 foot maximum length, $35/night + $7.99 reservation fee, water spigots, no cellphone service, no visitor center or store). There’s a nice wide sandy beach here with a scenic view of Pt. Mugu. There’s also significant road noise (as well as headlight glare at night) from car traffic on Pacific Coast Highway just behind the campground. We needed to use ear plugs to sleep so we wouldn’t hear car and truck traffic noise. The closest stores or town is downtown Malibu (about 8 miles south).
I used the app PhotoPills to time and plan an aerial sunset photo; the app has an AR mode which shows where and when the sun will be throughout the day. Just a little ways down the road, Sycamore Canyon Campground is across the street from Sycamore Cove beach and offers a quiet canyon campground setting with an abundance of sycamore trees (free dump here). A number of trails start at this campground. We hiked the Scenic Trail and Overlook Fire Road Trail (about 2 miles round trip). We would stay here if passing by again instead of Thornhill Broome Campground (due to less road noise, available dump, and easier turn around).
We had an unexpected surprise on the morning of our departure. We found out the campground turnaround was washed out during a recent storm, so turning the trailer around would be difficult (as there was only about a car length of open width on the road). I tried lifting the Scamp’s tongue to see if I could manually turn the Scamp around 180 degrees. However, the tongue was too heavy for me to lift (somewhere between 100 and 200 pounds). I think it would have been easy for me to turn the Scamp around manually if I had brought my trailer dolly, but we didn’t know about the closed turnaround so we didn’t bring it. (My friend Perry had a great idea which he suggested after the trip — try having someone sit on the Scamp bumper to help reduce the tongue weight). We ended up getting a bit stuck in the sand (while being directed during our turnaround by another trailer owner), but finally managed to get out of the sand by unhitching the Scamp. The other trailer owner helped us lift our Scamp by the tongue and physically pick up the trailer and turn it around. We then hitched up and were able to get out of there! Phew! Life lesson – never drive in soft sand if there isn’t concrete under it! Yikes!
Overall Thoughts on Beach Camping
The beach camping experience was a fantastic time (overall). The scenic beauty of the ocean and trails, the sounds of the waves and nature, and the friendly people (and family) we met along the way made it all worthwhile. It was also very satisfying experiencing how all the systems and knowledge in our Scamp we put together over the past several years really came together to make the trailer very self-contained. And, the new lithium battery and DC-DC charger allow us to use our 12 volt refrigerator while driving and greatly extend the time we can stay without electrical hookups (almost indefinitely) (article forthcoming). And, we seem to get stronger and learn whenever we have adversity on an adventure. Fortunately, we didn’t have any issues we couldn’t solve during this trip!
Disclaimer: You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale. These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences. However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer. It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.
