TOOBOLD wrote:
Please be advised that our state campgrounds start at $35/night for dry camping. Dockweiler Beach is a LA county park is $55-65/night.
I would look into San Diego County, Orange County and San Luis Obispo county parks more reasonable.
That is not true if you buy an annual pass or get the senior discount or stay at some of the day use areas. California has areas that are designated for day use but where you can stay overnight so long as you are gone by 9 AM the next day.
We pay on average $20 a day at the state parks where we stay. In some cases there are two sets of campgrounds and one with sewer hookups and one without and the full use fee is for the spaced with hookups. During the winter months and shoulder seasons we have found campgrounds with no fees as they do not want to staff the area when it is slow.
There are also primative dispersed camping areas in the US National Forest areas such as Los Padres where one can camp less than a mile from the ocean and have no need for reservations and no fees are charged.
I would not recommend county parks in the summer time. That is where the locals from the nearby towns go to party. Read the bad reviews for these places and note the time of the year that people stayed there. Same applies to sprink break and Xmas to New Years periods at these semi-urban parks.
