Boondocking in Southern California???

[unsinkable]

We are going to be "on call" for babysitting 2 grandkids this winter. They live in Santa Monica. We would like to be able to get to them within a few hours, without having to stay at one of the expensive parks in the Los Angeles area.
Does anyone know of anywhere we could boondock, or of a park nearby with reasonable rates??
Thanks so much,
Karen & Wayne

[NinerBikes]

unsinkable wrote:
We are going to be "on call" for babysitting 2 grandkids this winter. They live in Santa Monica. We would like to be able to get to them within a few hours, without having to stay at one of the expensive parks in the Los Angeles area.
Does anyone know of anywhere we could boondock, or of a park nearby with reasonable rates??
Thanks so much,
Karen & Wayne

A county like Los Angeles, with 10 million people in it, is unreasonable for even thinking about boondocking, if you need to be "on call". I'd think your kids would be better off hiring a baby sitter. JMHO, since I live in Los Angeles. Being on call in Los Angeles is completely unrealistic, no matter how badly you want to babysit your grand children.

[vermilye]

One of my favorite southern CA locations is the Imperial Dam LTV BLM area.. Probably too far away from Santa Monica for you, but a great community on 3000 acres. $40.00 for 2 weeks, $180 for 7 months. Dumpsters, a dump station & fresh water available; you can be as close (or distant) from your neighbors as you want.

[socal]

Think "Slab City." Free but not for the faint of heart. Probably 3 hours east of L.A..

David
San Diego

[LenSatic]

(It sure would be helpful if people who ask questions on these forums would reply to those of us who offer our advice. In this thread, it could help us narrow down that advice. If nothing else, it lets us know that they are being read.)

LS

[SCVJeff]

Geobiker wrote:
Check out a long term stay; ie month or more at Ventura Oaks RV Park, Oak View, CA.

that's a 90 minute trip at 2AM

[wintersun]

Count on taking an hour to go 10 miles at commute hours in that area. There are multiple freeways that intersect in the area and an accident on one soon brings the others to a crawl. I have spent 4 hours getting across the city of Santa Ana on the freeway. In other words if you are staying somewhere that is 30 miles away it could be 2 hours drive time to get to your children's house.

[Geobiker]

Check out a long term stay; ie month or more at Ventura Oaks RV Park, Oak View, CA.

[tpi]

Quite a bit involved here. How often is the on call babysitting going to happen? Is it something planned a day or two out?

Draw circle on map 100 120 miles out from Santa Monica. If you're that far out the "few hours" trip can only be accomplished during minimal traffic periods-so advance planning is necessary. The cheapest areas, or areas likely to have cheap/free public camping will be in desert areas. There are scatterings of other public campsites at Lake Cachuma, Santa Paula area, San Gabriel mountains, San Bernardino mountains, Riverside County parks.

The suggestion of long term stay at RV parks in the San Fernando Valley is worth checking out.

Check out forestcamping.com with reference to Los Padres National Forest, Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest. Check out campsitephotos.com for campgrounds in your sphere of range.

Or is the distance worth it? Alternatives pay the cost to be as close as possible to Santa Monica, stay in extra room in their house, or look into some kind of RV parking arrangement at neighbors, local businesses, vacant property, -something arranged in advance by people with local knowledge.

[mrw8i]

From almost any location; the drive to Santa Monica in the morning and the drive away from Santa Monica in the afternoon can be brutal. However, if more than one person in the car it can be a little better with prudent use of diamond lanes if possible.

[MrWizard]

There are some RV parks in the San Fernando Valley
Several nice ones in the Northridge area
Easy access to the 405 freeway
Time of travel depends on the time of day and the day of the week
Early Saturday morning easy peasy
Friday evening could take two hours

Leo Carrillo is a state beach park, two week limit $42 per night
And hw 101 often becomes a parking lot

Any boon docking is going to take hours to travel to Santa Monica unless it's 3 am

[Sloop_Smitten]

Probably looking towards the desert if you want to keep cost minimal. Yucca Valley RV Park has some pretty reasonable monthly and weekly rates and is not too far from the Palm Springs area. A little over two hours out.

[mrw8i]

Few hours. The upper desert area for boondocking might work, but could be a bit far. 14 day stay limits, etc; so you'd have to move around. This time of year it is starting to cool down so not too hot during the day and cool at night. Middle of winter it can downright get cold. Lots of places if you are okay with the desert, and possible very windy conditions at times. Lots of BLM land around the city of Mojave, California City and further north. You would be in areas that might OHV activity on weekends if you can live with that.

[LenSatic]

unsinkable wrote:
We would like to be able to get to them within a few hours

Karen & Wayne

A "few hours" opens up a lot of possibilities. Anza-Borrego SP is only two to three hours away from SM depending on the time of day. There are also BLM areas around Joshua Tree NP, also about 3 hours from SM.

LS

[Old-Biscuit]

As you can see from this 'map' not much close to Santa Monica.....LINK