Last time we went camping in San Clemente we spent a couple of hours in SJC. We pull a small trailer, but we had no trouble finding street parking about 1/4 of a mile away. If you look on a map - we got of on Junipero Serra road, turned left onto Capistrano Road and parked along there. We were there during the week. Since you are coming from the south, you could get onto Capistrano road and head north past the mission.