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Morro Bay Brewing Co
2 reviews
Morro Bay, CA
Category: Breweries
7 reviews for Morro Bay State Park
There are technically two campsites at this park. There is the morro strand and morro bay, both technically part of morro state park. This review is for Morro Strand. Campground was nice, but average. The big advantage was the beach as nice and right there, 30 ft from your campsite. The rock was walkable.
The ground in the campsites was a little hard and the spots were a little packed together. The wind was surprisingly not that big of a deal. The big downside of course was there were no showers on site, but you were allowed to go to the other morro campground and shower. I don't need showers while camping but the wife does.
Overall for the location I bump this to 4 stars, but it is still more like 3.5 stars.
An average campsite on a nice beach. I reserved at this site because it was the last one available over labor day weekend in SLO county. The campsite itself was a little small and a little closer to my neighbors than I cared to be. I could pretty much hear everything going on in the surrounding campsites and was woken up early in the morning. On the other hand, there were nearby, fairly clean bathrooms and electrical outlets to charge your cell phone and our air bed.
The area around this campsite, northern Morro Bay, is very nice. There's a nice beach within walking distance of the campsite (by the beach is by far my favorite way to do camping), a nice mile-long hike to Morro walk, and a lot of cute shops and restaurants in Morro Bay right next door if you get tired of the camping life. The campsite isn't a bad, inexpensive way to spend time in one of California's cutest beach towns.
This rating is the average of: five stars for location and zero stars for the Park rangers and staff. The location is idyllic, with breathtaking views of the bay, Morro Rock and abundant shorebirds.
The park is adjacent to an estuary that is magical at sunrise and sunset. Up the road is a roosting colony of egrets, herons and cormorants galore. Through town to the estuary mouth where you are guaranteed great views of sea otters.
Unfortunately, the employees run it like the "park of the third Reich". Their only thought seems to be enforcing regulations with no thought to making people feel welcome...and that goes for the rangers, the park aides and the volunteer hosts. If you are looking for friendly rangers, head up to Big Sur or Oregon!
The memories and flashbacks started hitting me as we drove through the marshy bog surrounding State Park Road. The last time I came through here I was probably about seven years old. We would have been in our old blue VW bus, and I would have been sitting between the front seats reading every single sign we passed to my dad, who patiently thanked me while he drove.
"Hey dad! 60 mph!"
"Thanks William."
"Hey dad! Morro Bay, 10 miles!"
"Thanks William."
For four hours. Eventually he got wise and handed me a map to track our position on. I'm much quieter when I have something to do.
We pulled into the gate, and the ranger station was the same old building sitting in the middle of the road. We checked in and my younger brother navigated us to our camp site. The campground seemed much smaller now.
We used to camp here every summer up until I was about ten. My brothers and I would share a tent; my parents would sleep in the VW bus on the fold-out bed with the dogs. Sometimes my aunt and uncle would join us, or friends of my parents and their families. I remember my grandparents meeting us here one time, all the way from New Jersey, in their old Chinook camper.
We pulled into our site, and got out. I was struck by that familiar smell of the eucalyptus trees mixed with a faint scent of the ocean. Whenever I am near a eucalyptus tree, no matter where I am, I am transported back to happy memories of riding my bike through the camp, or playing frisbee golf at the edge of the golf course.
My dad, older brother, and my aunt showed up with the camper and we set camp in the dark, caught up a bit, then hit the sack.
The next morning we got up, had our breakfast, showered, and discussed our day. Thankfully we had vacuum sealed milk. I remember how sour and gross the powdered instant milk was. There are showers in the new bathrooms, and though the quarter slots threw me off, it seemed that they were free. I remember washing up in the old bathroom shacks with their big common rooms, brushing my teeth while all the campers came and went, greeting each other. Now each bathroom is a solo unit. They're kept clean and well stocked. The old bath shacks are still there, but are locked up. There are also big recycling bins outside the bathrooms.
We hiked up to Black Hill, located on the NE corner of the park. I had to grin as we hiked it, I remember walking up and being afraid of rattlesnakes. It's not the huge mountain I remembered, but from the top you have an awesome 360 degree view of the ocean, Morro Rock, the towns of Morro Bay and Los Osos, and the golden hills of California. Morro Rock is a huge remnant of an ancient volcano that erupted over 22 million years ago. It juts out of a sand-dune 'spit' that protects the local bay. You can drive out to it, but you're not allowed to climb it. Sailboats and catamarans are moored in the bay, and the ocean side of them are great for swimming and body boarding. We didn't make it out there on this trip, but I remember piling into a little motorboat that taxied us out there when I was little, and making sand castles.
We walked through the golf course on our way down from Black Hill. I remember finding rogue golf balls in the trees surrounding the course, my brothers and I would play catch with them back at camp. My dog tried to steal a ball he spotted. Continuing the tradition, I suppose.
We drove into town later. Within minutes you can find an Albertson's, a Rite-Aid, lots of little shops, restaurants and even a WiFi enabled coffee shop. The old movie theater is still there. Along the road into town you'll pass the Morro Bay State Park Museum. We didn't head in on this trip, but I remember watching film of otters, seals, and other wildlife found in the waters and woods surrounding the park. We also used to climb on the rocks outside the museum, exciting stuff for a bunch of little boys. I was so rambunctious when I was little that my parents used to tie me to a tree to keep me from running off. Just in case I escaped, they'd write our campsite number on my shirt with a marker. Otherwise, I would climb the tree singing "George of the Jungle" over and over.
That night, after we go back from our traditional trip to the nearby town of Cambria, we roasted marshmallows and made S'Mores in the firepit that each campsite has. There's also a water spigot per every four campsites or so. I pulled out my guitar and we sang some of my songs. I remember roasting marshmallows on wood sticks we gathered as a kid, listening to the adults talk and joke and laugh, worrying about whether the dogs were cold and whether bears were going to come eat us in the night. No worries about that now, I don't believe there are any bears anywhere nearby, though you do need to worry about squirrels and raccoons.
I was sad to leave on Sunday morning. It was good seeing my family, and reminiscing about those days long past.
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We camped here on a Sunday and a Monday night. Strangely enough, the camp was completely full. I especially appreciated that the site was near the bathrooms -- especially for that late night bathroom run (reminder: never drink another cup of tea late at night if you don't want to get up for that bathroom run). Aside from that, this was a decent campsite. Not great, yet not bad.
The food, that's a differnet story. We decided to see how few dishes we could get away with using on our dinner the last night. This entire meal was cooked on the fire pit (and for that matter, purchased at the Albertson's not too far away). We grilled on our marshmallow sticks: jumbo tiger prawns, steak cubes, zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and eggplant. We also had garlic bread AND grilled banana w/ honey. The meat and shrimp were seasoned with McCormick seasoning (salmon seasoning for the shrimp and steak grill seasoning for the steak) and the veggies were lightly coated w/ butter, and we dipped the food into balsamic vinagrette dipping sauce.
Total number of plates: ZERO.
Saving my hands from another round of doing dishes? Priceless.
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One of the best places for "easy camping" in San Luis Obispo County. I go here when I want amenities like free hot showers, flushing toilets, mirrors, and AT&T Wi-Fi (I'm not joking). The privacy here is slightly better than that of Montana de Oro State Park, albeit there is still not very much privacy at all.
The campground is divided based on the type of camping you are partaking in, whether that be in a tent, RV or with a group of 8 or more. The RV section is the largest, and I was having a little bit of grill-envy as all the RVers got fire pits AND a charcoal grill setup... as if they didn't have a full kitchen already in their Winnebago! It's cool though, cause I can rock a fire pit hard enough to get my gourmet on. Fondue, anyone?
We tent-camped--took one of the last available spots on a Wednesday night, during the off-season, which is kind of peculiar. We rolled in after the park kiosk had closed, pitched our tent at site #128 (apparently we were wrong about our site number, but it was hard to tell since there were two different numbers evenly spaced on BOTH sides of the driveway!), and dropped $20 sealed in an envelope with our marked campsite and vehicle information in the late-arrival drop box outside the ranger station.
The next morning, we woke up to find a man putting a ticket on my car windshield. He stares at me for a few seconds and then rudely informs me: "You have to pay to camp here," at which I replied, "I put $20 in an envelope last night, for site #128." He didn't believe me and I had to prove to him I had the license plate number that I had listed. Even after I showed him my vehicle information was correct, he still somehow thought that I was trying to swindle him out of paying. He told me that he had the money for #128 but not site #129, and I reminded him that I had paid for #128, and we thought we were in the right place. Then he got on my case about not knowing that our campsite was #129 instead of #128. This was a little ridiculous, since site #129 is a whopping 3 feet away from our site, and I demonstrated how one could be easily confused about the campsite numbering. He scoffed, trudged over to my car, angrily grabbed the ticket he issued me off my windshield and sped off. I should have toilet-papered his ranger station...
On the plus side, this place is always pretty good about not letting the ashes fill up too much in the fire pits--one of my big gripes about many camping spots I visit.
On the negative side, all of the sites are way too close to the main road that goes through the campground, so the entire night you get headlights and roaring engines. Part of the problem is our fellow camping neighbors driving 25 mph through the campground with their brights on, but maybe the campground could post a speed limit or something. I know we're supposed to be experiencing, nature, but come on now, I don't need to listen to you admiring your V8 engine at 4:30 in the morning when I'm getting my sleep on.
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hmm.. i didnt really know about this place until the day we drove up there.. i was probably loaded when somebody previously told me about this masterplan.. so when we got there it was pretty much just a parking lot covered in dirt... the 'sites' are about 20 feet apart from each other so you pretty much dont really have privacy... seriously i really did feel kinda cramped hanging out in this place.. whenever somebody would play some music, all the other 5 groups around you will have to enjoy what has been carefully chosen as their favorite 'jams'.. i would have given this place one star if it wasnt because of the golf course next door... its actually a really nice course, a little windy but nice... definitely would not camp out here again unless its just to hang out and play golf for a day