Wright's Beach Campground

 

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Ian M.

San Francisco, CA

7/9/2008 2 photos

Camping in CA is no joke. There are dozens of different spots within a few hours drive of the Bay Area, whether you want mountains and rivers or beaches and sand. One downside though is that a love of Californians know this and spots can be hard to come by.

In anticipation of this, we booked our site at Wright's Beach back in January for the July 4th weekend. Good thing we did, as surely enough, the place was filled for the holiday. It's a pretty good spot and I'm glad we made the reservations.

There are some downsides, for sure. The clientele trends more towards the RV crowd and to call this camping is a bit of a stretch - I mean, I could hear people watching movies nearby. Catering to this crowd is a lot of pavement; we were fortunate to have two sites as one of ours had no place to stake down a tent. On the upside, there are bathrooms and running water, so the less rugged of your crowd will have a place to freshen up. Beware, though - many had trouble locking the doors and reports of restroom walkins were many. Not what you want when you've clambered out of your tent in the morning to flush out last night's Tecates. I would also note that this place was a little difficult to find in the evening fog, but that probably only matters about 250 nights out of the year.

The upside to this whole spot is the ocean - less than 100 yards from the furthest campground. It's one of the most deadly beaches in California, with more than 200 victims of its nasty riptides since 1950, but they do a good job of warning you not to go in. One of our party, either at peace with her Lord or her bottle, tested the waters anyway and confirmed that it is in fact quite dangerous. But its great for the proverbial walk on the beach or to bury your friend's five year old in the sand. Hope he got out okay.

Lower-numbered campgrounds are right on the beach whereas the ones in the teens and 20s are further away - it's hard to tell that from the booking site. And I don't know how far in advance you need to reserve, but since it's only 60-75 miles from SF I figure it's a pretty heavily frequented spot. If you're looking for a real outdoor adventure this probably isn't your scene, but for car camping with large groups and/or special needs, this is probably aces.

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Jennifer w.

Oakland, CA

8/28/2008

Camping on the beach! Swimming, er, floating, in the Russian River! Hanging out by the campfire with old buddies! Only problem is, not quite rustic enough for my taste. I guess car camping has its place.

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