No reservations this weekend?

[cuyeda]

No reservations this weekend, but will try the follow your nose concept. Unfortunately, I will not be able to leave until early Saturday morning. I am a bit concerned that I may get disappointed in getting a spot somwhere. I will start with Carpenteria, CA, and then go up or down the coast.

I realize the chances are good if I tried this on a Thursday or earlier, but I can only leave Saturday morning this time.

This is the first time I will try to camp without a reservation. Am I spinning my wheels with out an actual reservation?

[planovet]

Who knows, you may get lucky.

When I took my tear for its first trip on Memorial Day, I had a hard time getting reservations for the place we wanted to go. The major holidays are always prime camping times for some people. Waiting until 2 weeks beforehand to make the reservations didn't help either. But I kept trying and finally got a site when someone cancelled. I'm sure there will be similar cancellations where you are going; hopefully you can get one of those spots.

Have a great weekend camping!

[scott and becky]

Our experince has taught us to never go any place in Southern California without a reservation.
We left Riverside to find a spot on the coast near San Diego. We stopped at every camp ground from San Diego to San Juan Capistrano and couldn't find an empty spot.
A ranger told us we might find a spot on the Ortega Hwy.(Hwy 74) . We drove up the mountain and every campground was full except for the last one at the very top.... Becky didn't like it,would not stay there,so we drove back home!

Carpinteria has a nice State Beach that is close to town.We like El Capitain and Refugio State Beaches to! Good Luck!!

Scott

[cuyeda]

Ended up at Carpenteria, which was our first choice since we have never been at that campground (to actually camp). Luck was on my side after turning in to three campgrounds on the way up, starting with Leo Carillo.

The only spot available, just by chance was a full hook up for $50.00. Although we were actually self contained, we didn't want to risk any other disappointments, and Carpenteria is where we wanted to camp. The next morning the spot was ours if we wanted it. After a few questions (our learning curve), we found out we could stay in the day parking lot until 7pm with no additional charges, since we had paid for the previous overnight already.

We opted to save $50 for the additional evening, stayed in the day parking, did the beach thing until the afternoon, went to Santa Barbara for lunch/shopping, and on the way back picked up the canned ham trailer to head south back to Long Beach. Mission accomplished.

We also learned about enroute camping. When enroute to a destination, there are enroute camping spots for travelers, to check in at 6pm, and can stay overnight, to be checked out before 9am. When a campground is FULL from the normal reservations, and offers "enroute camping" there are a few limited spaces set aside for this purpose, when available.

We had a great time, and will definitely make reservations from now on. It would be a hoot, for any of us on the forum that would be interested in camping at Carpenteria next labor day weekend, flood ReserveAmerica to make reservations, and see who all makes it in.

[emiller]

That is a nice camp ground. Donna and I have stayed at different campgrounds along the beach as you said about enroute camping and one camp ground put us right up to the beach where we sat and watched the waves.