Realistic - central CA coast enroute to Disneyland?

[singler3360]

For Spring Break this year, we will leave late on Friday from OR and will check in to one of the Disneyland hotels the following Monday afternoon. On the way down, we'd rather camp along the central CA coast. I've read the threads on recommendations, but my question is how realistic time-wise is it to get off I-5 and camp along this stretch for 2 nights? Is this trying to do too much and we'd be better off staying in the I-5 corridor? (Given these time constraints, we want to bypass the northern CA coast for sure).

And, as we get closer to LA, where is the best place to camp on Sunday night, knowing that we want to get into the parks early the next morning before we check in to the hotel?

Thanks.

[PDXWesty]

The route I like to take is down I5 to Los Banos and cut over on 152 through Hollister to 101, then south on 101 to San Luis Obispo. You can opt to go down HWY 1 from this point as well which is a much prettier drive, then take 101 from San Luis to LA. The drive from Portland to San Luis Obispo takes about 14-16 hours in a Westy. Longer if you take Hwy 1 from Monterey. San Luis Obispo to Anaheim is abot 6 hours. I think it's doable in your time frame.
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[bitingspider]

Camping near Disneyland-
Tough to do as the park opens at 9am - just after ye olde rush hour. Never camped at Chino Hills State Park, but it looks about as close as you can get and you don't need a reservation.

Otherwise you're probably in either the San Bernadinos, the Los Padres, or Santa Monica mountains.
Santa Monica - Malibu State Park perhaps
Los Padres - maybe Mt Pinos or other National Forest campground past the grapevine

Central Coast camping- well, google says 2 hrs 20 minutes from the 5/152 to Pfeiffer Big Sur campground. Heading south from there will take a while.

5/41 - Kettleman City to Montana de Oro google says is 2 hours.

Both of those are pretty big detours, but at least farther south you can take 101 into the LA basin without a major time hit.

Looks like your camping on a weekend so Montana de Oro could be tough. San Simeon to the north of Cambria is generally open. You're in Los Padres there so there are lots of Nat'l Forest campgrounds .

That's still a pretty big haul from Corvallis the first night though- especially if traveling with little ones.

[PDXWesty]

Your first night you may want to check out Lake Siskiyou outside Mt Shasta City. It's about a 6 hour drive from Corvallis. I've found it to be a good stopping off point for the first day's drive.
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[hdenter]

I live in SLO county and if I had to choose a stretch of coast southbound of S.F., I would have to go with the Big Sur coast. The Malibu coast does not compare. That being said, Leaving late friday and expecting to be at the gates of Disney Land at 9am doesn't leave much time to meaningfuly enjoy the coast. How many days do you plan to spend t DL? I think most would agree that two full days is plenty.

If you pull out of town and get in four hours driving friday night. Stelth camp or quick camp near the 5 and get an early start in the morning, you could be in Big Sur by early to mid afternoon. Camp at Phifer or one of the other campgrounds and take you time working your way south in the morning to SLO. Camp somewhere within an hour of SLO. SLO is 6 easy hours from DL. You could pull up to you hotel in the afternoon having missed the rushhour traffic.

How bad do you need to be at DL at 9am? If you can't miss it, then I would skip the coast. While Malibu is nice, I don’t think it would worth the time get out to Ventura and then have to fight your way back across LA to Orange County. Either way, sounds like a fun trip.
Have fun!
Hans
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'79 triple white convertible bug
'84 sunroof vanagon
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[One more islander...]

We found a very nice campground just north of Los Angeles, just off I5, about 10-15 miles west on Highway 126 at Lake Piru. Ventura is at the coastal terminus of H26.

Interesting spot, because the lake was dammed for the local water supply and then the company that manages the water supply created a recreational area with a great campground. In the summer months, there's speedboat racing there and I suspect it's a bit of a zoo, but on Dec. 16th we were the only campers! The park attendant told us it's pretty quiet through till May or so.

The campground is full of olive trees. I suspect it was a Mexican/Spanish ranch in early California. In the winter, their little store/cafe isn't open but you can pick up stuff in the village of Piru, which you drive through on the way to the campground.

We felt the $21 camping fee, with electric and free showers, was a real deal compared to the California state parks which seem pretty neglected right now due to budget cutbacks, and are not cheap!

We camped at Lake Piru our first night heading north from Los Angeles. Highway 126 is a good Vanagon highway; nobody drives it too incredibly fast. Fillmore, another 10 miles or so further west, is a pretty neat little old-fashioned California town with a large Hispanic population. The highway between Fillmore and I5 is lined with agricultural stands--cheap oranges and avocados!

http://www.lake-piru.org/

We found this place through our Moon "Camping California" book--otherwise we'd never have found it because it's neither a state, nor a county, nor a BLM park.

Great spot!

--

Kathy

88 Westy

--

Oh yeah--and when you turn off from I5 to H126 or vice versa, you're right at Magic Mountain, which is also pretty cool for the kids!

[GoWestyYoungMan]

Regarding Sunday night to Monday morning, you gonna need to join the 4:00 am commuters from Ventura Co. or you will not make it to DL in the morning. I recommend "camping" (parking) on the Rincon Hwy which runs parallel 101 between Carpenteria and Ventura. It is feet from the crashing waves. Free and has potta potty. Look for an open spot among the 100s of big RVs.
Adjust everything to slip in before the rush. Leave Rincon at 4:00 am!
Watch the potholes, we've gone bust and no money roads!
Enjoy!

[0to60in6min]

pm me..

and give me the date so I can look at my schedule if I can host you..

I live about 10 minutes from Disney Land and I have a yard that you can park and camp...

[PNW Westy Owner]

Last year we did a similar spring break trip. Drove from Portland down to Laguna Beach with a pit stop at Disneyland. We had driven to Santa Barbara before, and Bay Area a couple times. I was not too interested in driving I5 both directions.

So we stopped in Grants Pass for the first night, then took 199 to 101 then 116 to 1 all the way to Sonoma State Beach. 116 has some interesting looking little towns - Guerneville and Jenner. That was an epic drive in terms of distance and my kids (6 and 9 at the time) were champs. That said, I would not repeat this drive with small kids. Plus our camp spot there was not so good. 101 was fantastic during this time of the year. We would drive for 10-15 minute stretches without seeing any other cars/trucks.

We then swung through Mill Valley, picked up the wife and took 101 to Carpenteria. Ideally we would have stayed at Refugio or El Cap near SB, but these were full. We ended up at Carpenteria beach which while right on the beach, is a hilarious camp ground compared to, well, most anything. Despite this, it was packed. The rate to stay there was excessive (around $50, though it probably weeds out some less desirable camping neighbors). I'm sure some SB, so cal folks can provide better locations. We happened to camp next to another Oregon family who could not get over the setup there.

We were fixated on being near the beach. I think if you are willing to go inland, your options get a lot better. The year prior we had stayed at Kirk Creek Campground in Big Sur which has spectacular views of the Pacific and is pretty small (and I think hard to get a spot at these days). This would be too far to from Disneyland.

In any case, we made it to Disneyland with no problems from Carpenteria. We had a great breakfast in downtown Carp and had no traffic issues going to Disneyland. We had a house to stay at in Laguna which was our final destination before turning around and heading home (I5 with a stay over with family in Davis.)

The Rincon Hwy is a good suggestion though every time I have been down there it always looks full.

While we have had good fun going down to So Cal from spring break in the Westy, we inevitably never feel like we have enough time and you are either signing up for a big drive there or back. I wish that warm sunny weather was just a bit closer to Portland in March (or April, May and June).

Hope this helps.

[singler3360]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Very helpful information and much appreciated. Also appreciate the offer from 0to60.

With a 4 day park hopper pass, we can either start that Monday or use that day on the Friday instead. So, it may/may not be critical that we are camped near the parks on Sunday night. Just in case though, how are these RV parks for camping within a stones-throw? I ask because sometimes RV parks are not so comfortable unless you have the noise-abatement of a full-blown mobile home. What do you think of these options?

http://www.anaheimharborrvpark.com/

http://www.anaheimresortrvpark.com/

http://canyonrvpark.com/contact.htm

[rockfish]

Along the coast, on PCH near Malibu is a great state beach/campground called Leo Carrillo. Camping is on the east side of PCH - but a nice little beach very close. From 101 in Ventura, hop onto PCH and head south. The campground is up in the trees above the parking lot you see just east of PCH.

From Leo Carrillo, you would head south to Santa Monica and then take the 10 east to I5 and then south DLand. It will take some time however.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=616

If you want to camp near Santa Barbara, you have several choices. Carpinteria (south of SB) has spots right on the beach!

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=599

Here's a link to website that provides information about Orange County campgrounds:

http://www.orangecounty.net/html/camping.html


Have fun!
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89 Westy
GW 2.5 5-speed trans

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
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[VisPacem]