Plaskett Creek Campground offers a beautiful location just minutes from Sand Dollar Beach, one of the largest and most popular beaches in central California. The campground gives visitors access to a variety of outdoor activities, including water play and exploration of the surrounding hills and forests. The family-friendly campground offers comfortably equipped sites, allowing anyone to enjoy a relaxing stay in the Los Padres National Forest.
Recreation
A short walk leads to Sand Dollar Beach, a very popular spot for surfing, fishing, swimming, exploring, sunbathing and more. Fishing permits are required for anyone over age 16. Anglers can expect a catch of yellow perch and other coastal surf fish. The beach is dog-friendly, as long as dogs are leashed and waste is picked up.
A variety of trails exist along the beach, which lead to the bluffs that overlook the beach and coves in the area. Additional hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails can be accessed within a short drive from the campground, and offer scenic views of waterfalls, redwood groves and mountain meadows and streams.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, as well as three group campsites, for tent and RV camping. Group sites can accommodate up to 40 people and 10 vehicles. Extra vehicles will be charged an additional fee. Utility hookups are not available.
Individual campsites are each equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Flush toilets, sinks and drinking water are provided throughout the campground. An accessible flush toilet is located near Site 10. Group sites are equipped with several tables, grills and campfire circles. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided in the group area.
Natural Features
The campground is located in west-central California, on the east side of Highway 1. Sand Dollar Beach, the largest sandy beach in the Big Sur area, is just south of the campground. The Pacific Ocean borders the campground to the west and the surf can be heard at many campsites.
The campground has a park-like setting, under a scattered canopy of mature Monterey pine and cypress trees. Cedar trees provide a fragrant aroma. All sites are grassy. The campground is situated at an elevation of about 200 feet in the Los Padres National Forest.
Wildlife in the area includes fox, bobcat, deer and raccoon. Mountain lions and bears are occasionally seen in the area, although they have never entered the campground.
ADA Access: N
A cute little spot along US1 to rest during my Bikepacking trip in March. There’s not many options for water, which made for an awkward shower at spigot. Campsites seemed to be spread out though everyone can be seen throughout most of the park. Felt safe and well rested.
Plaskett Creek is my all time favorite campground. It's small, clean, everyone's friendly. It has great hikes and Sandollar Beach & Jade Cove are right there across Highway 1. I've stayed at some of the more private sites and even the ones in the middle and they were all perfect. PC has flushing toilets but no showers. Dogs on leash and lots of room for kids to play.
This campground is great if you're looking for a social camping experience. Big open spaces for kids to run around, and campsites that are fairly close together… Conducive for groups, but not ideal if you're looking for a quiet getaway.
Family friendly and clean, lots of kids when we stayed. Campsites aren’t too close together but don’t expect too much privacy. Each spot has a picnic table, fire pit, and charcoal grill. Water spouts disbursed around. Bathroom flushed but sink water wasn’t running (there wasn’t soap anyways.)
You can vaguely hear the cars on the 1 but not too much. From our spot we could see the ocean though a space in the trees. We walked across the street to a nice hike around the beach that was beautiful.
there is always a helpful camp host here to help. There are bathrooms. Large campsites with table, firepit, and stove. Walking distance to beach and hiking. Off road 4WD trails next to camp sight. Beautiful trees there too.
Minimal amenities (to be expected in many state campgrounds) - no electric, no dump station, but there is access to drinking water (community spigots). It’s also right across from a short (.2mile) trail with jaw-dropping views of the bluffs and surrounding mountains. At night all I heard was the ocean and a great horned owl. The one downer: although this is on the edge of the Verizon coverage map, there is NO cell service unless you walk out to the short trail, where you might get a single bar of 1x or 3G. We got nothing with our AT&T hotspot.
We took our camper here in february and had the campground almost to ourselves. I think there were maybe 3 other campsites filled for the 2 nights we stayed. The site was very clean and spacious with a nice meadow behind us.
It's also a very short walk across the street to sand dollar beach. We got lucky with the weather and had crystal clear blue water and sunny skies with a light drizzle at night (perfect to sleep to by our standards). Can't really beat Big Sur area to get away from it all!
It's one of our favorite campgrounds. And is a well kept secret. So don't tell anyone! What other California campground has green grass between sites? I have to admit when we've gone to this park, Hwy 1 was closed just a few miles south, so there was very little traffic. Now that Hwy 1 is open, I'm curious about the street noise.
Campground is a little south of Big Sur, so dinner & sunset at Nepenthe is a must. Make sure you to go the Henry Miller Library and buy a book or two, or stay for a concert.
We love this campground, however, there are no camp fires allowed in any national forests until the end of the year. Had we known this beforehand, we wouldn’t have chosen this campsite. Nice campground, well kept.
Beach is fantastic for surfers and beach-goers alike. Bit of a hike down to the beach but worth it. You can also hike the fire road behind the camp group for brilliant views. Only drawback are the stinky toilets. We get a group site every year.