This place is a mixed bag. First, the good: it is super convenient. Literally minutes from any location in Monterey. It appears to be first come first served. I was able to find a campsite around 6 pm on a Friday night, and there were several other sites available. I was initially hesitant to camp inside the city, but the campground feels safe. There were lots of families around. It was somewhat noisy in the evening but then quieted down at night. The park plays taps at 10 pm to mark the start of quiet hours.

I skipped the crowded bathrooms on the west side of the campground and used the ones down the hill to the east. They were reasonably clean and well lit. The low-flow faucets provide only cold water and must be held down or pressed repeatedly.

My campsite was not ideal. The ground was dry, dusty, and hard packed, making it difficult to drive tent stakes and dirtying the tent besides. There was also a fair bit of garbage lying around, mostly bottle caps but also an abandoned sandal. My site had zero privacy, and it looks like this is the case for most of the other sites. Lastly, the registration fee was considerably higher than at the state parks I visited previously, where the campsites were better.