Coastal Dunes RV Park & Campground

We stayed here for a night when we arrived at Pismo Beach with no booking, and state campgrounds were full due to COVID-19 diminishing capacity. This campground is squeezed between the railway line to the east and the PCH to the west, in a not very wide strip of land. (Thankfully, the railway line is not very busy, with only 1 train in the evening, and 1 in the morning.) Our site was towards the southern end, and abutted the fence bordering the railway line. There were only 3 or 4 other sites empty in the entire campground (which has over 230 sites). There were mainly RVs throughout the campground, but a smattering of tents too (including ours).

The campsites had the basic fire pit and table, plus a faucet. The toilet block was close, but it was small and not particularly clean. The toilet cubicle doors were bizarrely short in both directions (i.e. the space from the floor to the bottom of the door was way too much for privacy! Not to mention being too short at the top too.) There was no soap dispenser for the hand basins, which I think should be mandatory during a pandemic (and especially considering how much money the campground is making each weekend, let alone at other times). I note that the campground is run by the San Luis Obispo County Parks. Frankly, I think they should upgrade the toilet blocks (at least, the one at southern end; perhaps the others are better but as I didn't use them I can't be sure....)

If we'd have been in our RV, we'd have preferred to save ourselves almost $50 and stayed on a street somewhere. This saved us from sleeping in our car, and made us appreciate other campgrounds we've stayed at all the more.

I was attending a weekend Jeep event at Pismo Dunes and had booked a space in the OHV area on the beach.  When I got there the wind was so bad it was impossible to put up a tent.  So I looked up this place, which is probably 1/2 mile from the entrance to the beach.

The campground has mixture of tent and pull-through sites.  All sites have full hookups, and include a fire ring and picnic table.  The bathrooms were clean and had showers, but everything was very old.  There was also a pool and laundry rooms on the property.

The sites were flat, but there was no barrier between you and your neighbors.  The RV sites looked very cramped but the tent sites seemed adequately spaced for the most part.  I stayed in site 252 which appeared to be some kind of double site, because there were two sets of hookups in the space (one of which required a large pole in the middle of the site).

In spite of the convenience of the location, there were drawbacks.  The campground is narrow and situated directly between PCH and the railroad tracks on either side.  So traffic noise was significant, and as an added bonus, every now and then Amtrack would roll past.

Over all, it met all the basic needs, was well maintained, and was close to the beach.  And the noise was probably less than I would get sleeping in the OHV camping area.