Best Equestrian Camping near Castroville, CA

YOU CANNOT CAMP HERE. However, this gorgeous state park has dozens of beautiful trails winding through cattle country and down along streams and ponds in the Dinosaur Point area.

NO WATER. Note that there is no safe potable water at the park, so if you're hiking, bring plenty to drink.

NOT DOG-FRIENDLY: Dogs are allowed on leash in the parking lot only. You cannot hike with your dog here.

VERY HORSE-FRIENDLY: The park is especially friendly to horses, because the lady that donated the land was an equestrienne. There is a corral at the main parking lot area and the park is fenced for livestock. They make a point of stating that although the water in the creeks and ponds is unsafe for humans, it is safe for livestock and horses. (The one exception to the no camping rule, actually, is when those on horseback are allowed to camp during special events.)

Good spot to explore Pinnicales National Park. Typical TT resort park off the beaten path, far out but nice place, we enjoyed our stay. At the time we were there a lot of the riverfront sports were out of order. Park does have a lot of those devil spikes in the grass so beware of those with the dogs or bare feet. I did see someone bare foot walking and I was confused as how he was not stepping on them little spiked mines/ thorns then it happened and he went down having to crawl back to the road and get shoes. Pinnacles NP has lots of great hikes, bird watching is a thing out here and home to the California Condors. Near the town of Gilroy home of the garlic festival. A little out of the way but a nice scenic backroad alternate from I5 or 99 if traveling north/south.

this KOA has everything you need. the streets are wide and the pull-ins are easy to access. the Wi-Fi here is good enough to check email but not for streaming or anything intensive. however you can get a good starlink connection and over 100 megabits per second. it is pet friendly and has a store filled with pretty much anything you would need. they also give cookies to guests and treats to dogs.

We were here in November while my house was fumigated.  Nice open campsites with hook ups.  Dump station was available although I did not see it listed on web site.

Stayed here in March. Camp ground was mostly empty. Showers were locked. $35 a night. There’s an electronic kiosk to pay. Intermittent signal with ATT. 20 min drive into town with lots of amenities.

I was able to enjoy the view of lake and mountains inside the tent. Wild pigs appeared at night. It was our first camping trip and we had a great time! No internet and no electricity. Restroom was clean.

One of my favorite campgrounds as it’s very local and has beautiful scenery. I come here atleast once a month for some camping!

It was a nice campground to go to. Lots of wildlife and hiking. Dogs are allowed. The lake is closed to any and all water-craft because the water level is too low. It is very clean and well maintained for the most part. Cell phone service for Xfinity/Verizon is spotty at best. There is weak wifi.

However, here's where it loses a star:

I arrived on a Friday late afternoon. Set up my tent. People were fairly loud until about 11pm. Bathrooms were really nice and clean…at first. Saturday, in came the crowd. Loud, obnoxious, and inconsiderate way past midnight. There was no reinforcement of quiet hours past 10pm. The toilets were clogged by 9pm at both restrooms. Men's restrooms have ONLY ONE STALL. And they were clogged beyond belief. I cannot understand why people do not know how to flush a toilet in public. Do they do this crap at home? Anyway, Sunday morning past 9am, still clogged up. Lines waiting to use the compromised restrooms as well. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, that's what ruined my experience. People just being completely selfish in a public campground and staff not be able to keep up with their antics. Maybe there shouldn't be so many sites for so few facilities. Just a thought.

For SUV tents, check out campsite pics on other sites before booking. SUV tents are usually limited to one entrance/exit point on the tent. Usually the driver's side. Each campsite is different. The one I reserved had only one pic that basically showed me nothing. I only could back in to set up my tent on the grass. Both the picnic table and firepit were facing the passenger side way far from the parking spot (as you can see in the second pic) opposite the entrance to my tent. So something to consider.

Beautiful view of the preserve with wild pigs off in the brush and the call of turkeys in the a.m. a nice refresh from the city.

Bathrooms are extremely clean and well kept. The lake is nice (and you may spot geese or ducks), and there's plenty of room for kids to run around. There are food lockers since wild pigs come out at night. Be sure to lock all food up! They will roam through the camp ground all through the night if anyone has left any food out. They also leave lots of droppings that are pretty sizable - but surprisingly don't smell that much considering the quantity and well, what it is. 

Would really love to come again if it weren't for the wild pigs!

Great sites. Good views. Very quiet. Lots of wildlife to see. Good bass fishing. B

Pros: Lots of sites. Pretty area. Facilities well maintained. Cons: We stayed here several times because of its proximity to San Jose. Almost every time time, though, it was crowded and noisy. Also there are lots of wild pigs! In my opinion, it’s a last resort campground.

The first time here, we put a table cloth and some small items on the picnic table at our site, then left to run an errand. When we returned, someone else was camping in our spot. :0/  Luckily, there was another spot available so we moved and all was well. Still surprised that someone would do that, though.

This gem of a county park is just 15 minutes from the Gilroy outlets but you'd have no idea. Campsites are along the beautiful Coyote lake. The lakeside sites are mostly shaded as are the sites along the road. Sites 43, 44 and 45 would be the most secluded. Bring kayaks here (must be inspected first). No swimming allowed.

Bring your hiking loot as there are some great trails here. We saw lots of wildlife - deer, wild pigs, turkeys, frogs just to name a few.

I had a big spot and no neighbors my entire half of the campground on a Monday night in June. I was under 2 big oaks that were buzzing with bird activity.
The bathrooms were clean and I had water on my site. I had some AT&T service.

This location is a fairly convenient distance to Pinnacles National Park if you prefer not to stay at the national park campground. A little more expensive since we are not Thousand Trail members but has a laundromat, small store, pool, showers – though some were out of order. It looked the place needed a tune up, not bad, just a little run down and things needed to be fixed. I would stay here again. Compared to the campground at Pinnacles where we were going, we feel this is the better option. Pinnacles is mostly day hikes so this campground is perfect.

The staff were friendly and helpful. We had quiet, wildlife (saw a bobcat and heard owls at night), and a pretty flat and roomy tent site. Our site was shady enough, though not all sites appeared so lucky. It seemed like there were lots of activities for the kids. We were only there one night and did not check out anything else the campground has to offer so can't comment.

It is a big campground, and I can't recall the site number we had. It was a little confusing as to what we could take or not. There seemed to be quite a few long term campers in the Rv area.

We just visited this campground with some friends. It is located in Central CA about 50 miles inland from the coast. The campgroud was nice. We found a lot of shady sites to choose from. There is a lot of wildlife here to see. Deer wandered through camp at all times of the day. You can see wild boar passing along the hillsides. We also saw a couple of foxes one evening on the perimeter. The have RV (mostly) and tent sites avaialable. Most tent sites have their own water and some also have electric hookups. There are a large selection of 50 and 30 amp sites for the rv crowd.

We stayed here for a few nights and it wasn’t a bad park, but not well kept either. It is a very large park and the space between spots wasn’t bad. Cell service here wasn’t good either. The pool was too cold to enjoy unfortunately.