Best Campgrounds near Lagunitas, CA

Check in was fine. Got wrong direction how to get to the site. After looping around to approach the site, I found the streets all very tight for RV maneuvering. The place was packed. Had a pull through FHU site. Pretty narrow. Seems like a common theme. Great things for kids to be entertained by and enjoy for sure. We were passing through and I think we would have been better served elsewhere. Our site was patches of grass and looked like it needed some TLC. Tested the water-Water tested as acceptable tap water after running it through an external filter. 21 elements checked, all within range. Dissolved solids were 251...pretty high. The worst water in our 6 week trip. Must be a California thing.

I have to confess that I feel pretty silly for not being as prepared for the sand as I should have been from the name of the campground. Who would have thought!?

We walked around sites 22-55 and all seem to be entirely on the sand. Come prepared to deal with sand.

The campground itself it pretty nice. Walkable to the Pacific Coast, very walkable to Bodega Harbor, and direct access to the trails of Bodega Head. The campground is also just a short drive from the town of Bodega Bay, which offers a few restaurants and limited services.

In June of 2025 the bathrooms in the site #22-55 loop was undergoing a pretty major renovation and portable toilets were in use.

We did see a few foxes, or the same fox a few times, so make sure to keep camp sites clean.

Midweek in June the park, which is fairly large, is still nearly empty. The sites are fairly close to each other, which matters because one of the other campers is right next to mine (46) and doesn't understand basic camp etiquettes like not using generators all night or letting their dog wonder through other sites and the bathroom areas off-leash. Still the campsites all have decent views–though best ones abut the lake on the map. They look close to the lake on the map but they are actually way up high above it. There are trails running throughout the park and around the lake that are a mix of wider open trails and narrower, through the woods, but groomed trails with plenty of up and down to make for a good hike.

Lots of birds and wildlife–beware says the sign...all the signs, but I mostly only saw turkeys and a few water birds. Because the camp was empty, I moved over to site 56 when it was clear my neighbor was a camp d-bag. It was a pull through with a downhill slope in the site but not in the drive. The views and solitude over here were great with the setting sun through the trees, and the knowledge that the Bay in the distance.

There were a few other weird vibes in the park, namely some e-bikers charging up phones at the bathroom drinking 40s and smoking joints, while watching very loud sitcoms on the charging phones. They seemed mostly harmless, and were gone well before dark.

The warm waters* of Lake Chabot was beautiful and tempting as a siren, but don't touch it, or let your dog touch it, unless you want to get mutated like the Ninja Turtles...

Actually, that is a bad example. That would be awesome. The water will make you sick or your (or your pets) skin break out in a real not fun way. It is toxic. It will not make you a Ninja Turtle.

The showers were great. Hot and FREE!

Finally, this is a well-kept park with proactive rangers only limited by their working hours, and despite it being quite accessible to Oakland, the park felt like camping in the wilderness, even though I could hear cheers echoing through the canyon from a graduation somewhere below.

The road in is fairly winding with a bit of a drop down the cliff. If you're heading in at dusk or dawn, go slow. You will see deer stepping through the road.

*I don't know if it was warm. I didn't touch it.

Just got back from a 2 night stay at Johnson's Beach campsite. We found the camp grounds to be so-so and not the most maintained. While we were there, we saw more than a few families come for a night and leave earlier than expected because of complaints of their sites. 

If you are interested in Johnson's Beach, I'd rather do one of their glamping tents or bungalow instead.

Pros:

• Good location to the beach; 2 minute walk from camp site to the beach.

• Nice clean and well maintained bathrooms and showers.

• 5 minute walk to downtown / Safeway

• Host (Chris) was nice and did his best.

• Outlets at each site.

• Well shaded by trees (although is also a con).

Cons:

• Camp sites too cramped/small, especially from 20 - 25. Hardly any breathing room.
• Camp sites are right behind a bar (?) and homes so we heard a lot of partying, singing, dog barking well into the night
• Road next to the camp sites used by cars to reach the beach. Cars would stir up dust. 
• A lot of trees but frequented by crows. The crows can be very noisy and loved to poop all around the camp grounds.