Best Tent Camping near Morro Bay, CA

[ LOCATION -5 Stars ]

• Walking distance to the Morro Bay Natural History Museum -- great for kids and very educational for all ages. Admission is only $3 and they have a fun Nature Shop to pick up souvenirs and gifts.
• Bayside Cafe is adjacent to the Campgrounds. If you don't feel like going through the hassle of cooking an elaborate meal at camp, you can take it easy and eat at the cafe. It has a great view of the marina and Morro Bay Rock.
• Campgrounds is a stone's throw from the marina. This is especially great if you enjoy being by the water. A lot of campers bring their own kayaks, canoes, SUP boards, etc.
• Less than 2 miles from the Embarcadero where there are shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, boat tours, and water equipment rentals. It's a beautiful walk, an easy bike ride, and a quick drive into town. Best part, FREE PARKING everywhere! Also, plenty of public restrooms that are relatively clean.
• The campgrounds is right by a large and well-manicured golf course. So that's cool…if you're into golf!

[ AMENITIES -4.5 Stars ]

• Plenty of showers and restrooms throughout the campgrounds. Some are not all operational but it's not that far of a walk to get to the next available one. PRO TIP: Exchange your shower tokens at the check-in Kiosk. A lot of the token machines were out of order. 2 tokens for $1. Each token buys you 2 minutes time.
• Firewood & fire starters can be purchased at Camp Host sites. $7 for a bundle and $1 for firestarters. The profits go back to CA state parks :)
• Sites are very close together and not very spacious or private. Each campsite comes with parking for 1 car, a charcoal BBQ grill, a firepit, bear box, and picnic table.
• There are plenty of shared water spigots for potable water by every site. Make sure you turn it gently because the water pressure is super strong and you'll get a ton of splash back.

[ CLEANLINESS -5 Stars]

• Restrooms & showers are SO CLEAN! Most of the campers here are RV campers, so they aren't really using the public restrooms. Less foot traffic = cleaner!
• The majority of campers here are older, retired RV campers so the campgrounds are kept-up meticulously well. Everyone is very considerate and clean up after themselves. There aren't too many pests or ants either.

California, Morro Dunes RV Park

Located right on the beach and ocean near Morro Rock. Within walking distance from Downtown Morro Bay.

Directions: From highway 1 exit at E. G. Lewis Highway(41) and go west toward the beach. The campground will be on the left in less than one mile.

Please see the Campbase map tab for the exact location.

Comment Morro Dunes RV Park is open all year with 170 RV and tent sites available. What a fun place to stay in Morro Bay. It's the best campground in Morro Bay if you want to be right on the beach and close to all the activity of the beach, marina, bay, and downtown area. You can park the car and walk or bike everywhere. The campground is the closest camp spot to Morro Rock. There is a lot of "fun factor" at this campground.

Make reservations early for this campground. It's usually booked solid all summer. If you are unable to obtain a camp site, at the bottom of this page are other near bye campgrounds.

The campground has paved camp roads with level crushed rock parking pads. Picnic tables and fire rings are also available. Shade spots are limited.

There is HorsebackIng in the dunes in front of the campground. There is also a dirt area for parking and unloading horses.

Cell phone service in the area is excellent.

These sites are along paved parking area/ road loop- there are beachside spots, a few with ocean views and some blocked by shrubs. Dogs are not allowed on beach to protect endangered species but walking the camp road up to the main road gives enough elevation you can see the ocean and Morro rock in the distance, and the houses have lovely landscaping of aloe, rosemary, and other pretty plants. The sites are very simple with picnic table and firepit either in a grass median or along the edge. We were near a restroom, dumpster and water fill up. You can buy wood from camp host for $10. No showers but your pass gets you into nearby Morro Bay SP where they have nice clean token showers that get warm enough. The camp was not very full while I was there car camping and pleasant enough. There are signs warning of stolen generators and to lock up valuables.

[ PROS ]

• Plenty of walk-in sites available. Easy to reserve online! $25/night (this is cheap for the area!)
• One of the few campsites near Morro Bay that ever have availability for last minute campers
• Close to avocado groves! We went to Morro Creek Ranch (about 3.5 miles from campground) to pick up fresh avocados to make breakfast with
• Easy drive to Morro Bay Rock where you can see otters, sea lions, and lots of marine life. Morro Bay is a bird sanctuary so you can always see Great Blue Herons, White Herons, Ospreys, Pelicans, Cormorants, Turkey Vultures, and more!
• Beautiful primitive campground with lots of lush greenery all around and lots of wildlife. Most of the sites have plenty of shade from the canopies of trees. There are so many different birds here as well. We fell asleep to the sound of a resident Pygmy Owl hooting and woke up to Acorn Woodpeckers, Toweys, Robins, Steller Jays, and Warblers singing.
• Cerro Alto Trail is located right inside the campground. Day Use parking is $10. The hike is really beautiful and on a clear day you can see the ocean at peak!
• Campsites are spread pretty far apart, are fairly large, and have most have pretty good privacy. I think Campsite #18 is one of the best! It’s HUGE, tucked in the far corner, close to the hiking trail, fairly close to toilets, and has its own water spigot. If you have a large group, I would suggest booking Sites #18 & 19. They are side by side and would be perfect for accommodating a larger party.
• Each site comes with a picnic table, fire ring, and 1 parking spot. Additional cars need to park in the day use area.
• Very popular campground and it feels very safe. People are very respectful of quite hours and other campground rules. There is a camp host on site who is present and you can buy firewood from.

[ CONS ]

• No showers and only pit (long drop) toilets. They provide toilet paper, but it is superrrrr thin. Bring your own.
• The actual campground is pretty deep-in from the main road, but it’s a very narrow and winding one car lane that goes for about a mile. Drive slow!
• Not close to any gas station or store so come prepared.
• There is poison oak EVERYWHERE so do not go wandering off into the brush.
• TICKS TICKS TICKS. Make sure you read the warnings and stay on the trails. We actually saw ticks during our hike
• Lots of hikers come in and out of the campgrounds to access the Cerro Alto trailhead. Although it felt very safe, just make sure you pack away valuables when you leave your site. The hiking trail is very popular so there is a lot of activity and strangers walking around and exploring.
• We heard a lot of people complaining about the smell of the toilets, but we didn’t experience that problem from our campsite. After a while, we started noticing a smell and realized it was the fragrance coming off the flowering Eucalyptus trees -- they have a funny smell that can smell like urine.

Note: No reception at campgrounds (0 bars with AT&T)

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time. This weekend I had the opportunity to test out RovR RollR 60-quart cooler on a camping trip to Cerro Alto. I recently just purchased a Yeti Cooler which I am in love with so I was skeptical about the RovR. It has a lot of really cool features that I felt were just extraneous when I was shopping around, but now I’m a total believer. I can actually say that I prefer the RovR cooler over my Yeti cooler now!

• As far as cooling, it does just as good a job as other equivalent coolers. It’s very sturdy and the walls of the cooler are thick and insulates like a boss.
• Transporting this cooler is CAKE! The tires are amazing. We tested it on different terrains and were very impressed with how easy the cooler was to maneuver. Even when we rolled it on very loose dirt trails that sinks a little, it performed beyond our expectations. The wheels are large enough to roll over bumpy roads and rocks, they turn well, and are extremely sturdy.
• The handle on the cooler is the perfect length and folds flush to the side of the cooler and out of the way. My husband typically find wagons, cooler, and luggage handles a little on the short side which make it awkward for him to pull, but he was very pleased with the height of the handle.
• The dry bin is soooo clutch! It’s very deep and you can fit a wine bottle standing up. You can even uncork the bottle and stick it back in the dry box without worry about wine spilling. We used it to keep things dry and it worked like a charm. We had small tupperware in there that we never had to worry about water seeping into. It also makes organization really nice. I don’t know how I survived this long without this feature in a cooler!
• I love the wagon bin!! The way it straps to the top of the cooler is extremely secure. That box is staying put and not going anywhere! It’s also very sturdy and thick. It’s so nice to have extra storage to store items when you’re towing the storage. It really frees up your hands and overall, it’s just a freakin’ nice bin to have when camping. We used it for stashing away our tent bags, blanket stuff sacks, and other miscellaneous items. It folds away really nice and attaches back to the top of the cooler which makes storing it really nice.
• We purchased the prep board (table/cutting board) attachment and we are so happy we did. It works great as an extra table so you can still open and close your cooler. It has a really smooth surface that’s easy to clean after using as a cutting board. It attaches really easily and can be removed really easily.
• We also purchased the bike kit to attach the cooler to our bike. We live close to the beach and bringing a cooler is always something we’ve been restricted on when we bike, but now our day trips to the beach just got A WHOLE LOT BETTER!
• We also registered our cooler and got a free stash bag that attaches to the cooler. We’re so excited to use it on our next trip. It’s perfect for storing lighters, beer openers, multi-tools, headlamps, and other small gear items in.

There are SOOO many different attachments you can add to the cooler to make it more functional. You can’t do this with any other cooler on the market which really sets it apart from everyone else. My husband and I just placed an order for the Umbrella/Rod Holder which will come in handy for the beach and future camping trips. We cannot say enough good things about the Rovr cooler.

This is a tightly packed campground on the edge of the beach. The sites are almost on top of each other and there are only two restrooms for the 80 or so sites. They do keep the bigger camper/RV sites along the back row, but any rig under 24’ can get all other sites (which means no dedicated tent only sites). That being said, the primo sites are odd numbers 35-45 since they are at the far end and back up to the dunes with some scrubby trees that you might could hang a hammock in. They also are between two different beach access trails. On a walk thru the campground it looked like most (but not all) sites had a picnic table and either grill or fire pit. There is a free trolley pick up point at the first restroom; the trolley will take you to Morro Beach. If you remember to take your receipt for this campground with you, you can use that to get access to the showers at Morro Bay Campground. If I got to choose, I might pick Morro Bay over this campground because the showers are there, but this one isn’t terrible, just very crowded.

Morro Strand is steps away from a beautiful stretch of beach filled with sand dollars and an amazing view of Morro rock looking south. It gets windy starting around 2pm into the evening - right when you are setting up camp. If you are tent camping on the beach side, bring some extra long tent pegs as you are staking into sand. We had to go to Ace hardware while we were there to get extra long tent pegs. We also had a few ropes that came in handy to tie the tent down further.

If you are tent camping, make sure to get a spot on the beach side. Beach side sites are: A-D (30-40ft long) and odd numbered sites 1-45 (24ft or less). The middle sites (even numbered sites 2-46) are in a narrow parking median and pretty tight on space. Our site D was far and away the largest site with the highest view (meaning we could see Morro rock from our tent) and had the most distance from other campers. Snag that one if you get a chance. Not all beachside sites have views of the oceans since some sit further down. Odd sites 35-45 have a better view of the beach.

All the RV hook up sites are on the east side of the campground/parking lot.

The bathrooms are centrally located, but there are no showers. Luckily your parking pass gets you into Morro Bay State Beach Park and you can buy tokens there and shower.

I would definitely return. This location is beautiful and peaceful with amazing long empty stretches of beach to walk on. It stayed pretty cool, even in June. Downtown Morro Bay is delightful to spend the day walking through with amazing seafood, cute shops and even a skateboard museum. We even saw sea otters playing in the bay!

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was that it seems like an old beach parking lot that was converted into a campsite, so not all the sites are great. But the location can't be beat and if you get a beachside spot you are good to go!

This small hot springs resort has a unique charm about it. With not a lot of acreage, they maximize the space for sure. The main attraction is the warm pool, 25 yards with swimming lanes, and the hot pool which can accommodate 30 people. We found this rustic resort a good place to spend the night and get in a quick soak, but not exactly someplace we’d like to spend a weekend. 

The RV lot is a large parking lot with spaces allocated on the outside of the gravel road. The tent camping section was a narrow patch of grass, with sites slotted in together along a tight corner of the property. Get to know your neighbors, because you’ll be close! Our little camper and truck rig was just small enough to fit into one of the grass camping sites at 32 feet combined, but it was a tight fit.  We were easily able to run on solar instead of paying for an electrical site.

There's a picnic table and fire ring at each site, but the sites are so small, you are practically on top of your neighbors with zero privacy.  There are pit toilets in the campground as well as flush toilets and showers available near the bath house.  They also offer cabins for rent.

The town of Avila Beach has restaurants and a few convenience stores, but the larger grocery stores are available in nearby Pismo Beach.  Morro Bay is definitely worth a visit as well!