Best Glamping near Pinnacles, CA

The Pinnacles Campground offers a variety of sections to fit the need of most every type of camper. There are two sections to the park - an east and a west side which are not connected very easily unless you hike through the Pinnacles themselves. However, the main Campground offers a ranger station and store that provides books, snacks, and information on the park. There is wifi and a pool and showers available. Sections include group sites (which were the ones I stayed at), good for families, school trips, or camps, and more family style camps, and places where you can glamp in your RV fully equipped with hook ups.

The pinnacles is unique because they are one of two spots in California where you can see the California Condors, a huge giant scavenging bird that almost became extinct. From the campsite you can watch them soar back to their roosts in the higher Pinnacles through binoculars. Truly a wonderful experience.

Cons: Watch out for the raccoons. They will eat everything you don't lock away!

One of our favorites.  They keep a clean camp, including clean flush toilets and showers.  Super dog friendly.  10 minute drive to town, 15 to the beach, and 10 minutes to hike at Garland Ranch.

We are tent car campers.  They have sites with and without electricity for tents, and full hookup for RVs.  Recently they've added several glamping sheds/tents which look quite inviting.  Most but not all sites have SOME shade.  (Remember you're in the valley, not at the coast, so it can get hot during summer and early fall days).  

All sites have fire rings (bring Duraflame logs; no wood fires) and standing BBQs.  The whole campground is built on a fairly steep hill, so site sizes and privacy can vary.  Some sites have views.  They do try to keep multi-site groups together when they can, but you must pay extra to reserve specific sites.

The pool is well maintained, and the surrounding deck is generous and offers wifi.

Great place to hike, spectacular views. Rock climbers will enjoy the pinnacle rock formations. Talus caves add to the wonderful hikes and offer a refreshing break from the sun. Spring and fall best, summers are hot. You may also see a California condor overhead.

Per my rating system, this is very close to being 5 stars, meaning it's worth planning a trip from out of state just to visit this park and surrounding national/state forest for 3 days or more  The only reason it's 4 stars instead of 5 is that Pinnacles isn't quite big enough to explore exclusively for a minimum of 3 days. You've got a solid and long day of hiking through the park (6 miles, but very intense and exposed). Then a half day of exploring the parts of the park you didn't get to on the hike  And then. . well, by then you've probably seen most of what is worth seeing in the park. So hop in the car and drive to Monterey.  Go to the aquarium, eat some seafood, and then drive back to Pinnacles (about 3 hours round trip, but worth it if you spend the whole day in Monterey).  This is the definition of 4 stars by my system: a park definitely worth visiting if its part of a larger trip to a region.  And for locals, this is a must-visit spot, a place that will be on the regular camping rotation.

The park, which is located in a tight valley in San Benito county, is a geologically unique spot nestled in oak studded rolling California coastal mountains. There are two entrances into the park, but the campground is only accessible from the Gilroy/Hollister side.  If you're coming from the Bay Area, take Hwy 101 through Gilroy and then get on Hwy 25 South. As you wind your way on Hwy 25, you pass ranch land and within 10 miles of getting off the freeway, you feel like you're pretty far away from it all. That's the thing about California.  Get off the main thoroughfares and out of the population centers, and things get rugged fast. In the days of trillion-dollar market caps for Silicon Valley technology companies, people often forget that California has a rich agricultural history. I've lived in California for going on 3 decades, and I sometimes wonder what the more quintessentially central California experience is: Shopping at the Apple Store in San Francisco and then dining at a fine restaurant as the fog rolls in, or buying produce from a farm stand in a valley bordered by rolling hills.  It's probably both. San Benito county is a great place to experience the latter.

What makes Pinnacles geologically unique is that the park is formed from bulbous rock formations.  These are somewhat reminiscent of what one would find in southern Utah, at a place like Arches. The main hike, which is a loop that begins and ends at the parking lot, takes you up the ridge line and then across the rock faces. It's an intense and fun hike. It's just under 6 miles, but it will take the entire day.  Pack a lunch and plenty of water.  There are no water sources on the trail.  If you're lucky, you'll see condors floating in the thermal currents.

Speaking of thermal currents, Pinnacles is extremely hot in the summer. I've never come here past April.  The winter is ideal for Pinnacles.  But if you are in the Bay Area in the summer, it's worth checking out.  But be prepared for heat.

There are two campgrounds loops: one is for RV's and the other is for tents and RV "dry camping" (i.e. no hookups). I was in the tent section, dry camping my Airstream. The RV loop is easy to get in and out of.  The loop I was in was a bit trickier - "blue square" difficulty level for a 28' trailer. I had a back-in spot, but the angle of the spot made it easy to back in.  The tricky part was that it was kind of narrow, with railroad ties on either side. It was a good spot, and I'd definitely take that one again. But, if you want full hookups on the RV loop, spots 50 and 51 are the ones to get.  Many of the spots on the RV loop were really exposed, and it can get hot in Pinnacles, even in the winter during the day.

As I mentioned in the introduction of this post, there is a lot to do within a 2-3 hour (round trip) drive of Pinnacles.  You could go up to the southern Bay Area.  You can go to Monterey.  You could go wine tasting in Paso Robles. This is a great place to plan a 3-4 night trip. It's always on my short list of places to go.

Although many national parks are busier, more frantic camping experiences, Pinnacles provided a very relaxed, pleasant few days of hiking and camping.

The campground itself was a basic national park setup: pretty spacious and scenic sites, picnic tables, flush toilets, and running water. They also have coin showers and a dump station for RVs.

Since Pinnacles is in a more remote area, the access to the park from the campground was clutch. We were able to get an early start and beat the (few) crowds out to the best trails. In our four days in the park, we hiked almost every trail. The trail system is extensive and can be connected in many ways, but here were our favorite parts:

• High Peaks area - on the map it’s called “steep and narrow”
• Bear Gulch and Balconies talus caves
• Chalone Peak Trail

Pinnacles is the newest national park, and it’s quite small, so you can do it justice in a day, but I’d suggest slowing down and spending the night. It’s a perfect place to take it easy!

You can read much more about our four days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Pinnacles)

I have to admit, I didn't even know Pinnacles NP exsisted. I'm glad I saw the sign and venture to check it out. It’s a beautiful park and has the largest population of California Condors in the world.

The campground is situated about 2.3 miles from the main trailheads. There's tent and RV campsites. It's a good campground with the NP visitor center located within the campground.

Note: There's only 30Amp service at the RV sites. Bring an adapter if you only have 50 or 20Amps.

Pinnacles Campground is a nice campground in the middle of the Pinnacles N.P. Sites are nice, and most of them could easily fit two tents. It was fairly busy when we were here, with a lot of people and noise. Raccoons are very active here so be sure to lock all of your food away and don’t leave anything out through the night. There quite a few sites that offer good shade.

We first visited in Feb at site 126. It has some privacy, we liked that it was in between two yurts away from others. The trail does go right behind the site but it wasn’t super busy. In April we got site 405 and it was absolutely beautiful and isolated in a ring of redwood trees with lots of other trees to use for hammocks, etc. I will warn, it gets very cold at night always better safe then sorry when it comes to layers.

We wanted to stay in Pinnacles National Park, but the campground was full. We ended up staying there the next day, but ironically, I liked Sweetwater much more. It's a somewhat long drive, but you're rewarded with decent solitude. There are only a few sites, so we got lucky. I was surprised how nice the campground was, especially since it was free. Be aware there is no water available. It's definitely not as convenient as staying in Pinnacles, but I would choose Sweetwater over camping in the park.

If planning a trip longer than just a day hike to the beautiful Pinnacles National Park, and since backpacking in not allowed in Pinnacles, the Pinnacles campground on the east entrance is a nice quiet place to spend a night. This campground is also a nice option to get an early start to a long hike the following morning. The campground is situated only accessible from the east side (this is important if you are coming in off the 101 on the west side of the park - you will need to make sure you plan your route properly or will end up on the wrong side of the park with the closest option Bittersweet Rd. (G13) to cut across and get to the east entrance. The campground itself was very clean, and while we used a small tent site, also offers RV sites. Sites are primarily close together but also had many trees which offered a little shade and semi-privacy feeling. Standard campground with picnic tables and metal fire pits, water located in multiple areas throughout including showers. There was also a pool located on the grounds but we did not use it.

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.

CAMPFIRES ARE NOT ALLOWED HERE. Not even in the fire rings at each site!

We enjoyed seeing LOTS of wildlife in Pinnacles from our campsite: California quail scurrying up a hill, mule deer, and raptors of all kinds. Lots of nocturnal animal activity! 

But the campsites themselves were dispersed around a parking lot -- not much more to it, and very little shade or barrier between sites. Quiet hours were not enforced at all. People were loud through the night.

Wrong name was written on our placard so we worried all night that someone would accuse us of taking their spot, even though we had reserved. and pre-paid for the one we were in. Camping host was indifferent to this error.

Great National Park, though, and seemed to be the only camping option in the area.

Pinnacles is the newest National Park and well worth a visit. The trails are great and the scenery is incredible, plus there's a chance to see a condor. We camped with a group, and the facilities were well-kept.

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.

I did my very first camping at Pinnacles campground and it was a great first time experience. Easy access to fresh water, flushable toilets and beautiful hiking trails in walking distance. There's even a swimming pool but it's closed during COVID-19. I would definitely camp here again.

This campground was super convenient when staying at Pinnacles for a couple days. You can’t really get anything same day so be sure to book in advance! We stayed outside of the park the first night and here the next. Amazing to see condors from our site. Great hiking close by!

Being here plenty of times. My son and I have hike almost all the trails there numerous times, never gets old. People there are very friendly. There is a general store but sometime it closes before 5. Use to come here before it became a national park and there were less crowds, now you need to make reservations because the walk-in sites fill up fast. The wild life is great except for the typical raccoons that are always hungry so make sure you use the bear boxes at the campsites. The last few times we have been there we were able to have a campfire but when conditions get bad only camp-stoves are allowed. No worries if you forget something at home the general store is pretty much stocked up, they even have camp stoves. Cool thing about Pinnacles is that they have a swimming pool. As for the caves, your best bet would be to check the cave status on the Pinnacles NPS websites because the caves are sometimes closed. Get pretty hot in the summer.

Traveling alone with two little girls, I opted for more populated campgrounds with nearby amenities. Granted, it was spring and the weather still too cold for most, so the Fernwood Campground was all but deserted. (If there were more people, it would likely have been loud in the campground as the spots are really close together.)

We rented a yurt for two nights right on the Big Sur River. My girls had a blast playing in the mud, traversing the meadow and climbing readwoods. Really, this place lacks nothing.

One major stair climb and you are in the hotel on HWY 101. My youngest has a knack for falling in rivers, so we took advantage of the laundry facilities in a nearby hotel while sipping cocoa and eating a hearty breakfast.

Only 4 stars because the spots are too close together to achieve that "remote" feel I like.

This campground can only be accessed from the East entrance to Pinnacles National Park, and fills up fast on weekends. Amenities aren't the newest, the stinky bathrooms had a line for the coin-op showers, and the camp store/registration counter/visitor center is only open from 9:30am-5pm. A lot of tent campers paid extra for RV sites, as they were the only ones available. Shade is hit-and-miss.

Highly recommended Pinnacles for families! There are lots of great hikes, a pool to swim on hot days, and so many stars at night. There is also a great camp store with everything you need - from food to cookware to cute t-shirts. And if your kid loves the junior ranger program as much as ours you can pick up your guide and badge at the visitor center.

It’s also a super short drive from the Bay Area which makes it an easy getaway during the school year.

The rv campground has hookups and recently added very good WiFi. As others have mentioned, Pinnacles is a gem - particularly in spring and fall. The hikes were really busy and the parking lots get full by 9 am on weekends.

That said, there is a reason why. The hike was extremely memorable, though not for those afraid of heights.

We didn’t see condors, but we did get a really cool discussion with a condor tracker. And, she was showing us how she actively tracked them.

We will be back to see the caves when they open again - we loved this park!