Best Campgrounds near Point Arena, CA

The staff has been wonderful, no issues!

Camp operator directed us to several sites that were not large enough for our 22 ft trailer. For a state park not very well maintained. Plus side very close to the ocean area and great boardwalk to the tidal pools

$40 for the night / $10 bundle of fire wood. Sites have a burn barrel and picnic table and parking spot. Nice that you can hear the waves crashing. Short walk to the beach. Bathrooms clean and showers were cheap. Only animals spotted were deer. Would stay again if in the area.

Great camping, hiking, boating. Lots of nature trails. Super friendly staff

Along the forgotten coast of Central California along Hwy 1, this small state park offers a great way to explore the area. 

The upper campground is relatively small and was still heavily impacted by 2023-24 winter storms, many downed trees still had some campsites closed in the spring of 2024. Most of these sites would accommodate smaller rigs and tents only. The campground is tucked in between the remaining coastal pines and live oak. The bathrooms were small but tidy with flush toilets and running water, no showers.   We drove through here and then headed to the overflow lot...

If you are in a self-contained vehicle, the most stunning place to camp in this park is the “overflow” camping lot closer to the beach. Here you can camp with a 180 degree view of the ocean and the rolling hills leading to the beach. The lot is completely open to the sky, so solar and satellite internet work great. The only downside is that the closest bathroom and fresh water spigot is either in the day-use area down toward the water, or back uphill at the campground. But the view and scenery were more than worth the minor inconvenience. 

If you’ve got a solar powered system, you could have the most inexpensive California beach vacation around. The rocky beach area is great for wildlife viewing, we saw sea lions, seals, and even the occasional spout from migrating gray whales. While not necessarily good for swimming, the beach area is great for fishing.  Hiking is right from the campground and leads to the north or south from the headland area. 

Come prepared with food and gas!  Supplies will be difficult to come by, as there are only a few small convenience/ general stores and restaurants, in nearby Jenner. The larger grocery outlets will be inland in Santa Rosa about an hour away. This is the price you pay to have a stunning California beach vacation without the normal crowds.

We chose Pomo based on other reviews on TheDyrt. I picked site 47 out of the three that were left when I was searching for a place near Fort Bragg. Although it looks like the site is in the middle of the town, the sites are very private, many nestled between thick brush (blackberries!) and many back far enough from the road that it seems like you're boondocking. Our primary reason for choosing a coastal site was for comfort. It was still over 95 degrees inland, but a very comfortable 65 along the coast. 

Almost all the RV sites are gravel, with the exception of a couple smaller ones, and the tent sites. There is a single bathroom complex, and the men's restroom was great...tiled with multiple stalls, large glass windows and CLEAN! I didn't check the showers out, but I'm assuming the same level of detail and finish also apply there.

It appears the sewer system doesn't cover all the sites, so the further back in the campground you go, there won't be any (an educated guess on my behalf). I walked through the campground, and most the RV sites have a power pedastal and water, a nice wooden picnic table and a fire ring. Internet access is available throughout, and when I ran speedtest I was getting 170Mbps down, which is incredible.

Make sure you look through the pictures of each site on the reservation page. They all are slightly different in size, privacy, and whatnot. There are several sites that "share" a common open space if you're in a group, and a large group area which looked to have 5 or 6 sites all comingled.

For tent camping, there is a large, open line of grass near the front of the campground, which doesn't really offer much protection from the sun. BUT...there is a loop at the back of the campground that has at least 10 grassy tent sites under a thick cover of pine trees. It's isolated by a path from the other RV sites, and I was really impressed by the area! If I were still tent camping, this would no doubt be my go-to tent site.

The nights were quiet and dark, and the staff friendly. They have 1 dump station, a fish cleaning station, propane and the office has a bunch of DVD movies available (not sure if for rent or free use).

Overall an excellent site and we were glad to find it, and will probably use this as a staging point for future treks further up the coast! I'll include some pictures of the site (I never include personal/family pictures because this is a campground review site, not a family album!)

Salt Point State Park has 3 separate camping areas: Woodside Campground, Gerstle Cove Campground, and Gerstle Cove Overflow. The overflow is a lot that overlooks the ocean, and you don’t have to wait for the campground to be full to be able to camp here. You can ask to stay here when you arrive at the ranger station at the entrance. 

The overflow is for self contained RVs only. No tents or car camping allowed. There is a trash bin in the center of the lot but no other amenities. It seems to be mellow during the week and busy on weekends. We’re glad we were just paying day by day because it got too crowded for us when the weekend hit, so we decided to leave. 

There are beautiful hikes in this area, and a trail straight from the lot to the ocean. You can also see whales from the lot! 

Dogs ok, cell service is good, the lot isn’t very level but it isn’t too bad. No designated spots so just come down and figure out a good place to set up once you get there. This is a beautiful place to camp and we do love it, even at $30.

This campground lives up to all the other positive comments BUT the raccoons were extremely aggressive and even ate its way into a tent at 2AM. It would have been nice if the host had warned of them when he visited to check reservation and sell us wood!

I tent camped here on a September weeknight. The campground is very spacious on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Very few other campers so I had plenty of options for sites. It was cool, sunny, and no wind-perfect weather! Stunning views all around, with a trailhead to Stillwater Cove. Very quiet and relaxing stay here!

The views are worth the drive!  The cliffs are just spectacular and there are places to walk and explore the coast, albeit it can be windy. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and there were plenty of spots to choose from. Most campsites are fairly spacious, the general store is well stocked and prices are reasonable. The outdoor showers are a win, as we stayed 4 nights and it was so quite once the weekend passed. If the guy with the BBQ oysters is set up on the weekend - they are fabulous! Cafe Aquatica in Jenner has amazing chowda and quaint outdoor seating. Sunsets for days...

This is the worst campground I’ve ever seen. There was trash throughout the campground - including a used condom and condom wrappers in our campsite - bathrooms were dirty and had no soap, and there were several loud groups well after the posted quiet hours. We stayed one night and left early. If you’re into obnoxious parties, then this place is for you. The “potable” water is brown out of the tap.

Easy access and great store, with access to fire rings, tables, showers, potable water, dump station and trash receptacles. The tent sites are beautiful, but a bit too close to each other when there are dogs involved.

We were here for 3 nights and enjoyed the summer concert series on the grass and the close location to a private beach across from the Rv park. 

The spaces for Rv’s are tight, but we made it work. Tent camping is much more spacious. 

The weather was humid and cool. It felt wonderful for July!!

The dozens of 1 star google reviews over the years are 100000 percent accurate.

If you’re thinking of staying here, don’t! This place is a DUMP! You walk into a literal mushroom shop. The photos online are extremely misleading. They charge double what other parks in the area charge.

We checked in and immediately left on a holiday weekend. It’s dirty, cramped, and unkempt. We called around to find another spot in town and all the other park owners confirmed that the owner (Mike) at Hidden Pines is basically a crook. He overcharges, misleads, and mismanages the park. We were placed in a grass lot, there were no views, no ocean access. Nothing. The lot was so bad our auto leveling trailer couldn’t level.

I was going to just let it go but the owner, Mike, called me five times after leaving and screamed at me. I didn’t even ask for my money back and told him he could give the space away. He kept screaming at me and told me he was going to write a report so I could never go there again - no problem Mike, we WILL NOT be back.

Now this is the point I decided to write a negative review. After screaming at me on the phone, he gave my phone number to a random person to have that person ask me if I would call HP to allow them to buy my spot. I never consented to my information being shared.

I would rate this place negative stars if I could. It’s atrocious and crooked, and other park owners jump to help you find a space when you call and ask, because it’s THAT BAD!

Stealing this bit from another review, because it’s absolutely accurate -

Also, this is for Mike, DO NOT WRITE THAT WE VIOLATED POLICIES OR DID NOT STAY AT YOUR PARK. YOU ARE A SCUMBAG AND OVERCHARGE FOR SOMETHING THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE ATROCITY.

Beautiful campground nestled among the trees.  Drive to campground (we came from the south and departed same way) is true Highway 1 spectacular scenery with narrow road along some cliffs with some hair-pin turns.  (Parts of road were under repair in June 2024 creating some delays.)  Individual camp sites were perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 mile from both entrance gate and camp host site.  Individual sites were good size with picnic table and cleared-out area surrounding it.  RV parking was on good asphalt surface.  Restrooms were clean and had flush toilets.  Unfortunately no showers, no RV dump station, no threaded connections to refill RV potable water tank.  Did have portable water spigots in campground to fill personal water bottles.  Coastal fog rolled in at night and cleared by mid-morning.  We would have loved to hike trails to beach; however, we did not have time.  We will save that for next time we are passing through.

Serene, Beautiful, clean bathrooms, spacious Tucked away off the hwy we were surprised by the sound of babbling creek and the little bridges that meanders through this campground

Went up the coast in June knowing it would be hard to find a spot. Just as I thought our chances were running thin we stumbled across this place. Mostly open sites, all were fairly secluded. Big spaces, clean area and ocean sounds abound. Kids loved it to ride their bikes around and I stressed less knowing there were few, if any, cars passing by. Site 6 had lots of Cypress trees for the kids to climb, too. We will be back!