Best Campgrounds near Rutherford, CA

Good Points: Pull through sites. Nice dog walking/ park area, cheap laundry, pool looked good, right on a river, close'ish to shopping that you may need, we got a PW(power/ water) site that was$20 cheaper a night than full hookup. Only stayed two nights while traveling through and there is a RV dump there, so easy enough. Showers and toilets were very nice. Not so good, but not too bad. Yes, we did end up by the Maverick Truck Stop side of the park, but the noise was not too bad. Expensive$$$ Is it just California? Yep, everything is very expensive in old CA. Bottom line: Check the prices. If staying for a night or two on your travels probably OK. Looking for a place to winter over- Not here.

I called to stay one night. I have a German shepherd service dog with medical paperwork to support that. They still said no and didn't care if my dog was a service dog or not.

The staff has been wonderful, no issues!

I can't think of a better place to camp on or near Mt. Tamalpais than Pantoll in terns of the access to trails and the various parks in the area. From Pantoll you have very easy access to the summit of Mt. Tamalpais, easy access Stinson Beach and the coast, plus you can even skip the long lines and shuttles to get into Muir Woods. There are literally days worth of great hiking accessible from Pantoll!

That said, the campground, while nicely maintained and well-equipped is right next to a relatively busy road and during daylight hours, especially in the high-traffic times of the year, the sites themselves are very exposed to all the day visitors.

Speaking of day visitors, I don't recall if you get a dedicated parking space with a campsite or not, but parking can be a challenge here due to the popularity of the various trailheads, and the limited parking.

Insanely hot in the summer, I would recommend not going in July like we did. It was 104° or something and I was just drenching my clothes in water to stay cool.

The hike is pretty nice to the summit from there.

Lots of free water and there's free showers too which is awesome, but don't use the stinky toilet at the top there's way better ones around the bottom area.

They have food lockers, not bear lockers, and ours was broken one time so have a solid backup plan, the raccoons are very intelligent and they come out at night so be prepared for that.

BRING SHOWER SHOES AND SOAP UR GOING TO WANT IT

Reasonably priced campground off I5 between Yuba City and Sacramento at the 505 split. Full set ups and dry camp. Very friendly staff. Mixture of residents. Well maintained park.

Good spot to spend the night. Rocked up at around 8pm, pretty busy at least 10 other vans and rvs there for the night. Couple of food vendors, great view of Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Weren’t hassled at all, left around 9am.

Nice spot close to the Golden Gate Bridge

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

This was some “glamping” for us. We’re in a van with no consistent onboard power or water, so we do a night or two out and a night at a site with more amenities. This was a perfect stop driving south on the 1 after the previous night remote on the coast and a planned need for StarLink with power source. Park is clean and well-organized, if tight, and the bathrooms are super clean and door-coded, with included hot showers. Right on the marina, fun if you enjoy harbor/boating scenery, and good food within walking distance. No way - that I found - to reserve online, but a phone call at 9am on a Saturday was returned within 10 minutes and got it done. Range of big rigs to camper vans, easy access and enough room to negotiate into spots. Very welcoming, safe, laid back environment.

Have you been over to Bodega Bay?  I think you'd like it there.  Our friends sure know us well!  While the town doesn’t look much different than when it appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, the cafes in the village have definitely upped their game. 

Bodega Dunes State Park is a great way to experience the area without the same activity and noise in the camp grounds down closer to the water. The campsite loops wind through the coastal Live Oak and Bishop Pine trees and provide some privacy in between sites in some areas, though some sites are right on top of each other.

They are generally smaller pull-in sites geared more toward tents, vans, and small travel trailers. There are just a handful of sites that can accommodate bigger RVs.  Many of the sites have decent open sky resources for solar power and satellite internet, though many in the lower areas had standing water and torn up asphalt pads from the heavy rains the last couple of years.

The bathrooms were clean and comfortable with flush toilets and warm showers (coin operated). My only complaint about the bathrooms is that there weren’t quite enough for the demand, in my opinion, but a few port-o-potties might help offset that during the busy season. 

Hiking among the sand dunes and along the beach provide some really stunning scenery. Reaching the beach, you’ll find as much coastal sand as you can handle with miles and miles of it to yourself. The water, which is normally pretty cold year round, can also be pretty rough for swimming.

A short drive away is the gorgeous Bodega Head Trail which winds up along the headland and offers amazing scenery. It’s sort of like a small Point Reyes National Seashore, but much easier to get to.

Bodega Bay has a couple of small grocery stores, gas stations, and more than a few restaurants to meet nearly any craving.  The area is known for its Dungeness Crab Harvest, so be sure to check that out when it's in season!

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.