Best Glamping near Vernalis, CA

I wanted somewhere not too far to go and stay when my 5-6 year-old had 5 days off from school. This was perfect in so many ways.

Positives

- Amenities! I love how everything was themed, from the street names to the signs. Two nice playgrounds, ball courts, pool and hot tub. Watching your kids play red light/green light on the jumping pillow put a smile on every parent's face.

- Seasonal programming (weekends only). For October, we did an outdoor movie, magic pumpkins, costume contest, trick or treating, hay ride, and haunted house. My daughter loved everything except the haunted house, which she said was "too scary!"

- Clean, comfortable facilities. Lots of ways to stay. We car camped and found the hook ups really easy to use. Water, drain, 3 types of electricity, picnic table and firepit at every site. We used their bathrooms and showers and was impressed by how clean they were. Most of the time we had them completely to ourselves and they were even climate controlled.

- Restaurant. I cooked breakfast and lunch most days at the campsite, but for dinner we splashed out at the kid-friendly Waterfront Grille. Friendly staff, good food (lobster and prime rib, yum!), amazing views of the sunset.

Negatives

- Water park was closed. Call ahead to see if it is open when you want to go. I heard that it is never open because of some issue with permits or drought. If so, the promotional video is misleading and I almost deducted a star for this.

- Expensive. For camping, it is expensive, but think of it more as a theme park/resort, than true camping. We saved on the cabin and RV, and spent on the optional activities and the fancy meals.

Bottom line, I would totally go back and stay as long as I could. I hear it is super crowded in the summer, but it would be worth it if the water park is open.

Mount Madonna County Park has 4 campgrounds. I've been camping in this park since the late 70s. I've seen some changes over the years...ahem...decades. There's something for everyone here, RVers, tenters, and those who want to rent tent cabins. There are plenty of trails to hike, as well as equestrian trails. No bikes on trails though.

There are several micro climates in this area and temps can vary, besides our weather varies from day to day.

There are trails offering views of the Santa Clara Valley, and trails offering views of the Monterey Bay. The park is above the fog line (most of the year). We don't get rain in the summer here. The park is situated at the County lines of Santa Clara County and Santa Cruz County and is part of the Santa Clara County Parks system.

No stores or markets in the park, but you can easily run into town, either Watsonville or Gilroy. It's slightly closer to Watsonville where you will find a gas station/market on 152 (Currently a Valero), or go into Gilroy on 152 for Safeway and more.

There's a small cabin (ranger's station) with a history exhibit and the white reindeer up from the kiosk. My favorite campground in the park is the Tan Oak campground at the top and through the day use area. There are plenty of Geocaches on the trails.

The bathrooms are generally clean. I say generally because I prefer the off season when I have the campground to myself and the bathrooms are super clean, but when the campground is full, like any public bathroom they can need more attention. (Or maybe people just need to clean up after themselves) I've never used the showers, nor the tent cabins. I like the sites because overall they are separated by trees so you don't feel as crowded as more open campgrounds.

Despite signage warning of mountain lions, I have never encountered a single one in all the years of camping here. I've had raccoons and skunks (so lock up your food and belongings), turkeys and deer.

Weekends, especially a holiday weekend such as Memorial Day weekend, can be full. (Not my favorite) I have also stayed for the 4th of July when it fell midweek and had the campground (Tan Oak) literally to myself.

Leashed pets are allowed (2 per site) and 2 cars and 8 people per site.

We happened upon this RV Park as a drop in when our other park was not available. What a pleasant surprise! We’ll be making this our go to spot when traveling through the Gilroy area from now on.

For starters, the staff is wonderful. So friendly. Just an FYI, if they have open spots after the office closes they put out packets for up to 2 pull thru and 2 back in spots for late arrivals without a reservation.

Pros

• Great central location!
• Roomy spaces, by RV park standards.
• Water, sewer, electric, WiFi, and trash.
• Propane on-site for purchase.
• Laundry mat on site. Prices more reasonable than going to a laundry mat off site.
• Showers and restrooms.
• Truly dog welcoming, with multiple dog poop baggy bins and a dog run so your best friend can run leash free. They even gave my dog premium dog treats upon arrival. Wow!!
• A really nice pool.
• Wide back in spots, with wide roadways. Even a novice RVer can back it up with out concern.
• This place can accommodate truly large rigs, there were quite a few of them during our visit.
• There are likely long term rentals, but I couldn’t point them out because all the sites were neat and clean with flowers and landscaping. The park was super quiet.
• Open, lush grassy area.

Cons:

• It’s an RV park, so there is a lot of smooth new concrete and the sites are close together. If you want natural turf and more space, you’ll need to give up the amenities and go to a State Park or Forest.

It was a nice campground to go to. Lots of wildlife and hiking. Dogs are allowed. The lake is closed to any and all water-craft because the water level is too low. It is very clean and well maintained for the most part. Cell phone service for Xfinity/Verizon is spotty at best. There is weak wifi.

However, here's where it loses a star:

I arrived on a Friday late afternoon. Set up my tent. People were fairly loud until about 11pm. Bathrooms were really nice and clean…at first. Saturday, in came the crowd. Loud, obnoxious, and inconsiderate way past midnight. There was no reinforcement of quiet hours past 10pm. The toilets were clogged by 9pm at both restrooms. Men's restrooms have ONLY ONE STALL. And they were clogged beyond belief. I cannot understand why people do not know how to flush a toilet in public. Do they do this crap at home? Anyway, Sunday morning past 9am, still clogged up. Lines waiting to use the compromised restrooms as well. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, that's what ruined my experience. People just being completely selfish in a public campground and staff not be able to keep up with their antics. Maybe there shouldn't be so many sites for so few facilities. Just a thought.

For SUV tents, check out campsite pics on other sites before booking. SUV tents are usually limited to one entrance/exit point on the tent. Usually the driver's side. Each campsite is different. The one I reserved had only one pic that basically showed me nothing. I only could back in to set up my tent on the grass. Both the picnic table and firepit were facing the passenger side way far from the parking spot (as you can see in the second pic) opposite the entrance to my tent. So something to consider.

These were quite decent campgrounds, kind of close together but decent sized sites. We were lucky to have a spot at the dead center of the top of the mountain looking out at the lake (site 13) with a big shade tree. Since we got there on a Saturday night, we were surprised to see that the campsite directly to our left and directly to our right were empty. By Sunday night, every campsite within sight was vacated so we had a lot of freedom to do what we wanted without having to worry about disturbing other people. Deer are fearless & majestic, several “packs” walked through our campsite all throughout Sunday night when everyone else was gone. They walked up to us to smell our campfire & our food (we were making s’mores). There’s a campfire spot, a water source, a picnic table, & a grill set up at each site (for the most part), with trashes nearby. 

The Lake was nice! We went swimming in the swimming area and there were a surprising amount of people there via Covid. We went in the little shop briefly but from what I could tell they had a lot of useful things campers may need varying from firewood, ice, snacks. fast food, alcohol, & camping/fishing supplies. You can have 2 cars at your campsite but we only had one, the second would be an additional charge. You can bring pets but also for a charge. If you have campsites like 1-20 you’ll have to walk clear across the campgrounds to get to the water or make a quick drive down with your party. We just drove which was better for us after having swam. 

Only complaint is the porta-potties. We went from Saturday to Monday & by the end of Sunday there was no more toilet paper, high-piled waste, & when I called to try to inform them to restock the toilet paper no one answered. I brought my own toilet paper so that wasn’t the worst situation but definitely bring some just in case! Master that sumo squat to hover over that thing!

We had a HUGE campsite. Not sure of the number. The fire pit and picnic table were up near the camp road, but our site had a huge "dish" that was shaded by large trees where we pitched our tent. We camped in November, and it was cool, but not cold. It had been raining and things were damp, but we were comfortable with jackets and a fire in the evenings. Jackets came off during the sunniest part of the day. We did a short hike. Mostly, we stayed in our site and played tabletop games at the picnic table. We really so no other campers or park workers while we were in our site as it was quite secluded.