Southern California is one of the few places where you can enjoy the beach, the desert, and the mountains all in one day. Camping and hiking at Point Mugu has it all. When I moved to LA 3 years ago, Point Mugu was the first park I visited. There had been a recent fire in the hiking hills, and it was amazing to see the plant life show such a will to survive. The backbone trail ends at this park, and was finally completed in spring 2016 - I strongly recommend hiking part of it, if you stay at Point Mugu.

The one downside: it's really hard to reserve a campsite here for the weekends. I've had to book weeks in advance.