If you're planning on kayaking out to a campsite on a Saturday, book your site and kayak rental a few months in advance. But if you go out on other days there are less people and less lines when waiting for your permit or rental. If you have a canoe or kayak, bring it!! There are free launches and parking just above blue water rentals! You can buy or rent a portable toilet if you want to camp at a more secluded beach or just camp at Marshalls beach and you can walk to the pit toilets there. There are also raccoon protected trash cans incase you don't have enough space in your bear canister for all of your trash. The raccoons are everywhere at night! They can unzip coolers those little zippable coolers. They can pretty much open anything with their little human-like hands so protect your stuff!

More about the site/kayaking: the wind fights you to the campsite in the afternoon. Seriously. Noon hits and you are in a wave battle for the 5 miles it takes to get there. So get your permit right as bear valley visitor center opens and paddle out! If you running way behind and fear the battle, launch across the bay (visitor center will give you a map sowing where this is) and it's a much easier paddle. Cool things about this place: you will see sea jellies, bat rays, maybe a leopard shark, and bioluminescent plankton!!!! Hope for no full moon because running your hands through that water at night with no light is a trip!!! Also you can get a free beach fire permit even in the summer!!! The beach to camp on is long so even if others are camping there you can have your own camp set up way far away. I recommend beach hopping your whole way up and slow down near weedy shores to look for jellies and sting rays. Life is about the journey everyone! You know this.