We enjoy beach camping in San Diego County. We’ve camped at San Onofre and San Elijo many times over the years. This was our first stay at San Clemente. The camp site was pretty clean. It didn’t take much to clear a spot for our 4 man. We were opposite a bathroom with showers and the camp host. Just lucked out. It’s so hard to get spots now days i barely look at that stuff, I just book it. It’s a large camp ground but facilities are always within a reasonable walking distance. Lots of paved paths for kids to skateboard and ride bikes. The camp ground is in a residential area but is near the freeway so you’re not really “transported” when you’re camping here. You will also likely hear the trains as they run along the coast here, although I didn’t hear them at 4am like I do at San Onofre. Maybe train schedules have changed. It’s a steep hike or lengthy set of stairs to get down to the beach, the camp ground is on the bluffs. The beach is beautiful. If you have surf boards, SUPs or Boogey Boards bring them. The whole point should be to get in the water. I like the fact that tent camping and full RVs are separated here. I’m weird like that. I like a little village of tents. You’re close enough to town that if you want to do some miles you can walk in. I think you can walk the beach to the pier when the tide is right. The staff was friendly. Our camp host was great! He even brought us some fresh lavash bread from town one night. The bathrooms were clean most of the time and well stocked. The only thing I would call out here is this is a draw for young surf nomads, most of which are a fun group and interesting to chat with. Some are rowdy and pretty rude. You want to be prepared, you may have to keep track of your littles to avoid them getting hit by guys on skateboard with longboards in hand. We saw a few narrow misses. And my least favorite part, the loud drunk partying at midnight, 2am and 4am. Quiet hours are not well enforced here. All in all we like it here and will come back for short stays.

This camp ground is so well maintained. The area is tidy, the bathrooms are clean and well stocked and most importantly the Ranger enforces quiet time. I am not a fan of being woken up at 2 am by a drunk group of campers. The walking trails are clear and wide and there’s lots of room for kids to ride their bikes and scooters. The pond is pretty. We were able to get some great pictures of the dragonflies. They were huge! There are a lot of squirrels, so like every place you need to keep your camp site cleaned up and food stowed. The only things I would call out here are the camp sites are very close together. We’re in a 10x10 tent and we had a huge RV pretty much on top of us. Luckily they never came out of the RV, guessing because of the heat. Tent only sites are limited so you’re like going to be right next to or in between 5th wheels and RVs using partial hook ups. The other thing is depending on your spot you might be hard pressed to have an area clear of squirrel holes to put down your ground cover. Our tent was okay but our second shelter and games both had to go over a series of holes. Almost lost some ring toss rings down the holes. Last is the camp ground provided fire wood. We try to buy local wood to avoid invasive insects. In the case of Dos Picos they provide wood bundles for $5 on-site. Cheap and we don’t have to make room in the car, win/win. We’ll the wood is cut in pretty large chunks and riddled with knots. I would recommend a splitter and a small sledge. It took way too long to split our wood with our hatchet and in 93 degree heat, it pretty much sucked. I consider these things pretty minor issues for a weekend get away. We enjoyed the camp ground, thought all the rangers were great and would visit again for a quick trip.