Carpinteria State Beach Hotels

Four Campgrounds Within the Park: Camping in Carpinteria State Park

Although we weren’t too happy with the campgrounds in this park, we really liked this beach. We were in the Santa Cruz campground where the spaces were laied out in a three parking lot style arrangement. This series of three spaces divided by white lines on the pavement are way too narrow as well as short. We barely had enough room to set the trailer, 28 foot in size and barely enough room to park the truck by backing it in under the overhang. Luckily we had a left hand end site so that our steps could hang over the pavement onto the grass giving us just barely enough room to put our slide out out on the other side, and allowing us to put our awning out over the grass. The middle and other end site did not allow space for an awning. There is open grass between these series of three sites at the time of this writing, but they are talking about adding more sites to Santa Cruz. There are three other campgrounds in the park. Anacapa, is similar to the one we were in, with most sites like mini parking lots containing 3 to 4 spaces. Anacapa campground was farther from the beach, and the smallest of the four choices. Santa Cruz and Anacapa have no hook-ups for RVs. Santa Rosa and San Miguel campgrounds were wider than the sites in Santa Cruz or Santa Rosa, so you could park your trailer and camper side by side, but then you couldn’t put out your awning, and they seemed to be shorter, so we would not have had room to back our truck into the overhang of our camper and still fit in the space. These campgrounds were long parking style lots, with painted lines separating the spaces, and a very small “yard” just big enough for a picnic table and fire ring behind each space. Santa Rosa is a full hookup campground with water, sewer, and electric. Half the sites in Santa Miguel had water and electricity available.

Each campsite has a fire ring and a picnic table. There are restrooms in each campground with toilets and coin-operated showers. Vehicles must be parked on the pavement only. If you have no room for your spare car or pull vehicle, you will have to park it in an extra-vehicle parking area. You may use generators in campsites without electricity from 10:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M., so don’t expect to run your microwave, coffee pot, or toaster early in the morning. If you are staying in a tent you will have to stay in Anacapa or Santa Cruz campgrounds. Motor homes and RVs can obtain sites in all four campgrounds. According to the campground information sheets some sites will not handle a RV larger than 21 foot, others will accommodate 24 feet, and others 30 feet, however it also states that motor homes and trailers up to 35 feet can fit into some sites. From our bike ride around the various campgrounds, I am sure we saw a few 35 footers, but it looked like a tight fit. Both Santa Rosa and San Miguel have beach row sites available. I would recommend contacting ReserveAmerica to determine which site would be best for you at www.reserveamerica.com or call 1-800-444-7275 or 1-800-174-7275.

• Opinion of Price: least expensive
• Related to: National/State Park, Camping
• Written October 21, 2007

Three Spaces Side by Side

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