★★★

Coast Camp

$30/night · Open all year

California > San Francisco Bay Area > Point Reyes National Seashore

Santa Maria Beach near Coast Camp

Coast Camp is on the scenic, remote Point Reyes coastline. The entire camp is in open coastal scrub with no shade.

Getting to the camp

Most people walk in from the Laguna tralhead, from which it's a slightly hilly two-mile walk on the Laguna and Fire Lane Trails or a flat three-mile walk on the Coast Trail.

It's also possible to start from the Limantour trailhead and walk a mile and a half along the beach to the camp, optionally cutting over to the Coast Trail after the first half-mile. This route is much more scenic, but it’s not an official trail and could potentially be cut off at high tide.

Details

Each site has a picnic table and food locker. Although this area didn’t burn in the 2020 Woodward Fire, after the fire the charcoal grills were removed, the wooden picnic tables were replaced with new cement picnic tables, and the food lockers were replaced with much larger lockers.

Wood fires are not allowed in the campsites, but you can get a free permit for a beach fire; however, the beach has been picked clean of driftwood. The food lockers keep the aggressive raccoons out, but mice often manage to get in. There's a vault toilet and potable water.

Sites

Sites 1–7 are on a scrub-covered hillside. They’re the most popular sites, since they're well-separated and the dense scrub provides good privacy. They're all pretty similar, except the lower-numbered sites have partial ocean views: the lower the site number, the better the view. On the other hand, sites 6 and especially 7 have the most privacy.

Site 1. The charcoal grills have been removed from all sites.
Click any photo to enlarge

Site 4

Site 5

Map of Coast Camp

Sites 8–14 are scattered along a dirt road in a shallow valley; a hill blocks some of the cold ocean wind from these sites. It also blocks the ocean views, although you can still hear the surf. Except for site 14, these sites are in an open grassy area without any scrub to provide privacy. On the other hand, because they’re so open they do have lots of space for tents. Site 14 is the exception and is well isolated in a thicket of scrub.

Sites 9–12 are relatively close to each other and have the least amount of privacy. 8 and 13 are group sites; you have to have between 7 and 25 people to stay there.

Site 8 is a group site for 7–25 people

Sites 11 (left) and 10 (right)

Site 12, with site 13 in the distance (at left)

Reservations

Make reservations at recreation.gov. Click on the “Loop” column to sort by campground. Reservations become available 6 months ahead of time and summer weekend reservations generally sell out within a few minutes. You can reserve up to four nights.