Parks of the San Francisco Bay Area

from Redwood Hikes Press

Point Reyes Region

★★★

Glen Camp


Open all year · $30/night
Home > The San Francisco Bay Area > Point Reyes Region > Point Reyes National Seashore
Site 10, with sites 3 (barely visible at far left), 4, and 9 in the background

Site 10, with sites 3 (barely visible at far left), 4, and 9 in the background

Glen Camp is a backpacking camp in a sheltered meadow surrounded by lush coastal woodland. It’s a 5-mile hike from the Bear Valley trailhead and is in the most attractive part of the Point Reyes interior. The miles of unbroken conifer-carpeted wilderness around the camp give it a remarkably remote, backcountry feel.

The camp is the least popular of the four Point Reyes campgrounds, maybe because it’s the only one that doesn’t have any kind of ocean view. But it still fills up every Saturday night and is pretty busy on Friday nights too, even in winter.

There are 12 sites: 4 in the meadow, 4 under the trees at the edge of the meadow, and 4 in the woods. Each has a picnic table, fire ring, and food locker. There’s potable water and a pit toilet.

The drawback of being in a glen is that the swirling winds sometimes waft the smell from the toilet over the entire campground.

The campground is very open, so there isn’t a lot of privacy. Even the wooded sites are still pretty open. Site 10 is the worst; it’s in an awkward spot in the middle of the meadow, right at the junction of the trails to the other campsites.

Sites 5 and 6 are the best since they’re in the most attractive, wooded part of the campground and are also furthest from the toilet. Site 5 also has the most privacy; while the picnic table is in very open woods in view of other campsites, its tent site a few yards away is pretty well screened.

After the 2020 Woodward fire, the charcoal grills were removed and new, larger bear boxes installed. No fires are allowed in the camp.

Make reservations at recreation.gov. Click on the Loop column to sort the campsites by campground.

Site 1

Site 1
Click any photo to enlarge

Site 3

Site 3

Site 4, with site 10 in the background

Site 4, with site 10 in the background

Site 5 in 2019, with sites 6 (at left) and 7 in the background. The old bear box in this picture has since been replaced and the barbeque grill removed.

Site 5 in 2019, with sites 6 (at left) and 7 in the background. The old bear box in this picture has since been replaced and the barbeque grill removed.

0.1 miles Scale 1:5,000 Show location

View the trailhead location in Google Maps

Site 6, with site 7 in the background

Site 6, with site 7 in the background

Site 7

Site 7

Site 9

Site 9

Site 11

Site 11

Site 12

Site 12

 


 

© 2019, 2023 David Baselt