★★★

Sky Camp


$30/night · Open all year
California > San Francisco Bay Area > Point Reyes National Seashore

Sites 4 (left) and 9

Sky Camp is on a scenic ridgetop. Every site has an ocean view, at least on the rare days when it’s not cloudy. The camp is reached by a wooded one and a half-mile climb on a wide, well-maintained crushed-gravel road.

The Woodward Fire burned through the camp in August 2020, and the camp reopened in early 2022. The scrub that used to be 6 feet tall is now only about 2 feet tall, so the entire camp feels much more open and less lush. The barbeque grills are gone, and each site has a nice, new, much larger bear box. The isolated trees around the edge of the camp are dead, and some of the larger ones have been cut down. The dense grove of trees around sites 5 and 12 is fine; the trees still have a nice green canopy and don’t look scorched, but their lower branches are gone.

The camp is very well laid out, with ample space between most sites, except sites 3, 4, and 9, which lost their surrounding brush in the fire. These sites are now within sight of each other and have little privacy.

Sites 5 and 12 are wooded and are the most attractive sites. However, the camp is in is a really cool, foggy area, and these sites can get wet from the condensation that drips from the trees. Site 11 still has the best view, although since the fire opened up the views from the other sites it’s a pretty small difference.

I'm not sure why, but site 1 isn’t reservable.

Things to do

There are lots of remote, wilderness hiking opportunities around the camp, most notably a 2.5-mile loop around the Z Ranch Trail, an 8-mile round-trip hike down to Sculptured Beach, or a 10-mile hike down to Kelham Beach.

Details

Each site has a picnic table, food locker, and charcoal grill; wood fires are not allowed. Water is available.

Most sites accommodate up to 6 people and cost $20/night. Site 2 is a group site; you must have between 7 and 25 people to camp there, and the cost is $40/night in winter, $50 in summer.

Site 1 (pre-fire). This site is not reservable.
Click any photo to enlarge

Site 2 is a group site for 7–25 people. It has two picnic benches and two food lockers.

Site 3

Site 5 is fairly private and has a lot of space.

Site 6

Site 7

Site 8

Site 9

Site 10

Site 11 has good privacy and the best view, but it only has only enough level space for one tent.

Site 12 is surrounded by trees and has a nice, well-isolated tent site.

Reservations

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

You no longer have to check in at the visitor center when arriving.


 

© 2019, 2022 David Baselt