REPOST: California’s Most Spectacular Camping Spots: Where to Camp in California

California remains a haven for outdoor enthusiasts as it has numerous forests and parks that are great for campers of all ages. Travel writer Tracey Friley lists on TravelChannel.com a few of these campsites.

Image Source: TravelChannel.com

Right here in the Golden State of California, more than 70 years after The Camper’s Handbook was written by a Brit who traveled as a boy 1,200 miles across America’s prairie land by wagon in the 19th century, my family took camping road trips within and across California borders. With a family caravan of motorcycles instead of horses, and a big beige-and-brown RV instead of a wagon train, we traveled California’s roadways to beautiful government and privately run campgrounds for loads of memorable outdoor camping fun.

These days, choosing the best place to camp within California’s 18 national forests is like choosing just one flavor of ice cream at the ice cream parlor. California boasts thousands of campgrounds that range in landscapes from the sierras to the desert, and from the redwoods to the bluffs; with styles of camping that range from primitive camping basics to modern-day glamping. Here are a handful of my regional picks for the best places to camp, whether by foot, car, boat, motorcycle or RV.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Tahoe National Forest
Tahoe National Forest is located in the northern Sierra Nevada and has over 75 campgrounds, yet it is not technically a part of Lake Tahoe Basin, home to the largest alpine lake in North America, covering 150,000 acres of wilderness, beaches, hiking trails, historic estates and just over 20 campgrounds.


Lake Tahoe Basin
Run by both the US Forest Service and the California State Parks, Lake Tahoe Basin camping in North Shore is near the best hiking and fishing; the South Shore is great for RVs and families; the East Shore is near beaches; and the West Shore is near historic sites, bike and hiking trails.

Redwood National and State Parks
The oldest California redwoods in the Redwood National and State Parks started as seedlings many years ago and camping among these 2,000-year-old beauties in this UNESCO World Heritage Site is divine. A 50-mile stretch that starts in northernmost California approximately 325 miles north of San Francisco, ending in the little-known town of Orick, Redwood National and State Parks have 4 campgrounds to choose from; 3 campgrounds in the redwood forest and one on the Pacific coastline at Golds Bluff Beach.

California’s Big Sur
Starting in the Monterey/Carmel area of Northern California and ending at Central California’s San Simeon near Hearst Castle, there’s more magnificent coastline camping on California's Big Sur where 3 tribes of Native Americans -- the Ohlone, Esselen and Salinan -- were first to inhabit the areas and where 3 million tourists visit per year. Camp streamside in the Big Sur Valley or camp ocean view bluff-side in the southern end of Big Sur. It is a stretch of California camping that you won’t want to miss.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Sequoia National Forest
The Sequoia National Forest, in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, covers a whopping 1,193,315 acres and ranges in elevation from 1,000 to 12,000 feet. It has the highest concentration of giant sequoia groves in the world, covering 196,000 acres and some of the most diverse camping landscapes and offerings, with over 2,500 miles of roadways and 850 miles of trails. There are 14 national campgrounds in both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Yosemite National Park
The famous Yosemite National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central eastern California that covers an area of 1,189 square miles of lakes, ponds, streams, hiking trails, sequoia, waterfalls and wilderness, boasts over 3.7 million visitors per year. There are 13 popular and sought-after nationally operated campgrounds within Yosemite for tents, RVs, groups and horse camping.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Crystal Cove State Park
With over 2,400 acres of wilderness and 3.2 miles of coastal beachfront, Crystal Cove State Park is in Southern California’s Newport Beach area between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach in Orange County. Crystal Cove Beach Cottages are an historic seaside colony of rentals within the 12.3-acre Crystal Cove Historic District, which is an enclave of rustic cottages built in the 1930s and ’40s and is a federally listed historic district on the California coast. There are currently 24 sought-after beachfront cottages available for rent, with another 17 to be restored. There is also tent, RV, family and bluff camping available at the Crystal Cove wildnerness area of El Moro Canyon.

Santa Barbara County
Southern California’s Santa Barbara County has plenty of beachfront camping to choose from: Carpinteria State Beach, Gaviota State Park, Jalama Beach and Refugio State Beach. But if you want to get your glamp on, check out the luxury safari tents, fully equipped wood cabins and daily maid service at El Capitan Canyon Resort’s luxury campgrounds right across the road from El Capitan State Beach and a glorious Santa Barbara County beachfront. You can also find bluff camping El Capitan State Beach.

And … Personal Campground Favorites
There’s a California state campground in Malibu that was once owned by movie studio 20th Century-Fox, a private KOA campground in Santa Cruz where you can rent an iconic Airstream, a unique yurt camping experience on Highway 1 and seasonal camping in the middle of the San Francisco Bay at Angel Island State Park. And if the whole camping-on-an-island-bluff-while-being-close-to-the-sea-thing suits you, check out the campgrounds on Catalina Island, where I attended summer camp as a tween.

Salton Sea -- one of the world's largest inland seas and minus-227-below sea level -- is one of many California State Parks where my family and friends pitched tents, cooked on the grill, gobbled s’mores by the campfire and simply enjoyed the great outdoors.

Always fond of waterfront camping, lakes like Lake Powell, Lake Shasta, Lake Tahoe, Castaic Lake and Pyramid Lake were where I camped and boated with friends as a young adult. Whichever campground you choose within California’s 18 national forests, you’re sure to create great memories, too. Pick a spot, pitch a tent and get going. 


Follow Jamie Squillare on Twitter for more related stories and updates.

REPOST: 20 Things I Learned From Traveling Around the World

Would you spend 365 days traveling around the world? Clayton B. Cornell did just that, and he shares in this Huffington Post article the things he had learned during his 12 months of journeying.

Night train from Belgrade to Sofia. | Image source: huffingtonpost.com

Travel for long enough and one day you wake up to realize: This is no longer a vacation, it's your life.

Over one year ago I quit my job and decided to travel around the world. This was both a dream 10 years in the making and one of the best decisions I've ever made.

In the last 12 months I learned a lot about long-term travel, what I need to be happy, and how to survive outside of the U.S. Many of these things can't be learned at home or in a book, and while reading about them on the internet can only get you so far, a lot of people have asked me to explain how I've done it.

Well, here's part of the answer.

"There's no substitute for just going there."
-Yvon Chouinard

My trip hasn't been about sightseeing (although I've done that) as much as just being somewhere. The simple challenges of daily routine can be overwhelming: trying to eat, drink and sleep in a place where nothing makes sense, you don't speak the language, and where none of the basic comforts of home are available. It's not easy, but if you want a fast-track to personal development, get on a plane.
When I was younger my dad often said, "The hardest part is just getting out the door." And that may be the most important lesson of all: it's too easy to get complacent at home and if you aren't at least a little uncomfortable, you probably aren't learning anything.

If you've already traveled extensively, you may get a kick out of this. If you haven't, here are some reflections, tips, and advice about long-term travel on my one-year anniversary of life on the road:

#1) Most of the world's people are friendly and decent.
Except for the French*.

Some stereotypes really hold up, but on average, most of the people I've met around the world are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. They are generally interested in why I chose to visit their home. They are eager to assist if it's obvious I'm lost or in trouble. They'll go out of their way to try to make sure I have a good stay in their country. And, contrary to what most Americans tend to think (see #3 below), they often don't know much about the United States (or necessarily care).

Don't be convinced before leaving that "everyone there is _______". Show a modicum of respect to people and their culture and you'll be blown away by what you get back. Try picking up a little of the local language. Just learning how to say "thank you" can make a huge impact.

* Sorry, I couldn't resist. To be fair, France is like everywhere else: most people are decent. It's just that France has a particularly large proportion of bad apples that give the place a well-deserved reputation. I've met a lot of wonderful people in France, but also a disproportionate number of a**holes (not travelers generally, but residents of France). This isn't based on a single trip nor is it restricted to Paris. Almost every non-French local in Europe agreed with me on this one.

#2) Most places are as safe (or safer) than home.

I remember confessing to my mother recently that I had a big night out in Budapest and stumbled back to my apartment at dawn. Her reaction was: "But don't you worry about being drunk in a foreign country?"

Ha ha, not at all mom! I've never felt so safe!

The only place I've been violently mugged was in my home city of San Francisco. Many of the people I know there have been robbed at gunpoint, and on more than one occasion there were shootings in my neighborhood.

In one incident just a block away from my apartment (Dolores Park), a man was shot five times and somehow escaped, only to collapse about 10 meters from our front door. You can still see the blood stains on the sidewalk.

Turns out we actually live in a pretty dangerous country.

In over 365 days on the road, staying mostly in dormitory-style hostels and traveling through several countries considered 'high-risk,' the only incident I had was an iPhone stolen out of my pocket on the metro in Medellin, Colombia. I didn't even notice and deserved it for waiving the damn thing around in the wrong part of town. Most people think that in a place like Colombia you'll still get kidnapped or knocked off by a motorcycle assassin, but that's not true. According to the locals I talked to (who grew up there), things have been safer there for at least 10 years.

Caveat: This doesn't give you a license to be stupid, and some places really warrant respect. Guatemala and Honduras, where there are major drug wars going on (and the Peace Corps recently pulled all of their volunteers), or Quito, Ecuador, where everyone I talked to had been robbed, are reasonably dangerous (I had no trouble in any of them).

In reality, based on the sort of mindless binge-drinking that happens in most travel hot spots, you'd expect travelers to get knocked off a lot more often. But if you pay attention and don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine.

#3) Most people don't know (or care) what America is doing.

I think the whole America vs. the rest of the world debate has been summed up perfectly in this post:

=> 10 Things Americans Don't Know About America

I couldn't have said it better:

Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don't hate us either. In fact -- and I know this is a really sobering realization for us -- most people in the world don't really think about us or care about us.

I've met people that didn't even know that San Francisco (or California even) had a coastline (now there's a sobering conversation for you. So much for thinking that's the center of the world eh?).
One thing is true: Americans are not well represented on the travel circuit. It just doesn't seem to be culturally important to us, unlike say, the Australians, who never go home.

#4) You can travel long-term for the price of rent and a round of drinks back home

My favorite question from friends at home has been: "how the hell are you still traveling?"

Well, for what you spent at lunch I can live on for a whole day in Indonesia. That's all there is to it.

- Monthly rent for a shared apartment in San Francisco could be: $1,100 per person.
- My average monthly expenditure during the last year of travel: $1,200 / month*.

That's $40 / day, and includes some ridiculous and totally auxiliary expenses. For example:

• 10 days of Scuba diving in Utila, Honduras - $330
• Kitesurfing gear rental in Mancora, Peru - $100 for two days
• Flight to Easter Island (50 percent subsidized by my dad) - $400
• Acquisition of 4 Surfboards, + Repairs and Accessories over the year - $750
• Purchasing a bunch of gear, like a new netbook ($380), wetsuit ($175), boardshorts ($55), camping gear ($100), a SteriPen water purifier ($125), summer sleeping bag ($55)
• Riding the NaviMag Ferry through the lake district of Chilean Patagonia from Coyaiquhe to Puerto Montt ($200).
• Taking a total of seven nearly cross-continental flights (like Brussels=>Greece) during my four months in Europe.

And so on. I also went out, a lot, and spent way to much money on alcohol.

Before I left home, my original budget projection was $50 / day, which I would consider lavish in many parts of the world. In some places, I spent as little as $20 / day (including lodging, all meals and booze) while living in relative luxury right on the beach. Generally, I shot for $30 / day which gave me a buffer of $20 for travel and miscellaneous or one-time expenses.

Countries visited on this budget: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Easter Island (Chile), Argentina, Uruguay, Santa Cruz (California), North Shore of Oahu, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey

Totals: Six months Central/S. America, two months U.S., two months Western Europe and two months Easter Europe).

Obviously, some places are cheaper than others, like Guatemala, where you can get a room for $4 per night. You have to be a lot more careful in Western Europe, where I got a little bit loose with my budget and spent $2,000 per month for two months. But I also spent less than $900 in the month that I biked (pushbike) through France.

You might be blown away by how cheap some "expensive" places can be. The second cheapest hostel I stayed in (after Guatemala) was in Berlin, Germany, at €6 / night (~$7.43 USD). Beer in Prague was as cheap or cheaper than any other country I've been to (it was $1.43 for 0.5L in ultra-touristy downtown Prague). You can rent a decent downtown apartment in Budapest for $200 / month.

Bottom line: If you're careful, you can travel on $1,200 per month or less. Rolf Potts, the author of Vagabonding (highly, highly recommended whether or not you're planning to travel) claims to have circled the globe for years on $1,000 per month. Budget $1,500 per month and you should be totally covered. You can do this even in Europe if you go slow, stay with friends or in cheaper hostels, fly on discount airlines (as opposed to taking the train), cook or eat street food, and don't buy booze at the bar (which I did and somehow survived).

The best budget rule of thumb I've learned (can't remember the source) is to take the price of your nightly accommodation and triple it. That will be about your daily minimum to survive, so $30 per day where a hostel runs you $10 per night.

*Note that my monthly total budget does not include transcontinental airfare (like U.S. to Europe) which was free (see How I flew around the world for $220). Since I typically travel overland and all flights are one-way tickets I haven't flown as much as you'd expect.

#5) Saving for a big trip is not as hard as you think.

Most people think I'm rich because I've been traveling for a year. What they don't realize is that, although I didn't leave at the time (this was five years ago), I was able to save enough money for this trip within a year and a half of graduating college.

My first salaried job paid $29,000 per year -- not exactly ballin' by U.S. college-grad standards. But by pretty ruthless budgeting , I was able to save $1,000 a month for the 15 months I worked there.

Guess what? That's $15,000 or 12.5 months of travel at $1,200 per month.

Are there sacrifices to be made? Of course. But it's worth it.

Btw, I am by no means the first person to discover or write about travel budgeting. This post is from 2009: Travel full-time for less than $14,000 per year. Don't think it's just us either, because all of thesepeople are writing about it.

I plan to write more about how to save money in the future.

For the rest of the list, click here.

Isn’t it amazing how many life lessons you can pick up while on the road? I’d love to hear the ones you've had. Drop me a “Hello, Jamie Squillare!” message on Twitter. Don’t forget the hashtag #lifesajourney!