Monterey Campsites

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Parrothead Fish:
Alright everyone, where are your favorite SCUBA friendly campsites in the Monterey area?
The only one I know of is Veterans Park up on the hill. I'm interested to know more on this too if someone can elaborate a little.

ZKY
 
What's your definition of Scuba Friendly? I've only heard of people refering to hotels as Scuba Friendly and that's just because us divers tend to get carpets wet, leave stuff out to hang dry, carry "hazerdous" compressed air with us, and sometimes track in sand. Some hotel operators don't take kindly to divers, but the only thing I can think of that makes a campsite Scuba Friendly is showers readily available and not having to hike very far with your gear.

As far as Drygloves suggestion (which I am not saying is a bad one), Marina Dunes RV is both a RV and tent camping area, but they cater more to the RV crowd. I stayed there once and wasn't very impressed. It's more like a parking area, covered with dirt and gravel, with enough space to place a tent. And it's right next to the freeway.

To me that's not camping. It's a bit further, but the only placed I've camped on the coast is Manressa State Beach which you can find at the link Dannobee supplied. Although I've never been there, I would try Saddle Mountain or Laguna Seca before I did Marina Dunes.

Heck,.. if it's just you, I can probably put you up for a night or two. I live in Marina now.
 
A few of my buddies would just sleep in the back of their camper shell equipped trucks in the breakwater parking lot for the night. No idea if its legal but be sure to feed some money into the parking meter early the next morning before ticket lady arrives. I dont know if they still allow it but their were many times i seen large travel trailers and motor homes camped there for the whole weekend.
 
Parrothead Fish:
Alright everyone, where are your favorite SCUBA friendly campsites in the Monterey area?

For each of the last several weeks I've been staying at the Veteran's park on Friday nights. Drive down Friday morning, grab a campsite, dive, sleep, dive, go home. Depending on availability you can get either a 10x20 treeless patch of dirt and grass, or a nice out of the way spot with some space and privacy. I've been pretty lucky so far, and only once has the camp actually filled up by late Fri evening; it's not nearly as busy a place as I'd expected.

Only other experience has been one night at the BW which works fine (and which a fair number of people seem to do), and down at Andrew Molera SP (1/3 mile from parking to the camp, then another 2/3 to the beach; diving there not recommended without a kayak).

Brian
 
Heh, I tent camped in Saddle Mountain Campground. Once.

Been hotels ever since.
 
Nothing decent that is close. As you know (livin in SJ), Big Sur and Santa Cruz ain't close. You could just as well commute from home.

But if camping is a big deal, opt for the JP Big Sur site. Beautiful park. Just not very close.
 

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