Pismo Beach Questions

Me and the girlfriend are planning a trip up the coast of Cali in July to go camping and see the sights along the way. We are planning on staying the night at Oceano Dunes SVRA. My questions are this:

1. How important is it to time our arrival with low tide, I've read that there is a creek crossing that can get nasty, or is this just a concern during winter/rainy times?

2. Can we just pitch our tent pretty much anywhere we want on the dunes? Any recommended places you guys have set up a tent out there.

3. Her parents were thinking of driving up from Ventura to meet and spend the night with us there. They were planning on bringing their moterhome. It's one of the smallish ones (probably about 25'). Will they be able to take that out to somewhere on the beach without worrying too much about getting stuck?

4. Any other advice you guys that have been there before can give would be great!

 

It is important to get their at low tide, it can get bad...and tents NEVER work in pismo...the wind will flatten the tent, the wind is always horrible...and the motorhome will most likely get stuck

Edit: air down! And bring a recovery strap..bring stakes and rope to hold your tent up also

 

Hmm, so maybe the better option would be get them and their RV set up at one of the RV resorts around there, then take the truck and them out to play in the dunes. Then just go back and spend the night with them in the RV.

I assume that that the $10.00 pass for pismo allows re-entry all day?

 

i actually just went camping in pismo for huckfest in a tent and it worked perfect.high tide is around 5-7pm and its nasty.. i know 3 friends who got hydrolocked from it in one day. but i camped back in the dunes no on the beach. i set up camp with jason (jbenny811?) and rob (forgot his name) and we all had tents along the closed off area. we parked the cars in front of use to make sure no one would hit us. reason we went in the back was because of noise and wind. it was hardly windy at all where we were. overall i would totally do it again in the same spot. the wind should be dying down now since its not spring time anymore. It cost 10 dollars a night to stay as well. and air down if you are a prerunner. i did all the way down to 10 front and rear. if you 4wd, alma (SBlue) made it without airing down but she had BFG AT KO's. Hope this helps you out

ill probably be out 4th of july weekend, so if you're going then ill see you there

Picture of where we all camped

 

Tents are defiantly ok I have camped probably 6 times and only one did I have a poll break but a little duct tape and it was all good. As far as the motorhome that's a maybe defiantly be prepared to tow it if needed people up there are usually pretty nice and will help if u can't get them unstuck those big diesels always like to show off

 

Motorhomes work just fine. You just need to air down the tires and stay near the beach (Sand Hwy). Near the beach the sand is firmer, once you venture into the dunes the sand is soft and most 2wd vehicles get stuck.

Its usually crowded (because all of the RVs park there) and windy near the beach. People with tents like to get off the beach to avoid the strong winds.

If you use a tent the stakes almost never work because the sand is soft, so bring some weights or buckets to fill with sand and tie the tent to the buckets to hold the tent down in the wind.

 

not my 2wd i went last night and did a little speed run on the washboards, worked great. aired down to 9 in the rear and 13 in the front

 

Been camping in tents over there for years. we always try to find some big group of trailers and then camp so that they are between us and the ocean so that all their trailers block the wind. Also park you truck the same way as to block the wind from the ocean. This time of year it gets pretty packed and you should call ahead and actually make a reservation to camp. it sounds weird but they only allow a certain number of people to camp. all the surrounding campsites fill up quick too so i would make reservations soon. If you have 4 wheel drive you should be fine just air down with or without 4. As far as the creek goes sometimes during busy seasons they actually damn it off and there is no creek. Just ask them what the conditions are like when you call for camping reservations. If you plan on going back actually in the dunes (not just down on the beach) then by law now you have to have a flag. other than that take plenty of fire wood and beer and have fun.

I will also probably be over there for the 4th so maybe ill see some of you. Just not sure if im camping or staying at a friends yet

 

Thanks for all the great info guys. We are gonna be there the weekend after the 4th. The 4th was already all booked up, and I don't think I really wanna be out there in that mess

I've got a 4FT CB antenna mounted on the bedrail. I was gonna just throw an orange flag ontop of that. Unless I really need something higher.

They will really let you light a fire up on the beach? Seems like every time I tried to do that when I was younger living on the CA coast a ranger would come by and shut us down.

 

Yeah you can light a fire "in your campsite" i think there is something about you have to dig a hole and of course you cant leave it un-attended. I think you can look up all the rules a FAQ on the site you can book the campsites on do a google search its pretty easy to find and a gov website.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1207

you only need a flag if your gonna be back in the dunes if your just on the beach camping then your ok but i think its 6' or 8' flag that's required. they sell them for a couple bucks at every store on the street to the entrance. They attach with a 1/2" bolt and nut that has a hole drilled in it. so you could probably attach that to whatever your cb antenna is attached to.

I use a piece of angle iron I drilled a 1/2" hole in on the top for the flag and two (2) 1/2" holes on the side to attach to the bed rails with two (2) 1/2" carriage bolts in the stock bed rail and wing nuts to attach the angle iron to the bed side rail.

P.S. Ive driven every car ive ever owned including girlfriends cars on that beach. Everything from giant chevys trucks on 38s to my scion xB and my audi S4, Land rovers, FJs, Honda Civics, As the new Taco gets its cherry popped the next open weekend i have. possibly the 4th. Some obviously make it farther than others. just saying dont worry too much about getting stuck.

 

i dont really think they have a height limit on flags.. i know people who make them lik 2 feet long and putting it on there chest protector when they ride. that way should be fine on the CB. but you can light a fire anywhere past pole 2 im pretty sure.

 

Eight feet from the ground when standing still is the law just looked it up

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25980

http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1170/files/Whip Flag-Oceano Dunes.pdf

I just knew when you buy a cheap flag over there the pole is 6' long with the flag on top.

the higher the better though cause at speed my flag dips below the top of the cab and can be useless. that's why i mainly dune at night cause you cant possible miss my lights from anywhere on the dunes and there are way less people to run into

 

im heading up to pismo beach/ oceano dunes on the 6th then home the 7th.