The Best in Tent Camping: Southern California: A Guide for Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos

Book Description
From the sandy beaches of the coast to the deserts in the southeast; from the Northern Sierras to the Southern Sierras, only the most scenic and serene campsites are included in this easy-to-use guide.


From the Back Cover
If you subscribe to the opinion that televisions, Japanese lanterns, and electric guitars are not essential camping equipment, The Best in Tent Camping should be your constant companion.

Each campground profile includes:

Detailed campground maps
Key information such as fees, restrictions, and dates of operation
Driving directions to the campground
Ratings for beauty, privacy, spaciousness, quiet, security, and cleanliness

From the aromatic pine woods and cascading streams of the southern Sierra Nevada to the starkly beautiful desert landscapes of Death Valley, The Best in Tent Camping: Southern California is a guidebook for tent campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. It's the perfect resource if you blanch at the thought of pitching a tent on a concrete slab, trying to sleep through the blare of another camper's boombox, or waking to find your tent surrounded by a convoy of RVs.
Whether you are a Southern California native in search of new territory or a vacationer on the lookout for that dream campground, this book will help you unlock the secrets to the best tent camping that Southern California has to offer.




About the Author
Bill Mai spent his childhood summers camping with his family. A resident of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he lived in California for many years where he wrote screenplays.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Fremont Peak State Park is deliriously beautiful in April and May, when the spring grasses are green and feathery, and the flowers are blooming. It's a great place to go when the coast is socked in with fog. Climb to the peak and look out over the richest farmland and the richest marine area in the world.

The drive up to the park from San Juan Bautista is alternately lovely, chilling, and lovely again. At first, you take a winding, old country road out of the valley and up into oaks draped with mistletoe. Then you burst into Road Warrior country. On the left is the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area, where off-road enthusiasts bring their vehicles. It's a land of tire-ripped hills and torched brush. Scary. But persevere and you arrive at the mountaintop to enter Fremont Peak State Park with its oaks, pines, and incredible views.

The camping here is primitive and best suited for tents. All the sites are roomy, grassy, and shaded by oaks. There is potable water, and each site boasts an incredible view of Monterey Bay. How-ever, it is best to avoid the area in the summer, when Gavilan Peak is overrun by nasty, little biting flies.



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The Best in Tent Camping: Southern California will guide you to the quietest, most beautiful, most secure, and best managed campgrounds in Southern California. Painstakingly selected from more than 1,000 campgrounds in the mountains, in the desert, and on the coast, each campsite is rated for: beauty; noise; privacy; security; spaciousness; cleanliness. Each campground profile provides essential details on facilities, reservations, fees, and restrictions, as well as an accurate, easy-to-read map making the campground a snap to locate.


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