Galoot

Rather stupid of me, I thought I could camp mid-week along the Big Sur coast without any problem. Mea culpa, I grew up in a California that was much less crowded and touristy.

I have a reservation in Monterey for the youth hostel, and had planned on being at Limekiln SP the next night. No availability on ReserveAmerica. There are nearby parks such as Kirk Creek that are 1st come 1st serve, but it seems really stupid of me to cycle nearly 70 miles from Monterey and find that I will have no place to sleep.

Do any Forumites have experience with this? If I show up at 4PM looking for a campsite, what are my chances?

Kelly

raybo

Kirk Creek has a hiker/biker site and I've been told that they won't turn away cyclists at Lime Kiln.

Note that at Kirk Creek, the hiker/biker site often hosts people who clearly parked their cars on the road and then walked into a full campground carrying things that no one walking or riding could carry. I've never been their when these people filled up all the hiker/biker sites, but wonder what would happen if I did?

Galoot

Thanks, the bit about Lime Kiln is incredibly useful! This should be a great tour. I've wanted to do this for over 30 years.

Brennan

Yes, there are numerous campgrounds along the CA coast that have sections designated for hike-in/bike-in campers, the idea being to provide them with space when the campground is otherwise full, and to charge a lower rate. Even on one occasion where the hike/bike section was "full," the camp host found a spot for us elsewhere in the campground for the same rate. The campgrounds near Big Sur with hike/bike sections are:

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
Kirk Creek Campground
Plasket Creek Campground

Be aware that there was no piped water when we last went to Kirk Creek, so we stayed at Plasket Creek a few miles south instead.

Also Andrew Molera State Park is a first-come/first-served walk-in campground just north of Big Sur.

prathmann

Yes, the official state park policy states that they do have the right to turn people away if the Hike&Bike section is full, but the reported practice is that they try very hard not to do this and instead let people camp in another section of the park such as a day-use picnic area. They may impose restrictions such as times for tents to be up (set up late and take down early so others can still use the area during the day).

Galoot

I did it! I biked the Big Sur coast, starting in Gilroy, going to Monterey my 1st night, Kirk Creek 2nd night, motel in Cayucos 3rd night, and River Campground in Lompoc the 4th night. Today was the 5th day, I biked from Lompoc to Santa Barbara, where my sister picked me up.

They did turn us away at Limekiln--me and all the other cyclists I ran into on Hwy 1. The lovely ranger lady was nice enough to let me fill all my water bottles and the ride to Kirk Creek wasn't too bad.

Summary: I had a great time on my first multi-day self-supported bike tour, and averaged 60 miles per day--not bad for an overweight 52 yr old guy. I will never bike Big Sur again though. It is incredibly stressful dealing with all the trucks and rental RV's passing too close, all day long. It took a lot of the fun out of those sections.

Nick94804

I'm waiting until after Labor Day to finish my Pac Coast tour. The trailer campers between Ft Bragg and Bodega Bay were worse than any logging truck.

stevepusser

I also Imagine that it would not be very difficult to find a good, free campsite along that stretch. Most of it is National Forest Land, right? Maybe take an unpaved road up a canyon away from the coast a bit to get away from the highway, taking enough water to get through the night or perhaps purifying stream water.

I've never seen anyone try this in the trip journals, probably because the HB sites are avaialble there along the coast.