Oceano Campground — Pismo State Beach

Ocean front, off road sand dune recreation if you have a capable vehicle. It’s great. Best with an off-road capable vehicle. Bathrooms are a bit rough without running water.

Fish, drive off-road, camp, bonfire or hunt for seashells.

Bring a good jacket in April.

I have a truck canopy / rooftop tent, and everything is nicely accessible. I think it was around $35 so it's a great stopping point to shower and freahen up before continuing on. I arrived after new years weekend and walked in to check the available sites that I wanted. Lots of short hike trails and walking distance to the ocean.

We rolled through on a Friday night in May with no reservations and got absolutely lucky to snag the very last site.  Would not recommend chancing it on weekends in the high season.  We only were able to get a site because the ADA sites are released at 5pm and we happened to be there right at the right time to get one.

Very nice campground - one side is hookups at $40 (electric and water only), and this side is kind of boring with RVs all lined up in a row. FYI there are no sewer hookups here and no dump station. You can drive two miles up the road to North Beach and use their dump station and water fill for $10.  We stayed on the tent side for $25, no hookups and much more pleasant and green and beautiful.

There's a lagoon and a boardwalk to walk around it, but the boardwalk ends and the trail turns to mud and it was pretty much impassible when we were there - thick black muck that will suck your shoes off and get your dog's belly all dirty. Watch for mosquitoes, especially the sites along the lagoon.

Beautiful walking trails to the beach - we saw a coyote here!  We heard them yipping all night as well.  Interesting experience for us to see and hear them right on the beach. 

As with all state parks now, there are recycling and food waste bins available, thank you California!

The visitor center is right at the entrance of the campground and there's a good Mexican restaurant within easy walking distance as well.

Overall a great place, amazingly cheap, and we're happy we got lucky and snagged a spot!

My experience was a wee bit different than anticipated... I arrived just prior to the forcasted “Pineapple Express”. Check in was painless, campground was not packed. Once parked the doggos and I enjoyed a few hours on the beach before sundown. It started raining cats and dogs during the night, 7am the rangers advised that evacuations could be in store....3pm we had to leave the campground and we were directed further down the coast to Oceana. The new campground was also flooded, but I was able to find a spot with a small patch for the dogs to do their thing without having to wade through water. The next day broke to a beautiful sunrise. The rangers and the park police were awesome, I felt completely at ease knowing that they were vigilant for our safety. Both campgrounds are beautiful in each their own way.

A very well laid out campground that was hosted by a wonderful couple. Was kept very clean and was a joy to stay there.

It was past midnight. Spent an hour trying to look for the campground and even asked a gas station attendant for directions and still couldn’t find it. Apple Maps and can’t seem to properly locate it for some reason.

If there were properly visible signs to direct tired travelers on where to go, that would be so much better.

Decent, very quiet.. lots of dirt. Wood fire pits

Excellent visit we stayed 2 days and two nights. We loved it.

Stopped here for two night, clean, well maintained. Very close to the beach, hike through the dune or get down with your car and drive in the beach. The campground entrance included the fee to access the beach with your car.

Close to beach, clean bathrooms (no hand soap or hand dryers), park rangers routinely available. I stayed in an RV slot with E/W. Next time I’d stay without - better sites, spaces farther apart with grass (no electric but water available).

This is next to the only place you can drive your truck on the beach.

I think there is a HUGE difference between the RV section and the tent section of this campground. We are tent campers and were in the back area. It was a reasonable walk from our campsite to the beach. The beach was nice. Showers take tokens but machines that take dollar bills are outside restroom/shower building. Showers were hot. The campground was clean (surprisingly, considering my following comments). 

Now for the negatives. It's a bit noisy (you can hear road traffic). Sites have a bit of space between them but virtually no privacy. My biggest issue with the campground are the homeless people. I highly doubt that many of them squat in the RV section and I think they hang out in the back in the tent section. Sadly, many of them had obvious mental health illnesses. Several of them go into the bathrooms and lock the doors to sleep overnight with a roof over their head. They mostly kept to themselves but it made me a little uneasy. We left our stuff to go into town for dinner and our tent, sleeping bags, etc. were not messed with (stolen) while we were gone.

Apple Maps will likely try to take you through a ranger station parking lot to a road that goes north of the lagoon. This is not correct and the road is for authorized vehicles only.

Campground and facilities were very clean and well maintained. Not really any bugs. There’s a liquor/general store right outside the campground. The camp host has firewood for sale in the center of the front campground.

The hookups sites only have space for 2 vehicles (or one and a trailer). Any additional vehicles have to be parked on the street outside the campground. There is not overnight parking allowed in the ground’s lot.

There was a good bit of fog and the tent had a lot of dew on it in the morning.

Easy trails all around. There’s a direct walk to the beach through the dunes. Naturally, there’s a lot of sand.

The campground was very nice, clean, campsite was easy to find. We checked in late evening, it was nice that the gate/entrance was open for late arrivals. Campground was walking distance to the beach. Other campers were courteous of quiet hours.  The only thing I did not like about the campground is that the lights were so bright at the bathrooms that it looks like a spotlight was shining on our campsite. That is a very minor dislike but it is hard to go to sleep in your tent or in the back of your truck if you have like a light on you. If the campground could somehow dim the light I would say that would be better for the 2 to 3 campsites that were next to the restrooms/showers, at site #73

We got lucky and landed a site far in the back. Large space away from everyone but near the restrooms. Our back side butted up to the lagoon and past the restroom you go over the small dune with the roped off succulents and you’re on a really wide sand trail to the beach. Beautiful spot with no concentration of vehicles with flags on them.

Great place to camp. You pick a spot in the sand next to the beach and set up. All wheel drive is recommended . You get to make your own fire pit. Just dig a hole in the sand. Very fun place to spend a weekend at

We camped her in Feb 2021 & had a great time. Small quiet state park campground with pull-through RV sites. Water & electric hookups, clean restrooms w/ private showers (showers requires tokens). Firewood available from camp host. Easy access for most rvs. Market, deli, drive-on beach (open in 2021).

Rangers drive big trucks and tractors several times a day. Make the place little noise. Dry camping, some spots with water and electricity. Hot showers pay with tokens careful the showers are really hot. Clean free restroom and nice trail to the beach. Overall is good.

We stayed there one night while traveling. It was ok. Campsites are very close together. The beach is just a short walk over the dunes but we were not allowed to take pups off leash on the sand. There was an abundance of Rangers patrolling the beach, we were stopped to give a warning even with pups on leash. Glad it was just one night. The best electric hook up with the most privacy was site #20. The best tent sites were 71 and 81. This campground is close to the beach and got very damp overnight. There is a level trail around the lagoon but warning the east side of this lagoon trail is slathered in poison oak. On the positive, great campground for bird watching on the lagoon.

This was our first run with our new RV and we couldn’t have been more happy with this location. It’s basically 5-10 min from anything you need to explore from downtown pismo, Avila beach etc.

-Walking distance to beach with trails from the campsite -crazy clean bathrooms with huge ADA size showers -lagoon with a trail (photo) that is right within the campground

There is a train close by but it wasn’t too loud and honestly with a 2 year old that’s kind of a plus. 😂

This place is beautiful!! We had a wonderful experience, we’ll definitely be going back!!

[ PROS]

• Super close to the beach! There are a couple beach trails that lead you right to the ocean.

• Love that you can walk to the dunes and spend the entire day there.People bring the craziest beach set ups and have bonfires and cookouts here. Souped up trucks with ATVs roll through and drive right along the beach. It’s quite the sight to see.

• Very convenient location to ATV rentals, beach/convenient stores, and a few eateries.

• Fantastic park rangers serveiling the campgrounds every hour. The ranger presence definitely keeps the rowdy crowd here in check.

• There looked to be a very nice Visitor Center. For some unknown reason, they were closed both days that we were there.

• Really big and clean showers and restroom facilities. They were very well maintained considering how packed and heavily used they were. Toilets ran out of toilet paper so make sure you come prepared.

• We saw tons of cool birds around the campsite. My favorite of the weekend were the swallows that flew around dusk. They fly like bats! We also enjoyed seeing a couple ospreys by the beach. We even saw one catch a fish!

• Campfire is sold here for$8/bundle at the camp host.

• Each site comes with a picnic table, fire ring, and 2 parking spot. Our neighbors had 3 cars so we let them use one of our parking spots since it was a madhouse here.

**[ CONS]
**

• Hard to find availability. This place is usually pretty booked up.

• Very, very crowded campsite. Sites are extremely close together so there is very little privacy. It feels like a giant parking lot

• Sites are small so setting up two tents feels very cramped already. Luckily we just stayed in our tent trailer on a parking spot so we felt like we had a little more space.

• Loud campground! This place attracts a party crowd so be prepared to listen to people roll in with their loud souped up trucks and blast music on speakers throughout the day. Hope you like listening to hip hop from 10am-9pm!

• It doesn’t seem like the 8 person max/site rule was regulated. People had upwards of 12 people at a single campsite so you can imagine how crowded the place was.

• There was constantly a long line for the showers throughout the day.

Overall, this is not my favorite place to camp by far. It feels more like a giant tailgate party than it does camping. We were looking for a nice relaxing weekend by the beach so had an unexpected weekend. This is one of the few places left in California that allow cars, trucks, RVs, and ATVs to drive right on the beach. It’s pretty weird to see. They also allow people to have bonfires right on the sand so be careful where you walk. There’s ash and coal everywhere. And sadly, also lots of trash left behind from people.

We didn’t like it here, no shade, the absolutely won’t let you check in until 2:00 pm, no exceptions.

This place is rad. You can stay here until 11pm if you don't have a camp reservation. You can also rent ATV to ride at the dunes which is super fun

Nothing wrong with driving your truck on the beach and camp. Beautiful weather, can get windy! Busy holidays can have people being loud all night!, but worth it for the view. If going deep into the dunes make sure to air down tires and having a 4x4 helps. I helped plenty of trucks and Suburbans out stuck in the sand. Will be back for some more camping! They also have quad rentals on the beach and wood for sale...you will have a blast!

We hoped to camp near Oso Flaco Lake and Creek, but this was as close as it gets.

When we arrived at Pismo State Beach, we were pleasantly surprised by how neat and tidy the campground was and how friendly and organized the rangers were. While not very private, the campground was really quiet. I think the imposed Quiet Hours facilitated this. We will definitely stay again.

Prepare for windy, chilly nights even in July.

This campground is right next to the beach you can walk on the beach at any moment. It’s absolutely breath taking!

This is a convenient campground being so close to the city, but being so close also means many homeless people in the area. The campground is nicely located within walkng of the beach and offers the services you typically find. I was dismayed at the number of homeless people wandering through the campground and was not comfortable leaving my gear alone very long. It was loud at night with the campo host off-duty. Law enforcement came late at night to remove homeless. Paid $25 for hike and bike.

One of the few beaches that will let you drive your car on to the beach, find a vacant spot and camp overnight. Totally worth trying if you have never done beach camping.

What you see is what you get. Great quiet little spot near highway 1. Just a couple blocks from the beach make this conveniently located. A couple liquor stores and restaurants down the street as well.