(KSEE) – If you’re a dedicated California camper, chances are you’ve set an alarm one winter morning just to log on at 8 a.m. and score your dream summer campsite. Chances are almost as good that you didn’t click “book now” fast enough to get your site before someone else did.
The California State Park system includes a number of gems among the approximately 15,000 campsites you can visit, but these are not hidden gems. Many of the state’s approximately 40 million residents have their sights set on the same places you do.
“California State Parks are enjoyed by many people inside and outside the State of California. Demand for campsites and accommodations often exceeds available inventory,” the State Parks Media Service wrote in response to our inquiries about the hardest-to-book parks.
We wanted to know what the most searched reservation was in the entire State Park system. Turns out it’s not so easy to pull numbers on how quickly bookings come in. Instead, park officials have offered a list of “most popular” sites this summer.
The list below is an indicator of which pitches are expected to be most crowded this high season, based on “Total Campsites, Available Campsites, and Reserved Campsites”.
State park officials told us the list could include many smaller parks because they have less inventory and can fill up quickly with fewer reservations than our larger campgrounds.
Here are the most booked among California’s 279 “park units” between May 1 and August 31 of this year, looking specifically at campsites. Instead, the sites appear in alphabetical order, not in ranking order.
Spoiler: Californians love the beach.
- Bolsa Chica State Beach
- Candlestick Point State Recreation Area – this facility was partially open during the pandemic which likely skewed the booking data.
- DL Bliss State Park
- Donner Memorial State Park
- San Clemente State Beach
- Seacliff State Beach
- South Carlsbad State Beach
- Oceano Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area
- Pismo State Beach
- Turlock Lake State Recreation Area
It seems, however, that this “most popular” list is set in sand and not stone. Park officials pulled the same date range a year ago and found several more popular parks in 2021:
- Butano State Park State Parks
- Candlestick Point State Recreation Area – this facility was partially open during the pandemic which likely skewed the booking data.
- Doheny State Beach
- Prairie Creek Redwoods SP – Elk Prairie Campground
- Pismo State Beach
- Samuel P. Taylor State Park
- San Clemente State Beach
- Silver Strand State Beach
- South Carlsbad State Beach
- Turlock Lake State Recreation Area
Those interested in entering the Most Searched Sites contest will need to get started early. The parks operate on a rolling six-month window, which means you should try to book your arrival date six months in advance for the most competitive venues. For example, each day in July opens a new arrival date in January, six months from now. The booking window opens at 8:00 a.m. each day.
