Home » 2013 Pacific Northwest

San Francisco RV Resort - Pacifica, CA

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - 8:15am by Lolo
135 miles and 2.5 hours from our last stop - 2 night stay

Travelogue

San Francisco RV Resort Sunset out of Lazy Daze Rear WindowSan Francisco RV Resort Sunset out of Lazy Daze Rear WindowI can’t believe I didn’t know about this place before. How did I not know that there was a campground only 15 miles from San Francisco with oceanfront sites? I was really starting to doubt myself as a trip planner. If Herb hadn't bought that book I have been raving about this entire trip -- West Coast RV Camping – I probably still wouldn't know. It gave this campground a scenic rating of 10.

Now I don’t think it will be a replacement for staying at the Petaluma KOA. That’s where we store the motorhome, and it is really a much nicer campground. This one was really just an asphalt parking lot, but a parking lot with an incredible view. The oceanfront sites are perched right at the edge of a 60-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific, perfect for watching a dramatic sunset each evening from your campsite. The oceanfront sites are, however, non-hookups.

This campground is not exactly cheap either - $61 per night for an oceanfront, non-hookup site, and $69 for a full-hookup. It wasn’t the $8 savings that made us take a non-hookup, but rather that incredible view out our back window.

Beach ViewpointBeach ViewpointThere was, however, a fence separating the campground and the trail that led along the top of the bluff, so there wasn’t really any direct access to the beach.

As we often like to do when arriving in a new place for the first time, we set off on a run to explore the area. We ran along somewhat busy Palmetto Avenue for a bit before finding our way down to Beach Road and the Municipal Fishing Pier. From there, we ran alongside the beach until we came to a steep trail up to Mori Point, another one of those beautiful bluffs along the Northern California coast. However, we had already run about 2 ½ of our 5 mile run, so all we had time for now was a short run up to a viewpoint, before turning around and heading back to the campground. We would have to come back here another time by car so that we could do our entire run up on the bluffs.

Since we were so close to San Francisco, Andrew came down to visit us after work, and Celeste would be biking down later. Celeste is a very avid cycler, and she rides her bike to work at City Hall every day. She thinks nothing of a 30-mile ride up and down the hills of San Francisco and Marin after work, so riding down to Pacifica was no big deal. However, her GPS kept directing her onto busy, non-bicycle-friendly roads and it was starting to get dark, so Andrew went out with his car and rescued her along route. I felt bad because they missed a really beautiful sunset by 10 minutes.

Lolo of Pebble Beach in PescaderoLolo of Pebble Beach in PescaderoThe next day, we weren’t meeting the kids until after work, so we spent a good part of the day exploring the coast south of Pacifica. We found a great future camping destination called Pillar Point RV Park, right on Half Moon Bay. For some reason, this one was not in my book.

We continued driving south and stopped at a really pretty rocky cove at Pebble Beach in Pescadero, where the rocks are weathered to a honeycomb-like surface texture known as tafoni. They were absolutely beautiful. We could have stayed here all day photographing them.

It was a beautiful, warm day so on our way back north along Route 1, we looked for a nice beach to have lunch and sunbathe for awhile. Just north of Montaro and before the tunnel, we pulled into a parking lot for Gray Whale Cove State Beach, a beach that Herb had heard about before.

Pebble Beach SurfPebble Beach SurfWe gathered beach chairs and a cooler and headed across busy Route 1 and down a series of steep stairs to a beautiful sheltered cover surrounded by towering cliffs. If you are uncomfortable with encountering nude sunbathers, you should head to the left at the bottom of the stairs.

The beach was lovely, and it was actually warm enough to get down to bathing suits. Its colorful cliffs reminded me a lot of Moshup Beach on Martha’s Vineyard, one of my all time favorites.

That evening we drove up to San Francisco and met Andrew and Celeste once again at Planet Granite, their climbing gym. We were back to where we started on this trip. As I mentioned in our first stop, I absolutely love this gym, both for its incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Mark di Suvero sculptures in Crissy Field, and its really fun climbing routes.

Lolo at Gray Whale Cove State BeachLolo at Gray Whale Cove State BeachAfter a good and very fun workout on the climbing walls, it was once again time to eat – one of Andrew and Celeste’s favorite pastimes. As I also mentioned earlier, Andrew and Celeste live a neighborhood with a very ethnically-diverse selection of high-quality restaurants, so the choices seem practically limitless. This time we went to Pho Garden where I had my first taste of Vietnamese food. It was wonderful and amazingly reasonable.

This was the last time we would see Andrew and Celeste this trip, so we said our goodbyes and headed back to our campground in Pacifica. These goodbyes were getting a little easier each time, especially when we had a plan of seeing them again, which we did. We would be back in November to have a pre-Thanksgiving feast with Celeste’s family and then Thanksgiving in Yosemite with the boys. WOOHOO!!!

Description

Beach LandscapeBeach LandscapeThe San Francisco RV Resort is located in the town of Pacifica, 15 miles south of Golden Gate Bridge. Besides being the closest RV camping to San Francisco, it is also one of the best RV parks in the Bay Area. Situated atop a 60-foot bluff, it is the only campground in the Bay area to offer oceanfront sites and daily dramatic sunsets.

There are 162 sites on paved, level asphalt. All sites, except the ocean sites, have full hookups and cable TV. Ocean sites have no hookups, but all campsites have free WiFi. Other amenities include a heated pool and spa, beach access, and a nearby fishing pier.

The sites range in price from $61 per night for an ocean, non hookup site, to $69 for full hookup. The campground is open all year round.

San Francisco RV Resort - Pacifica location map in "high definition"

Javascript is required to view this map.