Emma Wood State Beach

I took advantage of the walk-up service prior to Memorial Day 2021, when all campsites are reserved for the next 6 months. I started off at space 69, with my trailer parallel to the ocean, until the ranger said that spot gets wet. I moved over to 68 for the night, and that space also gets wet. Space 90 became available the following day and stayed there throughout. The benefits of the space was no one to the left of you and better cell signal. I have a weboost system and noticed a jump from 1 att 4g bar space 68 on hotspot to 3-4 bars at space 90. I think the one thing that takes getting used to at night is the sound of the waves against the rocks. It gets really loud as the rocks are a bit larger. Look for small rocks if you want to sleep at night. The amtrak surfliner was not loud at all and breezes by in a matter of seconds. For water, i ended up going to san buenaventura st beach and filled my 5 gallon foldable water jugs through a faucet. Pretty time consuming. Next time, I would just fill up with fresh water from home. For dumping, I went to Sycamore Canyon, 25 miles south in Malibu as it was on my way back to LA. Really easy and free. Just show your receipt. There was an option to go 15 miles north to Carpinteria St beach, but thought 26 miles round-trip wasn’t worth it. The city of San Burnaventura is a really cute town. Main st is blocked off and you can start to feel a better sense of community during covid. As for energy, I went through 4 20lb propane tanks to power the generator and to refill the 400 amp hour battery system. I used the generator 3 times for around 6 hours each day. It was overcast the whole week so I didn’t get much solar generated. My goal is to minimize generator use and might just adding 200 amp hours of battery and expanding to a portable solar system to catch the sun as it sets. Hope this helps.

Emma Wood is a dry camp just north of Ventura. Very basic sites most of which are not level and are rocky. Make sure to lock up anything of value as it will be stolen. 90 is probably the best spot in the campground. We had a very pleasant stay here. The rangers are nice and helpful. You are camped right on the beach so make sure and check the tides as severe high tides will flood some of the sites. Beautiful way to spend a few days watching dolphins swim by and sea birds diving for fish. You can ride bicycles up the coast or take the bike path into Ventura. You do get a bit of noise from the 101 and trains that go by but we didn’t notice it much with the view we had. Cell service for AT&T was spotty at best. We will stay here again.

Okay, so to start off I would say that if you like being right on top of the water this is your place. The only downfalls or this is absolutely dry camping there is no water on site anywhere no hose bib anywhere in the park. There is also no where to dump your tanks once you’re done. The other issue is you are extremely close to the freeway and the train tracks are only about 40 feet from the campsites, So if you like the sound of freight trains starting at 6 AM this is your place. It’s a good place for a quick getaway as long as you take in mind that it gets crowded in the summertime

We only spent one day/night here but we absolutely loved it. Only minutes from downtown Ventura, with bike paths, and running trails right outside our mobile human habitat-- we knew we had found a special spot to spend the evening. We went for a lovely beach run, came home and had dinner right on the ocean's edge, before going to sleep to the pounding sounds of the Pacific Ocean. We will definitely return!

Arrived and checked in with no problems. We had reservations although I'm not sure we needed them. We arrived on Labor Day and there were plenty of empty spaces all week.

Ranger warned us to make sure generator or anything else valuable was locked up. We had no issues. We felt very safe camping there.

The space is very rocky so you need to be careful walking around. It is a little bit of a walk to get down to the sandy beach but all in all, we loved it.

First time here and we love it. Rustic Beach Camping where you are almost right on the sand. In California no less. No frills. No water. No power. No dump. But what an amazing view from any window in your RV.

This will be a common stop for us now. The only reason I don’t give it 5 stars is that there is no dump station. For 40.00 per night I would expect at least that.

There do have porta-potties and trash bins.

We checked out all 4 parks in the area. Faria Beach Park looked the nicest to stay at. Rincon Parkway is the cheapest, but Emma Woods was the only one where the surf was breaking while we wanted to stay. So we shelled out $40/night for no hooks up in a disintegrating beach front parking lot.

The water front views are great, but if thats what you want the other parks are better options and come with more amenities and cheaper price tags. You are nestle between the ocean on one side and a train and the highway on the other. There were lots of warnings about thefts in the area and to keep your stuff locked up.

cell service was fine with AT&T, did not check Verizon

We love Ventura. Getting to camp here was even better. We didn't stay long, as it is pricy, but you get what you pay for. An amazing view on the shore with waves crashing all night. If you snag a spot closer to the entrance, you're lucky to have sandy beaches and water to play in. We were further down and from the trailer to the water were huge boulders. Our kids didn't mind, as they enjoyed climbing and playing on the rocks. We played on the beach during the day and enjoyed watching the pro surfers we admire catch waves. Downtown Venture is fun and enjoyable to grab lunch and walk the farmers market. We did have loud neighbors, as you are in close quarters along the shore, but everyone is friendly. They also say to make sure to lock up your belongings at night. Apparently people stop along the highway, climb down take items, but we didn't have any problems.

We agree with what most the previous reviewers have stated. It is a very tired state beach, which has been our experience with state beaches in this area.

There was a lot of availability off season and midweek. There are porta potties at the entrance, very old porta potties. There are trash and recycling bins throughout the camping area.

Dogs are not allowed on the beach but to the north and south of the camping area there are beaches where they are allowed, at least we did not see signs prohibiting them. There is a bike path to enjoy that goes either direction for miles.

Some sites are definitely longer and wider than others. Very big rigs can even find a spot long enough to accomadate their size.

It is noisy here! The train tracks are a stone's throw followed by the highway. If it weren't for beach front access, we would not return.

The entrance to the campground is more complicated than it should be. Once you find the entrance and follow the road, you wait in a line (this wasn't so bad) just to get to the booth where there you find a curmudgeon waiting for you.

I camped here with a Cub Scout group and there were only a few others here. Instead of being placed in the large group campgrounds we were promised (which were completely vacant), we were put in a giant dirt lot meant for RV's. After setting up our tents, we created a barricade around our group with the cars to prevent drunk drivers from crashing into our campsite.

The beach was, however very close. Besides that, the location was incredibly inconvenient. To your right, there was the freeway, and to the left, train tracks with trains that ran at midnight.

Overall, a pretty bad experience.