Sunset State Beach

We were booked for 3 nights and stayed for 1. Upon pulling in, our site had a lot of trash in it, and the tree line separating our campsite from the strawberry fields was also littered with garbage.

We drove down to the beach and tons of wrappers, bags, cans, plastic bottles, etc littered the huge beach.

Looking for a change of scenery, we drove to Natural Bridges Beach (30min) in Santa Cruz and surprisingly, it was even dirtier.

We do a lot of coastal camping in Sonoma, Mendocino, and Big Sur and this was our first time camping on the coast in this area. I'm not sure if it was a fluke or if this is normal for beaches in this area.

Not a major issue- our site was really uneven and we had to raise the trailer 4in. It looks like most sites were also uneven.

Verizon was spotty even with using a WeBoost.

Small state park between the Pacific and strawberry fields behind. Feels secluded.
We went Monday through Wednesday. We stayed at the south camp. There were plenty of empty sites. Basic facilities. Clean.
We have a 24’ trailer. Easy to park. It is paved and level. The site across us was empty so we had view of the ocean and we could hear the surf. That was neat. We really enjoyed it.
Cell service (AT&T) was good.

The campsite is fine. I filled up my trailer tank with water on the way in, so we didn't use the toilet block so can't comment on that. Site 140RV had a good amount of privacy, if that is what you are looking for. Personally I prefer views. Site 24 has good views of ocean and the hills behind, the only downside is you have more people around you.

Site 25 and 26 have a partial view of the ocean, no view of the hills, but have their own space. Site 25 is very nice, but almost always booked up on the weekend. But site 24 and 26 are very nice also. If none of those are free, sites 31, 32, 22, 21 look good also.

The kids enjoyed riding their bikes around the site and everyone seemed friendly.

Being so close to the beach has it's pros and cons. Pros are that the beach is nice and quiet (at least when we were there in November) and the sunset is out of this world. The Cons are that often clouds appear from nowhere and cover the beach and campsite, but you'll find a mile inland it's blue skies.

Unfortunately the site doesn't have a dump station, so we ended up driving North to New Brighton State Beach, which is free to dump at with your receipt from Sunset State Beach.

If you (like me) have forgotten everything you dislike about staying in a campground then you really need to stay here.

It is a great combination of being pricey and run down at the same time. Uneven and broken picnic tables and a shower for a quarter that was too expensive for me given the condition...I’m the section we stayed there was no convenient beach access so most people drove and you can’t see the beach anyway from your site.

Quite a few of the sites are merely wide spots in the road.

This state park is merely a slice of land carved out of the agricultural area surrounded by dilapidated homes.

Loud rowdy music playing neighbors really completed the picture for us.

Sorry - not my thing...we left a day early... maybe they can keep my extra $35 and clean a shower stall.

We have stayed here three times now. The park has roomy sites so that you don't feel like you are camping right next to your neighbor. There is beach access in the park itself, both walking from the campground (a bit of a hike) or via a very short drive to the end of the campground road.

This park is centrally located between Santa Cruz to the north and Monterey to the south which provides excellent access to nearby attractions (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Roaring Camp Railroad are 40 minutes away and Monterey Bay Aquarium is 45 minutes away, to name a few).

We stayed here in a bit of a pinch after our free Nationals forest site plan got thwarted due to a Hwy. 1 closure. This is a state park and our visit in March was fairly quiet. Lots of nice parking and even pavement for rigs. Spots for tents are very flat. The area is wooded and is really beautiful. The last loop is just a short easy walk to a VERY nice overlook of the beach and you can drive down. The bathrooms are not heated or air conditioned so that would make for a pretty uncomfortable shower experience if it’s cold outside :) The showers are also coin operated, something like 50 cents per 2 minutes. This is because of the drought to encourage water conservation. Overall, nice experience, we are just normally cheap-o’s and the $35 price tag was pretty steep for us.