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.

We stayed here during the offseason - Jan 30 through Feb 7. Two of the three campgrounds all closed this time of year and the park was nearly empty during the week, but did fill to capacity with a mix of tent and RV campers over the weekend.

The campground was well maintained in my opinion - tidy, and to my pleasant surprise provided both garbage and recycling bins. Bathrooms with pay showers available ... old, but sufficient. No hook-ups are available at campsites, but water spigots are scattered throughout. There is no dump staton in the park, but paying guests may use the dump station at New Brighton State Park, located about 15 minutes north on HW1. Alternately there is a KOA five minutes away.

For a California state park, the sites are pretty spacious. The result is a moderately open feel, less a number of fully mature trees which are quite effective in blocking solar panels. Even my portable ground panels struggled to fully track regular sunlight, so expect to use your generator if you are here for more than a few days. As remote workers, we would would have been hosed without the generator.

If I had to stay again, I'd target sites 24, 25, or 26 as they sit atop the highest point in the park, with clear south/southwest access to sun. An added bonus - these sites are closest to the easily accessible ocean beach.

Working remotely was no issue in the park - good voice call quality on both Verizon and AT&T. Boosted (AT&T) data speeds at ~ 7-10 Mbps down were workable, but not without the occasion latency hick-up during video chats or when streaming video.

Overall, a very nice park. Timing of our visit likely contributed to the pleasant experience - during warmer months I would expect the park to be a bit of madhouse when all three campgrounds are operational.

Stayed here 5/3-4/2015 in site 27. It's kind of convoluted to get to this place from Hwy 1 so pay attention to the small signs or use your GPS. It's a few miles of the highway and surrounded by strawberry fields and the park fronts on the ocean. I was here on a Sunday and Monday nights, so there were not very many campers here. The day use area was very busy on Sunday afternoon, but on Monday, there was nobody.

Check in was easy as I had a reservation. The campground is up on the hill behind the dunes, but there are a couple sites that you can see the ocean from. The trade off for the view is the wind which can get blowing pretty good. My site was in the South Camp Site Loop which is a little more friendly for larger RV's. It paved but not level, and I had to really raise the front of the trailer to level it out. The site was nice and large and the parking for my truck and trailer was more than adequate. There are no hookups, nor is there a dump station, so bring water. Generators are allowed, although the other campers in the park were pretty conservative with their use while I was there.

The beach is the best part of this park and it is huge. The beach north of the beach trail at the check-in booth is dog friendly on leashes, and south of the trail dogs are not allowed.The campground is a about a 13 mile drive from Moss Landing, which is a great place to go fishing or have lunch at the marina. Manresa Beach is just to the North and is also a great beach, but no campground.