Winter Camping in California

The campgrounds along the beach in Carlsbad (about 15 minutes from our house) are usually pretty crowded and reserved far in advance. We decided in Sept to camp at Carlsbad State Beach this weekend. The campsites are on a bluff overlooking the ocean.

We happened to chose the weekend of the winter storm that is dumping rain, ice, and snow all over the U.S. San Diego was being warned that monsoonal rain and mudslides were possible. While packing the car, a neighbor thought we were crazy to be going camping in this weather! We had to cancel our last camping trip, because of the wildfires, so we didn't really want to cancel this trip.

We were supposed to camp all weekend, but Mike didn't get back from his class in Vegas until Friday evening. When we first arrived at the campground Saturday afternoon, there weren't too many people there. We set up camp and started a fire.

It was COLD! In other words, it was 50 degrees and there was a strong wind coming off the ocean. It sprinkled on us a few times and finally rained for a while once we decided to turn in for the night. But, we managed to stay dry in our tent.

For dinner, we had hot dogs and smores roasted over the campfire.

Instead of packing up the car in the morning and heading to the local coffee shop, we made our own coffee over the campfire! We weren't prepared enough for breakfast, so we settled for a breakfast burrito on the way home.

These are the stairs that go down to the beach. This picture was taken during high tide, so there wasn't much of a beach Sunday morning.