California “Campgrounds”

Jill's Journal: We prefer positive thinking around here, but every now and then even the “sunny side of optimism” can get worn down. California campgrounds are doing that to us. Oh, the frustration! While I hate to compare East vs. West, our experiences with campgrounds on the East Coast are head and shoulders above those on the West Coast, or at least in California. Let me explain.

All up the East Coast, we’d make our campground reservations and show up to delight in each new place. There was never a problem and we never questioned our safety. And, the sheer amount of campgrounds available in the East keep things competitive: to survive, campgrounds have to be well-maintained, safe, and economical.

California, on the other hand, has been a major eye-opener. Campgrounds as we think of them seem to be state parks here, which were pretty much all built long before large RVs and 99% don’t fit our rig. The private campgrounds here seem to be more along the lines of what we think of as “trailer parks.” Now, I’m sure there’s plenty of lovely people at trailer parks, but there’s so many unsavory characters milling about that I don’t want to take the time to find out with little kids in tow. The actual campgrounds in California, as we were used to on the East Coast, are few and very far between, are ridiculously expensive, often don’t give one that warm and fuzzy and safe feeling, and are sometimes anything but well-maintained. And it’s getting old.

To save what would be a really long story, yesterday we once again showed up at a “campground,” only to find something so shady (and in a rough area of town) we would have been afraid to even let the children out of the car (and most certainly didn’t). We quickly searched online and in our camping directory for something else in the area and it was just more of the same. We put on around 100 extra miles – which is no easy task with pulling a fifth wheel in traffic – and a mountain of frustration to finally end up in an area far south and far inland of where we intended.

We’re now in what feels like the middle of nowhere, a community called Morgan Hill, but it seems nice and at least it feels safe for the kids (always our primary concern). It’s somewhere south of San Jose. We had started our campground search yesterday in Redwood City, about 45 miles north of where we ended up. Like I said, the campground situation in California is getting old. We’re hoping it improves once we get north of San Francisco. We hope.