{"id":924,"date":"2007-11-14T21:10:33","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T03:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=924"},"modified":"2007-11-14T21:22:16","modified_gmt":"2007-11-15T03:22:16","slug":"oceano-dunes-state-vehicular-recreation-area-pismo-beach-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=924","title":{"rendered":"Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, Pismo Beach CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

During our stay in Visalia, Roger mentioned a few places to camp in Paso Robles and Pismo Beach. I was considering them all until he mentioned that in Pismo Beach, if we drove past the commercial campgrounds and the state beach campground, we could camp on the beach<\/em>. That was all it took to make the decision.<\/p>\n

We’ve camped at<\/em> the beach several times, and we always like it. Memorable places include Charlestown State Breachway (RI), the Red Coconut (Ft Myers FL), and Bahia Honda State Park (Florida Keys). We’ve also driven on beaches, including a couple of weeks ago in Oregon and back east in St Augustine FL. But we’ve never camped on<\/em> the beach before.<\/p>\n

It’s a three hour drive across the sunny dry valley on Route 41 to get to Hwy 101 and finally Rt 1 along the coast. But then when you swing through Pismo’s downtown and see the surfboard shops, Chinese restaurants, art galleries and, just beyond, palm trees in sand, suddenly the sun is a welcoming friend and the drive is worth it.<\/p>\n

\"oceano-dunes-airstream.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The camping here is just $10 per night, since there are no amenities except trash barrels and chemical toilets. Most of the dozen or so campers here have brought four-wheelers and buggies to ride in the dunes behind us. They’re here for the long haul, so a truck comes by daily selling ice. The truck also pumps out holding tanks. I hope they keep the two operations well separated.<\/p>\n

\"oceano-dunes-beach-walk.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We got here about 4 p.m. but this time of year that means only about 90 minutes until sunset. Now at 6 p.m. it is utterly black outside except for the stars, the crescent moon sitting low over the Pacific, and a glowing line to the north from the town of Pismo Beach.<\/p>\n

\"oceano-dunes-sunset.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to admit to a little trepidation about the softness of the sand. The lady at the entrance booth who took our $10 told me the times of high and low tide, advised me to be sure to tow the trailer on the wet packed sand but park above the high tide line. The thought had occurred to me already, when I was first contemplating towing an 8000 lb trailer on the beach. The trailer sinks into the sand about half an inch in most places, a little deeper sometimes. To be on the safe side I kept the speed up to the maximum of 15 MPH and the 4WD engaged.<\/p>\n

The trick is that above the high tide line the sand gets soft, so like all the other RVs we are straddling the uppermost line of packed sand and hoping not to get wet. We don’t have floats like Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. We’ll be watching the tide come up tomorrow at noon. \u00a0 In the meantime, the pounding of the Pacific surf outside our window is a constant reminder of the sea just outside our aluminum walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our stay in Visalia, Roger mentioned a few places to camp in Paso Robles and Pismo Beach. I was considering them all until he mentioned that in Pismo Beach, if we drove past the commercial campgrounds and the state beach campground, we could camp on the beach. That was all it took to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}