California beach camping?

• Beach camping in Southern California? Myself and the girl want to go beach camping in late August. We live in LA but are not necessarily restricted to the Southern Cali area. I have never been beach camping and am looking for insight. My preferences, in order of importance, are as follows: -Scenic (some of the beaches in Big Sur look beautiful) -Secluded (the less crowded, the better - we are looking for a peaceful getaway) -On-beach camping, or as close to right-on-the-beach as possible. Secret beaches that allow overnight camping would be best, but I understand that may not be realistic. We just want to wake to the waves in relative peace while I work the backpack stove. So far I have looked at Doheny Beach, as well as South Carlsbad beach here in Southern Cali. The girl is entranced by Pfieffer Beach in Big Sur...but it doesn't appear to offer on-beach camping. I want suggestions to help point me in the right direction. Can anyone recommend a mind-blowingly gorgeous beach camping experience in California?

• Answer:

  All of the beach camping spots (on the SoCal mainland) that I know of are State Parks, and the ones I've checked on book up way, way, way in advance, especially summer and for weekends. None of the spots I know of offer actual, putting your tent on the sand, beach camping. I've done Silver Strand and Pismo Beach, and have driven by San Elijo, Carlsbad and San Onofre enough times to have a good idea about them. Silver strand straddles either side of S.R. 75, with the ocean on one side and San Diego Bay on the other. The campsites are on the bay side. Pismo has a bunch of sites, but is more geared towards RVs and offroaders, and its campground is located behind the dunes from the ocean, about a quarter mile from the beach, but there's no development in between the campground and the beach - just dunes. San Elijo, Carlsbad and San Onofre all sit on bluffs slightly elevated above the ocean, pretty hard by the highway that serves them, and seem pretty compact and congested to someone like me - used to camping in huge spots in the forest or desert. Your one real hope of salvation may be Catalina, but your setup will be a bit more arduous than for any state park. There are number of http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/index.php?s=visit&p=boat_in_campsitesin between Avalon and Two Harbors that are only accessible by boat, and can be reserved ahead of time (these could quite easily be fully booked by now as well), but you're basically camping right on the beach. At some sites, you don't have a choice. I did a trip where we rented kayaks in Avalon and then paddled the six miles or so to our campground at Goat Harbor, which was actually pretty easy. The boat-in sites offer no amenities other than a picnic table (although Goat Harbor has an outhouse), and the camping is strictly "leave no trace", meaning that you must pack out, on your boat, everything that you brought in, including your solid biological waste from your own body, for which you need to purchase special bags called WAG bags (available at outfitters on the island and camping stores on the mainland). Further northwest on Catalina, a few coves closer to the west end of the island from Two Harbors, is http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/index.php?s=visit&p=campsites, where I think I camped with scouts when I was twelve, over two decades ago, and we slept right on the beach. This might be more accessible than the boat ins, and I think it might have pit or chemical toilets. On the other side of the island is Little Harbor, where you're almost on the beach - the campground is built on a grassy area just behind the sand - and there's water, tables, shade ramadas, chemical toilets, and a very nice ranger when I was there. Around Labor Day, a social organization takes over the whole campground for a horse-riding event, and they bring in trailers full of alcohol and stage stuff - you won't be allowed there then.