BriGeeski We are home from our 2 week California Coastal Vacay! It was an epic trip and I’m going to tell you all about Camping at Refugio State Beach first! Our first and one of our favorite stops was at Refugio. The Refugio State Beach Campground is an ideal spot for beach campers. The spots are steps away from the beach with no stairs and amazing views. Refugio has the most beautiful palm trees, tons of sea life to explore and a sandy beach, great for walks.
Camping at Refugio State Beach
Camp spots at Refugio State Beach are ~$45/night and reservations can be made on Reserve California. We were in spot #18 and had plenty of room for our trailer, truck and an extra vehicle. These camp spots are super close walking distance to the beach. The views are amazing and the campground is well taken care of. There are bathrooms with showers and an awesome camp store. The store has souvenirs, some food and drinks as well as ice.
Beach Days at Refugio
This was our one and only stop that we just stayed at the campground and the beach. This beach is about 20 minutes from Santa Barbara with not a lot else nearby. We spent our days camping, beaching it and walking along the shore looking at the sea life. It was one of our most peaceful stops. I loved going on beach walks every morning and evening. My parents got to join us on this trip and this was one of my favorite things we all got to do together.
Refugio is not a huge beach but it’s plenty big for everyone staying at the campground. There’s a nice long sandy beach that leads over to a rocky area with sea creatures all inside the rocks.
There are tons of Palm Tree fronds that have fallen from the trees onto the beach. The kids built huts out of these and loved building with these.
We got to visit with some family from Lompoc who came down for a beach day and dinner. We loved having them come hang out with us while we were camping. I loved this sandy beach with beautiful palm trees and ocean views. The only downfall was the amount of seaweed in the water. I don’t know if this is seasonal or all year round but the kids didn’t like going in the water here because of the amount of seaweed in the wave break.
Sea Life in Refugio
I was blown away by the amount of sea creatures we found at Refugio. I’ve never seen anything like this on our San Diego beaches. There were giant sea slugs, tons of crabs, jellyfish, sea anemone and urchins. Out of the 6 beaches we went to along the coast, this one had the most sea life going on. We also saw dolphins in the water. There were people fishing from shore, spear fishing and scuba divers checking things out too.
Above all, my favorite part about Refugio was our morning and evening beach walks. If you get the chance to camp at Refugio State Beach, go for it! xo, Bri
