California Camping: The Complete Guide to More Than 1,500 Campgrounds (Moon California Camping)

Never be stuck without a place to stay again. With Foghorn Outdoors: California Camping, you'll always be able to find a spot to camp for the night. Written by the authority on the California outdoors, Foghorn Outdoors: California Camping is the most comprehensive guide to camping in California -- the only guide with up-to-date details on the new, lower camping fees at California State Parks. You'll get campsite descriptions, scenic ratings, recreation opportunities, and other essential information for RVers, car campers, and tenters. Instruction on essential gear, safety and first-aid tips, advice for camping with kids, contact information, and precise directions to each campground make Foghorn Outdoors: California Camping an essential companion to your camping adventure. "California Camping is the must-have camper's bible." -- The Daily Democrat

Tom Stienstra, outdoors columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and an enthusiastic promoter of California's wild country, has been collecting information on the state's campgrounds for years--mostly, he writes, so that he would never have to "get stuck again looking for a spot." That wealth of information has been transferred into California Camping, as complete a guide to the state's under-the-stars sleepovers as has ever been assembled.

Drawing on a team of fellow enthusiasts for up-to-date information, Stienstra here lists more than 1,500 campgrounds, ranging from the large venues with hundreds of spaces that lie within Yosemite National Park to the tiniest of public-lands facilities (such as Millard Falls outside Los Angeles, where only five tent sites lie within shouting distance of a 60-foot waterfall). More than a hundred of the listings detail wilderness campgrounds without services, while many more catalogue facilities that are appropriate for RV campers and extended stays. Stienstra takes a generally upbeat view, as when he calls Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay "one of the most beautiful and popular state parks on the planet," but he also warns campers about less-than-ideal conditions, such as the interstate highway noise that awaits overnighters at San Onofre State Beach north of San Diego.

California Camping is a valuable reference for any camping enthusiast with a California destination in mind. --Gregory McNamee