Leo Carillo State Beach in January 2012

It’s too bad that most of the beaches that allow camping in Southern California put the tents so closely together. If you’re not careful, you can be in a tent a few feet away from an RV’s generator in the middle of the night. Leo Carillo is not one of those beaches. We made our reservation at the California State Parks reservation site. The total cost for the reservation was $35 per night and $8 processing fee, so our one night came out to $43. We had been to Leo Carillo in past but only to the beach side.

Dogs on leash

Leo Carillo is also one of the few beaches in Southern California that allow dogs, albeit on leash only. As the only dog beach that also allows for camping, Leo Carillo State Beach is an exceptional treasure for people like us who love our dogs and want to bring them with us everywhere.

Arriving

As soon as you enter the park, you face two decisions; head right to the campground or left to the beach. We chose to set up our site first and have it ready when darkness fell. We quickly had our tents set up and were ready to walk to the beach, only ten minutes away. All of the campsites seems reasonably good, but if you’d like to get specific, there is a site that ranks each. We used it to get an “A” site, and it was a large, beautiful spot under several sycamore trees.

Leo Carillo Beach

Reaching the beach means crossing under the Pacific Coast Highway through a tunnel that is very artfully painted with scenes from the forest just behind you as you walk. Even though a major road cuts through the park, the murals and tunnel make it not nearly so obvious. As soon as you emerge from the tunnel, the beauty of Leo Carillo is immediately evident. The path to the left enters the sand immediately, and to the right climbs up a hill to the cliff above the rocky point that bisects the beaches.

The cliff

We went to the right, toward the dogs-allowed northern section of the beach. In the early part of January, there are very few people on the beach even though the temperatures were the same as they can be on a Summer day. The dogs vibrate in excitement from the smells in the air, the birds circling off the coast, and the other dogs playing down below. Getting down to the beach meant being careful not to be dragged down by the very-excited dogs. Once on the sand, we had nearly a half mile of beach completely to ourselves and enjoyed watching the dogs going through sensory overload.

MRE’s

We normally love cooking over a campfire, but a last-minute trip makes that tough, and makes MRE’s an easy choice. There’s something Cracker Jack-like about MRE’s and not knowing what will come in the package besides the main course. Once the MRE’s are open, the trading begins. By the time the bargaining finishes, its time to create the magic with the build-in heat source and to enjoy a hot meal from what started as a vinyl-covered package. We made a great fire after the meal and were off to bed early.

Morning at the beach

The best part of camping at the beach is going to the water’s edge first thing in the morning. The cool morning air and the absence of nearly any other human beings has a wonderfully calming feel. We walked the beaches, climbed the rocks and had a wonderful morning before packing up and heading home. Leo Carillo State Beach is a great  place to camp and take dogs to the ocean. We hope you have the chance to enjoy it.