Refugio State Park

Just spent another weekend here camping and this is the best I have seen it in years. The sand is back on the beach the restrooms where clean and they now sell hot food at the store.

We used the day use area and the views of the ocean were beautiful. The cost for day use was $ 10.00. The facilities seemed really old and run down, although the park was full so I feel the view of the ocean makes up for it. The beach is really rocky so not somewhere that is great for young kids who want to play in the ocean, but overall nice state park.

This is my go to beach when I am home. I love how there are grassy areas along the beach! Basketball court and plenty of grass for the non sand lovers. Plenty of BBQ areas. Bathrooms are decent. I always bring quarters to use the showers in the camping area. All the beach goers are friendly. I have never had a bad beach day. Go early to get a parking spot. You can take beautiful pictures all day long. Dolphins can be seen. I love boogie boarding here.

More scenic than El Capitan with its palm trees and beach front campsites. But you’re closer to both the freeway and your neighbours. Still a fabulous spot to camp and picnic!

We stopped here on our way back home. We just took a walk along the shore and it was lovely. The water was too cold to go swimming in it, but it’s not a great swimming beach anyway… lots of kelp/​seaweed.
The highlight was seeing a sea lion and dolphins in the water. There is also a snack shop. All in all, a really nice place.
The day-​use fee for this state park is $ 10.

1^st time we’ve ever stopped by at this beach. My family & had a wonderful time discovering around the rocks and the river flow that leads to the ocean. Overall its a well kept Gov. state beach, with a convenient snack shop on the grounds to boot. Cant wait to go back. Oh watch out the tar that hides in the sand. You will be stained! Have your turpentine ready.

A quaint California heavenly beach. A photographer’s dream. Great place to stop while traveling between NoCA and SoCA

The beach is nice, though there weren’t any waves when we came though there were still 8 people out trying to catch them. I can’t imagine how crowded it must get when there’s actually waves.
Campsites are very close together so there’s not much privacy. You can also hear traffic on the 101 and trains, including one in the middle of the night that woke me up and scared the crap out of me. $ 20 for a site or $ 30 for a «premium» site, ie one by the beach.

Camping on the beach at Refugio is a treat. It also has its drawbacks though. If you’re a seasoned camper, you know these things. If not, you need to be aware before you camp.
Here, you can wake up to the sounds of waves (or trains) every morning. While the waves last forever, the trains are only temporary, every few hours, in the middle of the night.
You can stay all day at the beach and not worry about driving home through traffic because you’re tent/​RV is right there. Of course, it’s your tent/​RV and not your house/​apartment/​condo with a nice big screen TV, cushy bed, huge refrigerator and grocery store nearby. It’s also likely that you spent some time in traffic on your way to the campground and you will likely spend time in traffic going home.
You can build fires and watch the stars, singing camp songs, telling stories, while drinking your favorite beverage with friends or family. That is if you reserved enough spots for them before the campground got fully booked 6 months ago, it’s not too windy/​dry to have a fire, and you brought your own firewood.
You can enjoy long walks on the beach treasuring the view of the ocean and looking for dolphins while trying to ignore the oil platforms and tar everywhere.
The campsites here each have picnic tables and fire rings, some with grates. There are numerous bathrooms, dumpsters and water spickets. Pay for play showers are available so bring lots of quarters. There’s also free cold showers to rinse off after playing in the sand/​surf. The beach was well maintained and had lifeguard towers. The waves weren’t that big. There are some swings, a playground area and a basketball court for the kids.
The wind can gust all day and all night and the trains will come about every 2 – 3 hours. The beach was perfect and the bathrooms were decent. The general store was a portable with some essential camping stuff inside like marshmallows and popsicles. If you have an RV, the time you can run your generators is limited to between 10 AM and 8 PM. No real gripes with the campground though. We understand the risk/​benefit profile for camping and while myself and the kids could probably camp a lot more than we do, my wife can only tolerate so much. I suspect that’s the case for most families.

Beautiful beach. Lots of camping availabilty and seemed a bit crowded, but not too bad. Helpful park rangers. Sometimes there is tar in the sand, so beware, but that is common for a lot of beaches in the area.

This state governed park has small campsites with not much privacy, but so what. .. you will be surfing and enjoying the beach away from your campsite the majority of the day anyway. There are plenty of bathrooms and hot showers for any amount of people, including campers to use providing you bring a couple rolls of quarters with you before going to this or any state park operated campground.
Refugio State Park is currently undergoing some major improvements. The Beach Store is currently being rennovated and apparently a new building or something else will be standing in the same area soon.
Previously, Refugio State Park endured some flooding as well as El Capitan State Park which are the many reasons behind all the major improvements and building construction development occurring. These two state parks, Refugio and El Capitan are a few miles from each other, so often people get these two state parks confused.
SF Unilocal Office: Please correct error for El Capitan’s State Park’s address!