Olema Ranch Campground

We only stayed one night; however, everything was great. Plenty of space, quality hook ups and clean bathrooms. We loved the location. The little town of Point Reyes was great!

We stayed here Memorial Day weekend, so the campground was crowded as expected. What we did not expect was multiple sites nearby playing music until well past 11:00, and several loud conversations going past 1:00 AM despite repeated requests to quiet down. This is all despite being told over the phone that the campground has a quiet policy past 10:00. That would have been great if there was a single employee on-​site to enforce it. (The local sheriff is listed as the first after hours contact, followed by the campground manager.)
I’m just glad we only planned to stay for one night. It was already enough to ruin our plans for the next day, since everyone was completely tired (the crows started at 6:10 AM, which would have been perfectly fine if people actually quieted down around 10:00). There is absolutely no way we would have considered staying for a second night.

I love hiking, I love almost everything outdoors, including camping. What I do not like is camping here!
I was part of backpacking group backpacking across Marin and we were walking north from Bolinas on the Rift Zone trail. It was a muddy trail on a cold cloudy day with frequent rainshowers. We even had some cows charge at us. I was super glad to find this campsite just sitting here waiting for us where we could unload, dry off and eat our dinner. Our feet were sore, our backpacks super heavy and we were tired!
I was first happy to see the bathrooms, they were spacious and I was very glad to see one (I had used the woods for the last three days,) and it was a perfect place to hang up my wet clothing. We then had a nice dinner and went to get water near the bathroom. We saw a racoon but ignored it. Things were going smoothly and then we heard a loud moaning sound from the other side of the creek. It was probably a cow, it had a moo sound in it.
Then along came the problems! I slept soundly, my tent kept out the rain (which restarted again that night,) but I was not pleased when I looked outside the tent. Not only was it raining but also, my backpack had been broken into by racoons! All its contents were in the grass, on the picnic table and most of it was torn up too! I would recommend some of those raccoon proof food cupboards like Samuel P Taylor has.
I told my friends in the other tent about the racoon. They said, «You had it good.» The racoon had gotten into my friends’ tent and one of them woke up to see a racoon walking on top of her. She screamed and woke up my other friends (I somehow managed to sleep through it. I’m not surprised because I once slept through neighboring campers playing bongo drums at 2 in the morning and yelling as they jumped over the campfire. This did not happen at Olema though.)
After cleaning up and calming down, we packed up and left (and it sure did not help that the prices were high, especially for a campsite with too many racoons.)
Overall, this campsite gets two stars for the high prices and our furry friends but the bathroom prevents it from going down to one star. As I said before, I love campsites and I love camping and it’s really hard for me to give a bad review on campsites. However, I feel I had to share my bit about this place.

Just founds Olema Ranch last weekend 10÷6÷12. We camped two nights with our two kids and two dogs. Had a great time! The staff was awesome. Everything was clean. Super easy and close to town. A little foggy and wet in the morning, but it burned off quick and we had gorgeous blue skies all day.
Best camping shower ever! Hot and Free.
We’ll be back for sure… might even try and get another trip in this fall.

We stayed at Olema Ranch Campground from 7÷21−7÷23 in one of the many tent sites. Please understand that my husband and I have not camped since before the birth of our eldest, who is now 10. We booked here because everything else was completely full. Overall, the campsites were clean, had decent tables and fire pits and were on grass. This was s pretty good campground and relatively quiet. This would be a great place for s family reunion, due to the relative size and ease of use of the facilities but if you are looking for a destination campground with hiking and fishing, then look elsewhere.
My kids vacillated between complete boredom and playing on the play structure that was in the park. I probably would not return but not because of the facilities or the hospitality, but because there is nothing to do. If you bring kids, bring their bikes, scooters etc. The park is large and flat and big enough for them to «takeoff», but small enough for you to hear them even when they are out of site.

Let me begin with the positives:
* Easy to access, and close to West Point Station
* I may have inadvertently set a new world record in the triple-​jump, trying to avoid stepping on dog poop (which is everywhere).
Other than that, expect an old playground and a overcrowded camp.
It didn’t help that they made us move because of some booking error. have you tried moving camp with kids?

Very disappointed.
Located right off of Hwy 1, feels like you’re in someone’s rather poorly kept backyard, camping. The tent campsites are truly an afterthought and there is little to no signage or directions to show you how to get to your designated site.
Campsite staff are not friendly or helpful … one approached us, we thought to help, but rather to chastise us for driving in a restricted section. There were no signs stating the area was restricted!
All this for $ 35/​night! No thanks. We took a look around and high tailed it out of there and headed north to Bodega Bay … found heaven on earth at Doran Beach Regional Park Campgrounds and it was just $ 26/​night!

This place attracts the hard party crowd and management looks the other way.
Around 3 a.m. Sunday August 15 we were almost run over by a camper who had been partying hard here since the night before. He threatened his girlfriend with a gun, threw her in her car and raced it down the path of the densely packed tent section until he crashed into a truck, which blew his windshield out. He continued on his way out of the campground while assaulting his girlfriend before crashing again. Here’s a link to a CBS report on the incident:

Camp management was nowhere to be seen that night and early the next morning they had no interest in the incident until they realized the sheriff was investigating. Even then they did not attempt to figure out which campsite the driver had come from — not until a camper pointed out that the driver’s campmates were still in the campground at noon the next day did management decide it might be worth going over and talking to them.
This campground has a local reputation as a party place but management still markets themselves to families. Do not be fooled. Drunken car accidents may not happen every night, but loud yelling into the wee hours is a sure bet. There are not enough trees here to prevent a maniacal driver from taking out 5 or 6 tents in one skid. If you must go, park your car between your tent and the camp path for some protection.
Oh, and if you’re curious about the drunk driving camper, here’s a story about the person he killed with his car when he was 18:

Happy camping!

My family recently camped at Alema Ranch and had a great time. We choose Point Reyes because it was only 1.5 hrs from where we live. There are plenty of things to do and see. We BBQ fresh oysters and mussels at Tomales Bay Oyster Farm. Mmmmm, it was delicious. We went on the earthquake tour and of course visited the Point Reyes light house. The camp site is family friendly and has all that you need. Here are what I like about the camp site.
— easy to get to
— has play areas for kids
— no bugs or mosquitos
— clean bathrooms (it can get pretty dirty when people track in mud, but the staff cleans it multiple times a day)
— FREE hot water shower
— place to do dishes
What I don’t like is that is was crowded (Since it’s a nice place, it’s pretty popular. Maybe I went at peak season). Overal all my family and kids loved it. We would totally go again.

Just got back from a night of camping at Olema Ranch. Here are the pros and cons for this campground:
Pros:
— Bathrooms were decent, and cleaned regularly so it wasn’t super nasty
— Water close by on all sites
— sell firewood and other things, and even have a laundrymat
— good for group barbeques
Cons:
— pricier than regular campgrounds, we paid $ 35 per night per site (for tent camping) and that only included 2 people and 1 car per site, $ 3 more per person over 2 and only up to 6 people per site
— site is sparsely populated with trees, so you can see the WHOLE campground area from your site, no privacy or real feeling of being secluded in the outdoors here
Overall, I probably wouldn’t go back because of the non-​secluded thing alone.

The Fiancé and I decided to pack the car and just go up and see if we can just camp someplace. That spontaneous road trip took us to Point Reyes and we ended up at Olema Ranch Campground.
Olema Ranch Campground is located about 2 — 3 miles from the Bear Valley Visitor Center. This campground has about 150 camping spots and about 50 RV hook up locations. Each site has it’s own picnic table, fire pit, and you share running water with one other campsite. On site they have ATM, Laundry Mat, Visitor Information, Horseshoe pit, post office, small little gift area, and several other items. Bathroom and showers here were clean. Not super clean, but clean enough when you go camping. The spacing between campsites were ok. You weren’t on top of each but you weren’t right next to each other either.
While they do have a lot of stuff here, the biggest problem is they charge you through the nose. We spent $ 40 for 1 night camping. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, that FORTY DOLLARS for ONE NIGHT of camping. You had to buy firewood from them so that’s another $ 10. Yes, it cost me a Grant for 1 night of camping. WAY WAY to much. While the place was clean, it was also run down. Kind of like how you would «clean» your room but shoving all the junk under your bed.
Overall if all of the other campgrounds are full, it’s an alternative. Just know that you’re looking about $ 50 (including wood) to camp here. There are better options out there but if you are in a pinch like we were, it will work. (Also they only accept CASH too… this way they can get you to use their ATM).

Wow, difficult Unilocal to post. We’ve stayed here before and really enjoy the entire ambiance of the place. Great location right off highway 1, good for bike rides out of SF. Real close to great Oysters and Point Reyes. I’ve always thought they were a little pricey but, hey they’ve got a good location and most of the sites are shaded by a friendly tree. However, just called them up to cancel a reservation for 2 sites this weekend (which it should be said they won’t have any trouble filling on a Sat. night in the summer) and the reservations guy was rude, told us we’d be charged the whole ~60 dollars anyway and didn’t seem to care we were going out of our way to call and cancel. End result, you try to do the right thing so they can rent the sites to some one else and you get rude surely treatement from the guy on the other end of the phone. Nice campground, not so sure about the owners. Thus the two stars, if I’d written them up earlier thisI’d give them at least 4, now I’m leaning towards 1 or 2.