Parson’s Landing

Absolutely best camping experience ever! Okay my only camping experience but it will never be topped! Started out with a 2 hr boat ride to avalon, followed by a 2 hr (4 mile) kayak on semi, small choppy waters around the island to parsons landing. It was grueling, i feared for my life at some points, and the wind was blowing but the view was amazing and the water was so clear u could see 5 ft to the bottom. I never saw ocean waters like that. The campsite was occupied by another couple, but for the most part feels isolated. The sand is a bit rocky but the air mattress took care of that issue. There was enough little sticks to start a fire with the wood from the lockers. It gets cold n and dark quick so pack enough clothes and wrap it up or it will get wet from kayaking! The moon and stars were bright and it was a nice night for camping. The way back I saw sea lions and right before getting on the boat back to San Pedro I saw a buffalo! Would come back, for the 7 mile hike, if the boat ride weren’t so $ 74.50. It felt like an accomplished feat and was amazing overall despite the scary parts.

This is my favorite campground of all time! I’ve been going to Parson’s since 1980 and have camped on the beach hundreds of times since. Its simplicity and remoteness make it ideal along with the hiking trails, snorkeling waters, fishing, cliff jumping and amethist crystal finds. Keyword here, remote location! Be prepared to hike, kayak in and carry all your gear.

GREAT SPOT! Don’t waste any more time, make your reservation now because they book up fast! I won’t bore you with details (the other people are pretty thorough). Read their reviews for specifics. I went the first time in early Sept and the water was too cold but this summer we are going in June. Follow up review to come :)

This is an awesome, secluded place to go camping with the boys. Beware, there is no running water and you have to hike at least 3 miles to get there. Sometimes even 7 miles, depending on how much money you want to spend on another boat. So it is good for about 2 nights of camping. If you’re adventurous like my group, come and camp out for 4 nights. Please note that you will need to cough up some extra money paying for the gear haul to take all of your stuff to the camp site. I believe it was $ 230 one way. Definitely worth the money if you want to bring a lot of stuff and if you are splitting costs with a huge group.
The scenery of this place is just spectacular. Beautiful views from the hikes, so much fish in the ocean if you plan on snorkeling, and so many stars as you have your campfires. Just a beautiful place all around.
The only downsides of this place are the workers. Seems like they are not on top of their game in regards of service and they always want to milk you for more money. Every little thing costs more money. Whenever we tried to call the headquarters, they never picked up and only returned calls a couple hours later. Would suck if I had an emergency. The gear trucks also have at least a 45 minute delay, even though they are scheduled. This sucks because you have to schedule your whole trip to get back to Long Beach. If one portion is late, then you’re going to have to scramble for the rest of your trip to get back on time.
4 Stars!

Honestly, probably the best campsite I’ve been to.
My friends and I trekked the West End Road out to Parson’s Landing. The hike is super easy (flat) but it still kicked our butts because of how much stuff we were carrying. The distance is not insignificant at 7 mi each way. However, anybody in reasonable shape should be able to handle it no problem, and the feeling you get when the hill crests at the end of the trail and the beach comes into view is priceless. Definitely approach it with a backpacking mentality. We brought in way too much food, gear, a huge tent, etc.
We had campsite 3, which is highly recommended. You are right in the middle of the beach, but are spaced out far from the other sites. (IMO 4, 5, and 6 are the worst — packed very close together) I was worried that the chemical toilets might be a little close to us, but there was no issue with odor. (By the way, I think that people are exaggerating a bit with how bad they are. If you’ve used a port-​a-​potty at Coachella, you’ve seen worse.) Our tent was super easy to set up on the sand, and there is a picnic table and a fire pit for each site. The biggest feature is the setting. You are literally camping right by the ocean on a secluded strip of beach, far away from everything else. Really cool.
If you are looking to camp out on Catalina and would prefer something a bit more unique than the more generic campsites closer to port, Parson’s Landing is a great spot to check out.
Tips:
Get an extra locker with water and wood. It can’t hurt.
Use plenty of sunscreen. The hike is long and virtually without shade.
A fire pit is just that — a hole to start a fire in. There are no grills, so plan accordingly.

Booked spot #3 for a long weekend in August and couldn’t have been happier with the campsite and overall experience.
Hiked the TCT trail in to parsons– started at the peak of day, around noon and it was HOT. Not a cloud in the sky, so 65 degrees felt like 95. We knew the TCT was going to be hard, an 1780 ft elevation gain in the first 4 miles and a drop back to 0 in the last 2.5, all with 30 lb packs on our backs. The trailhead starts off with an immediate ascent into the never ending Catalina mountain range. The views are amazing along the whole way, but you are truly rewarded when you get to the top of the ridge with panorama views. The descent is pretty much straight downhill on loose rock and dirt, so it is extremely slippery. I found myself going down sideways in a couple spots.
Coming into parsons landing (you are greeted by the awful smelling chemical toilets and if you are lucky a bison or two) you realize how worth it that crazy hike was. Parsons is quiet, secluded, and beautiful! The campsites are spread out far enough that your neighbors don’t bother at all no matter how late the campfires are going.
We stayed two nights and were able to see lots of wild life (foxes, bison, crazy spiders, leopard sharks), swim, hike, relax, and have great campfire conversation with friends. It was so much fun, we hope to make it an annual trip.
On the way back we took the west end road, which is longer and FLAT, and follows the coastline back to two harbors. You can also kayak in/​out, but that looks scary as shit.
Tips:
–order extra wood, the bundles are small.
–bring good stakes for your tent, it gets windy!
–bring snorkel gear, there is a sunken ship and lots of kelp jungles with beautiful fish to see
–hike to emerald bay for a great day trip, only a couple miles away through the Boy Scout camp– it is a perfect cove to snorkel and swim.
–bring extra warm clothing, it gets cold at night when the wind picks up

I just got back from a one night, two day camping trip to Parson’s Landing, and it was amazing. It is a beautiful beach that is extremely secluded, and is the most remote campground on Catalina I am told. You can take the Catalina Express to Two Harbors and from there can either hike or take a water taxi to the campground. You can also hire a service that will lug your gear for you while you hike, but when I called they estimated $ 250 one way for that service. As for a water taxi, I was told it would be $ 80 one way for two people. You can call the Catalina Campgrounds number to find this information.
After learning this information we decided to hike it. We are definitely outdoor enthusiasts but not seasoned backpackers by any means. There are two routes hiking to Parsons, one is 7 miles and the other is 5. The 7 mile hike is flat for about 5 miles, and along the coast and the other 2, slightly uphill and inland. The second hike, which we did not take but we were told was more rigorous than the 7 mile. By the time we got to Parsons after the 7 mile and with all of our gear we were definitely exhausted. Unless you have good backpacking gear, I would not recommend carrying your gear. If we were to do it again we probably would have taken a water taxi there, and hiked back with less of a load.
The campground, however, definitely lives up to the hype. Along the right side of the campground are small, smooth rocks, to the left it gets more sandy with large rocks out in the ocean in front of it. We camped on campsite number one which was awesome. It is definitely the most secluded campsite, but all of the sites were nice. The issue with campsite number one were the squirrels. Every chance they would get they would come down from the cliff and try to break into every bag we had with us, so definitely be weary of this.
As for water and firewood, they offer these for purchase when reserving the campground, I would DEFINITELY recommend getting at least 2 bundles per night, and at least one water per night as well. The firewood is 4 large logs in a bundle and lasts about 2 hours. Also, if you spearfish or fish, definitely bring your gear and you can catch your own food! We saw a few people doing this, and that looks like the way to go.
Overall, this place is wonderful and I highly recommend it to those who are go-​getters and able and willing to hike it!

Parson’s Landing is a secluded beach campsite on Catalina Island. You can book online (
) or by phone, but I was never able to get through on the phone. I accidentally booked the wrong site, emailed the contact email on the website, and they canceled the second reservation within 20 minutes.
We hiked approximately 7.5 miles from Two Harbors along West End Road to the campsite. The route along West End Road is very flat and easy. As Debbie Y. wrote, for $ 12 you can get a key to a locker and have 2.5 gallons of water and a bundle of firewood. I would highly recommend buying this. We actually bought two lockers for the extra water, as we were talking the Trans-​Catalina Trail the next day which is a much more difficult hike than West End Road. The beach itself had plenty of wood and tinder, so we ended up leaving half the second bundle of wood for the next campers.
The campground is a beach with eight sites. Each site has a picnic table and firepit. Site #1 and #2 did not have much sand available, so bring a sleeping pad if you’re staying in those. You can find a sandy spot at the other sites and save the space and weight by leaving the pad at home if you’re not at #1 or #2 (and not camping elsewhere on the island). While Site #1 has the least amount of sandy sleep spots, it offers the most seclusion of any of the eight sites. It’s nestled between the boundary cliff and a rock outcrop, so you can cook/​eat/​sleep completely out of view of the other sites. It also has its own little swimming hole. There’s swimming in front of each site, but there are rocks in the water in front of #3−5, and the beach near the water of #6−8 has very large rocks (pain to walk). I would recommend Site #1 over the others, because of the seclusion and swimming.
You can’t beat camping near the ocean. Watching the sunset. Sleeping and waking up to the sound of waves.
A few other comments:
— There are rattlesnakes. We saw one sleeping in the shade of the rocks near Site #2.
— The squirrels are bold. If we turned our backs on our picnic table for 30 seconds, they descended from the rocks (we were at site #1) and started snooping around.
— The chemical toilets are unsightly and smelled even worse than they looked. We didn’t use them, and I’m not sure even the worst emergency could have forced me to use them.

Just got back from an amazing backpacking trip with Kevin C. on Catalina Island where we camped on Parson’s Landing. The great thing about Parson’s is that it is a secluded beach camping area where there are only 8 campsites and they only allow up to 6 people to each site. They provide each group with a locker that contains a bundle of wood and 2.5 gallons of water. More supplies can be purchased before hand.
You can get to the campsite by hiking in or by taking a boat. For us, we chose the hiking/​backpacking route since we like the challenge of getting our ass kicked once in awhile by the trail. There are two trails that can be taken that will both lead to the campground. One is the West End Trail which is all along the coast and relatively flat for 6 miles and the other is the Trans Catalina Trail which is a strenuous advanced hike that is 7.5 miles with a 2,000′ elevation gain and drop. We chose to hike the latter. **I will review the trail on a different review.**
Back to the site, it is fairly pristine and the view is amazing. The squirrels are quite courageous as the one near us chewed through the stuff sack and ate most of the chocolate … LOL! Another group told us that they saw their squirrel get into their food bag entirely and only saw the tail peep through! I guess they are really used to people being around. If you’re into climbing, there is a pretty decent boulder that sits right in the middle of the beach. I think it is called Stryder Face Rock and it has a few doable routes on there. My only complaint about the place is the nasty chemical toilets that I was told were too full. I didn’t have the luxury of trying it out, but I sure was able to smell it on our way in and out of the area. I’m much more used to backpacking into very primitive areas and not having these so-​called conveniences, but I guess they have to do that for a place like Parson’s to keep it clean. If you are interested in camping here, you must reserve a site far in advance. These sites get booked quick so plan early :)