Camping – Doheny State Beach, Dana Point, CA
2/24/08 -
Doheny Campground, Dana Point, California
In order to get a beach-front campsite at Doheny, we had to go in February – ha ha If any of you have tried to get a beach front camp spot in the prime summer months, it’s tough! Even in February, they can be hard to get. When reserving a campsite through Reserve America, you can make reservations six months prior to the date you want. So, if I want a good spot at a popular campground in September, I can try and get a spot on March 1st – 8 am – fingers ready to go, racing others at their computers, all trying to get the site you want.
I knew the weather might not be on our side, being in February and all, but we like to camp and would take our chances. About a week ago I started checking the forecast and it didn’t look good. We planned on arriving Friday afternoon and leaving on Sunday. The forecast showed rain on Friday, clear Saturday with rain starting around 11 pm that night and continuing to rain into Sunday, letting up around noon. We had pretty good luck with no rain after we arrived Friday afternoon and Saturday was beautiful. The “real” weather arrived around midnight on Saturday night and the wind was unbelievable. It rained, but the wind was crazy! We had to go out around 2 am and put the awning down – not an easy task in the wind and it started to rain again while we were out there!
But…. enough about the weather, if you like to camp you’ll like the Doheny Campground. It’s a beautiful place with a long sandy beach, good surf down towards the jetty wall and lots of nearby restaurants and shops. This trip we didn’t take the kayaks, but Mark did some shore fishing and caught a perch. We saw our friend Ray out kayak fishing and hoped he would get the “big” one! I walked down to the beach to sit and enjoy the sun while Mark was fishing and saw trash all over the beach that had washed up from the rain earlier in the week. There is a nearby creek and the trash just pours down into the ocean. I got three trash bags and filled them up. Right when I finished picking up trash, I looked down the beach and about 60-75 high school kids from Dana Hills High School were cleaning the beach! Glad I could help a little bit – Thanks Dana Hills High School kids (some had on cross country shirts) for cleaning our beach!
If you plan on kayak fishing while you’re camping at Doheny, you can launch your kayak at the far end, near the jetty wall. You can also drive down to Baby’s Beach and launch from there. Visit our Dana Point page on our website that has pictures of the area: http://www.kayakfishinggear.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=74
Talking about fire pits J We have the coolest fire pit – the inside (drum) of a washing machine. Not only is it portable but it lets the heat out of the holes and you really don’t need a rip roaring fire to get warm. Some of the fire pits at the campgrounds are so deep, you need a bundle of wood just to get warm. We stick in 3-4 pieces at a time and it’s HOT! Here’s a picture of our fire pit when we were camping last year.
If you plan on camping at Doheny and have any questions just let me know, I’d be more than happy to answer them.
Hi,
Do you know how the weather usually is for camping at Doheny in September? I’m sure the day would be nice, but what do you think about the night?
It looks like you guys had a blast. Did you rent your fishing gear? If so, where?
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
I’m sure the weather will be great in September and the nights too … probably pretty warm .. trying to remember. I always need to remember that even in October it is really nice.
We don’t rent fishing gear, but check with Hogan’s Bait and Tackle. They are right across the street from the State Park, behind the Arco station. Phone number is – 949-493-3528
Have a great time!
Karen
Looks like an excellent camp/fish adventure, nothing like we experience here in Minnesota. You and your readers may also be interested in http://www.fishfinderauthority.com/. It’s a great site and best of all they always have free shipping on any of their products. Thank you!