Sunset State Beach - California State Parks — Attraction in Watsonville Water Treatment Plant

I give 5 stars for review and recommendation because most rangers are friendly and helpful to check-in vehicles, maintain cleanliness of campsites and bathrooms, keep beach safe and natural. But I do have one suggestion for all campers and be sure to click useful to help others. We stayed in the group campground over the weekend. Some of our guest families were WRONGFULLY charged extra $10 dollars each for overnight vehicle fee. The group campground reservation already covered ALL 10 vehicles overnight fee. We even called the state park in advance to make certain and announced to our guests they don't need to pay extra. On the same day evening when one family brought out the fee question, thus we just realized 3 families were each charged for an overnight fee illegally. It was already in the evening and the entrance was closed. The next day one family went to the entrance for a refund, but the ranger refused and responded the issue or mistake should be corrected on the same day when they came in. Actually one of our guests already argued the issue with the ranger when they were at the entrance for check-in, but the ranger told them only the first vehicle fee is covered, all the rest 9 cars need to pay. The family just paid and didn't insist on resolving the issue or otherwise they might not be able to get in. 30 dollars is not a large amount but it made the host and event a bit embarrassed. The inexperienced rangers might need more training or work with experienced staff for a longer time to get familiar with the work he can handle when he is on duty. Why we felt inexperienced, because there is only one group campsite and when a guest checked-in, the ranger asked them which group campground. It is totally their mistake, but in the end they made the issue of such overpaid fee like ours. If you will go to the group campground, be sure you are fully prepared and aware of such issues and mistakes might have and get the refund at the earliest or seek help from experienced staff in the time of check-in. We do like and did donate fund to CA state park and are glad to pay any reasonable fee, but not wrongfully due to...

Mostly for RVers ---

The stars are for the dune restoration work here- it's beautiful. Native trees and understory are unique and a sight to behold. However the trails, marked on campground maps were closed, and not posted. The only entries to the beach are each a good mile walk, both north and South (uphill) from campground. Beaches are wide with lovely soft (deep) sand and both ends with beach access, are up and over a rather tall dune. It's a bit of a hike .

The missing stars are for other reasons. The campground is bordered by vast tracts of ag land, at times fertilizer smells are present and the roads in, West from Hwy1, are BEAT UP! RV repairs will be required. 😭 possibly farm equipment?!? In addition if you have an rv the 2 lane road in will pin you hard against long rows of hard rough cypress trees. (Insufficient tree pruning for 2 way traffic. ) Weve got permanent fiberglass wounds from that trek. 😒

The best part of this locale is it's close access to Monterey and Carmel, and our main aim Point Lobos State Park. Unfortunately, pt lobos is not accessible to RVs and Trailers. Grr wish that had been posted. Highway parking (on only the West side of hwy1) is long long, and crowded, and still required extensive walks to the coastal cliffs once you're in . So maybe not for family with young kids or non hiker types. We're young seniors. Btw, this was a Tuesday in late Sept.

Instead we ended up doing the coastal attractions in Monterey which are lovely and were the default highlight of the trip. ( Check Google maps for highlights. ) However beware that for whatever reasons, there are no signs designating many of these sights and it's a busy narrow coastal road. There are various parking lots but no real signs to see before pulling in. It's dumb because I personally made 3 uturns in my 25 ft RV(not so easy) trying to find these places- tho we had Google maps running! It creates much more perilous traffic than just posting signs. (Hello Monterey County) . Ok trip but we...

Another beautiful beach on Monterey Bay. Wide and deep white sand. There is a bit of a walk down the ramp to the beach. $10 day use fee, 8am to sunset like all the state beaches. Just buy the yearly pass for $195. This is walkers paradise, excellent to spend time alone. Excellent to take your family, friends, dog, whatever, you can't go wrong! Beautiful approach driving in past the strawberry fields and brown earth with the blue pacific in the background. If you are walking from New Brighton State Beach this is about 8 miles and the halfway point to Moss Landing and Moss Landing is the halfway point to Monterey but who would be so crazy to walk from Brighton State Beach to...