Islay Creek Campground — Hotel in Morro Bay

I have been going annually to this campground with my friends for the past 5 years. I give the location, facilities, and sites a 5/5- would recommend.

Last year we felt targeted by the campground host, who chastised us for being loud and drunk. The problem is the night prior we were in bed by 11pm, and the ruckus he was referring to happened on the other side of the campground where a college rowing team was celebrating until 1am. We explained this to him and got "I'm just doing my job"....okay.

We returned this year and had no issues with the host. Our first morning we woke up to tickets from the rangers on one of our cars. We had two adjacent sites, and only 4 cars. One couple had arrived around 3am and the only place to set up their tent was in the middle of one of the sites. We were unaware one of them had a medical device that needed to be hooked up to the car all night so she had parked her car on the grass with plans to rearrange in the morning (again, it was 3 am). We were up at 7am and found the ticket. When the ranger made her rounds at 8 we had already rearranged tents to accomadate the medical device. We spoke to the ranger, calmly trying to explain to her why they had temporarily parked the car there. She was beyond rude, cutting us off by saying we had been warned about our cars several times the day before. Except we hadn't. We arrived the night prior. We did see a young group across the way get warned once. Again, she didn't care what we had to say (we weren't yelling, we were calm and she was very rude). She cute us and and said to read the back of the ticket if we had an issue and drove away. She might as well flipped us off, that's how abrupt and unwarranted it was.

We had let the previous year's issue go. But now combined with this horrible ranger we decided we won't be returning.

I would say if you are a family with young children or and older couple, you'll love this campground. But if you are a group in the 20-30 range, you might want to find another place.

*Update- I called and spoke to the supervising ranger about this issue. He got back to me quickly and was Very helpful. I had to laugh though when the female ranger we had an issue with reported that she may have been "too formal" and we misinterpreted it. We were able to get the ticket excused by the state though (not through...

Only giving four stars because there are no showers. Cindy and her husband were great camp hosts in this very popular yet still under the radar park. Jut beware of the raccoons, poison oak/ivy and the rattlesnakes. The quail sang sweet songs through the night and the costal views are difficult to surpass as well as the beautiful geology exposed. I could have stayed much longer but the weekend brought the crowds. It was somewhat fun to haze the Poly Cal ROTC unit as they treked the coastline with lightweight packs in full camo. Just kidding, those cats were troopers bound for great adventure with that style of training. Overall a fun Saturday of hiking before my pack out. This park has a bright future ahead of itself. I think ultimately a one way road in and out will have to be additionally built. I feared for the cyclists in various passing maneuvers with on coming traffic. I didn’t see the appeal of cycling the main road between Los Osos and the campground with so much vehicular traffic coming from both directions. But to each their own. There are miles of trails that I left undiscovered for a latter date. For now I’ve scouted the rest for a latter date, God willing and the...

California parks suck! In the two times I have been coming to several state park campgrounds on the coast I had infestations. The first time 2 years ago was an ant infestation that cost me hundreds of dollars because I had to have my trailer quarantine and sprayed the entire thing in a tent. Of course California parks did refund my Campground stay, but did not pay for any of the cost I had to file an insurance claim. This is my second trip currently at Morro strand which is a good campground, but Isley Creek I had a mouse infestation they were running all over the inside of my camper and outside and I left without staying one night. California Parks lectured me and threatened to take away my senior pass because I made another reservation right away back at Morrow strand Campground in order to make sure the mice were gone. I knew more stranded not have a nice problem. So because I double booked campgrounds they threatened to take my senior pass away what a pathetic parks department. I see why people do not like California government and I'm a democrat. Ridiculous! I'll be spending less time in California after this. I'll spend my...