Sweet View: A view from the campground at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park gives visitors a nice panorama view of the area in the southern area of San Diego County. Houses cover the distant hillside and a busy freeway lies just out of view near the park. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Sweetwater Campsite: Our campsite at Sweetwater Summit was on a mesa top with many views of the area around the park. The park is in Bonita, Calif. in southern San Diego County and is a very busy park within the system of parks. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
The Post From the Road will approach our RV travel from a little different angle this week as we look at a series of parks in San Diego County the not only offer great “day use” activities but also offer camping at a rate that is far less than most commercial RV parks in the area.
We have traveled to San Diego in February for the past three years to attend a RV Rally that is sponsored by Pleasure Way Industries the maker of the camping van that we travel in about the country. The rally began in 2024 and has become an annual event each winter.
Before and after the rally, we have enjoyed traveling around the Southern California area in San Diego County and exploring the many activities and opportunities in the county. We stumbled across the San Diego County Regional Parks last year when searching for a campsite after the RV rally and have since gone to a total of three of the nine regional parks scattered throughout the county.
These parks can be found all around the county which is quite large geographically in Southern California. I don’t know if we will eventually visit all of the parks but we will search them out every time we attend the rally or make a San Diego visit for any other reason.
There are nine county regional parks and we have stayed at three of these parks; Guajome Regional Park in Oceanside, Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita, and Dos Picos Regional Park in Ramona.
The camping facilities at these parks have been very nice and located in scenic areas and conveniently located close to other attractions in the county. The three parks we have visited all offer sites with electricity and water and a dump site for camper’s use. The price seems to be consistent as well which is much less than most RV parks.
There are a few state parks which may offer less expensive camping but usually do not offer the same accommodations as these regional parks. If you want to travel in Southern California and camp in an RV or tent camp, these parks are diamonds in the rough. Even if you do not camp but want a scenic picnic area with plenty of space for the kiddos to run about these parks are excellent for that as well.
We are planning on a return trip next February and will no doubt search for a county regional park during our stay. If you want to know more about the parks, the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation website is the place to start.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Sweetwater Reservoir: Sweetwater Reservoir is adjacent to the campground at Sweetwater Summit Park in San Diego County. While our site was not near the reservoir many sites were within a short hike. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Ducks & Reflections: A few ducks float effortlessly on the pond at Dos Picos Regional Park on a late afternoon day in early March. The reflections of the trees create an interesting and distorted pattern caused by the ripples in the water near sunset. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Dos Picos Campsite: We enjoyed a beautiful campsite at Dos Picos Park in February of this year. Perhaps it was a little early for the park located in Ramona in the northern part of the county but we shared the expansive campground with just a few other campers. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Hiking Trail: There was a short hike from the campground at Dos Picos Park to the area where the pond was located in the day use picnic area. The hike takes visitors along a trail or service road through a stand of trees. I am sure this would be more spectacular once the trees leaf out in the spring. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Pond at Guajome: A nice sized pond at Guajome Regional Park creates an area for ducks and other birds as well as an area for hiking trails. This park is in Oceanside, Calif. just a few miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. As you can see, the park is adjacent to housing and neighborhoods just outside of the park. Once in the park one does not really hear or notice the surroundings. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Campsite at Guajome: Our campsite at Guajome did not have the views that the other parks had but was surrounded by trees making the site just as nice. This park offered many areas to hike and walk around as well as other activities, Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com