California parks offer extensive wilderness within a few hours of Berkeley, but official campground reservations can require booking months ahead. Reservation websites are highly competitive and prone to rapid fills and automated cancellation bookings. When campsites are unavailable, three viable options exist: arrive early for first-come, first-served sites; use dispersed camping on national forests or BLM land; or backpack in permit-free areas. First-come sites provide typical campground amenities but require luck or early arrival. Dispersed camping provides solitude and trail access but no facilities, so campers must carry tools and follow leave-no-trace practices. Cancellations often appear in mornings and evenings.
California's several hundred parks feature some of the most beautiful wilderness in the country, many within a few hours drive of Berkeley. But reserving a campground can be unduly challenging. The state and national parks reservations websites are so popular that you often have to make reservations six months in advance, or more for holiday weekends or popular destinations. And you're competing with the San Francisco coders, who crawl the sites to notify them of cancellations and book open spots.
But if you are willing to be a little more adventurous, there are still many places you can get outside without too much advance planning in under four hours from Berkeley. When everything is booked, spending the night outside means relying on one of three systems: first-come, first-served campsites, dispersed camping in places like national forests, or backpacking in areas that don't require a reservation.
The most reliable, last-minute option is dispersed camping, either in the state's 20 national forests or on land operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM land). Dispersed camping is camping without a campsite you won't get any amenities (bring your trowel!), but you will get solitude and, often, easy access to hiking trails or other natural features like swimming holes.
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