Exploration of roads we had never seen before was the agenda for today so we put a bunch of diesel into Charlotte’s tank and took off going west. We drove across the mundane terrain between our camping spot in Menifee to Wildomar, a municipality with few attractions. From there we got onto SR-74 which passes over the coast range and emerges at I-5 in San Juan Capistrano. SR-74 is a very twisty two-lane road with turnouts for slow traffic and we turned out into most of them because we found the areas visible from the road quite attractive. The terrain is very steep with small creeks in the bottoms of the valleys.
As we approached San Juan Capistrano, we stopped in at Ronald Casper park, a facility operated by Orange County. The campground has 3 main camping loops but only one loop has water and electrical hookups for fake campers like us. The campground is located in the bottom of a wide arroyo and, due to recent rains, everything was green and happy-looking. There is a very nice visitor center, relatively flat trails, equestrian camping spots and nice restrooms with good paved roads. This year it coats $26 per night with electrical and water hookups but it cost $21 if one is over 60, like me.
After taking a spin through the campground we continued west to I-5 where we turned south for a few miles and we exited to Dana Point. When I was a kid, there was an actual point here with a good surfing break but that has all changed. Now there is an enormous marina where the affluent can park the boats they rarely use. I liked the point better.
Just south of this municipal improvement is Doheny State Beach where camping is possible but the spaces are pretty small. Other than a few pull-through spots it looks like the maximum RV size would be about 25 feet. The campground is right next to the beach and beachfront spots cost more than $60 but I think it costs less if you don’t park in the front row. We noted that the back rows are located at a slightly higher elevation and from them you can see the waves, a view which is blocked in the front row due to an enormous sand berm.
From Doheny we hopped back onto I-5 southbound through Camp Pendleton Marine Base until we got to SR-78 in Oceanside where we turned east. We continued east to San Marcos where we stopped at Camping World for some RV stuff. We continued east from there a few more miles until we hit I-15 northbound to I-215 north and ultimately back to Menifee and our temporary home in Wilderness Lakes TT.
For a couple of pix, click here