Anywhere to stay besides the campground?

[rickyharline]

Looking to do some part time dirtbagging this year, and one has to book months and months out to be able to stay an entire week at the Pinnacles campground. Something appears to be wrong with me as I think Pinnacles is one of the best climbing destinations in California.

I'd like to be able to book for about 9 days at a time (have friends climb with me for one weekend, climb LRS for a week, then climb with friends the next weekend again) but it isn't possible to book sites at Pinnacles for such a long time unless booking months out, and I want to climb at Pinnacles this spring before it turns into an oven. I've seen that there are campgrounds ~20 miles away that have first come first serve parking, so I could use that maybe on the weekends when Pinnacles is always inevitably booked up. I'm not super in love with this solution because it's a pain and involves a lot of driving. I stealth camped once on the West side when a friend and I couldn't find any empty campgrounds, but I don't like this solution for a lot of reasons. I ain't opposed to stealth camping in principle, after all I did live in a van for a year, but I could see stealth camping near the park potentially creating long-term problems and I try to avoid things like that.

Is there a solution I'm missing here or is buggering off to a campsite 20 miles away the solution for those of us poors that are too cheap to go to airbnbs?

Thanks!
Ricky

[mynameismud]

As someone who has done stealth camping around the Pinnacles the options are bleak.

[Zay]

If you want to set up a tent youre basically hosed. Is it just you? I have a couch, but i live in Monterey, a solid hour and twenty away from the parking lot... not really ideal these days with gas prices and all.

Next possible option would be a hotel in hollister maybe (assuming you wanna go east side since youre talking about the canpground)? But i have no idea how good the options are or affordable.

And I'd have to talk to my girlfriend about the couch hhaha

[NOAL]

I'd try the BLM camping near Bitterwater.  Maybe a tad more than 20 minutes.

[russ p]

What about booking a legit site as many nights as you can, and on the nights that are full chat up one of the group sites?  Explain your situation and ask them if they wouldn’t mind if you parked by their site & slept in your car.  Tell them low profile and no hassles from you, you just need a place to park and sleep. Maybe they would even be climbers and understand your predicament.  Just an idea. Heck even camping at places like pinnacles is getting pricey compared to the way it used to be, especially multiple nights.

[Zay]

Russ's advice is probably best yet.

Make an offering! Beer makes friends!

[russ p]

 Not an original idea. This was suggested to me a few years ago, though I have yet to try it out. Seems like it’s worth a try.

[rickyharline]

If you want to set up a tent youre basically hosed. Is it just you? I have a couch, but i live in Monterey, a solid hour and twenty away from the parking lot... not really ideal these days with gas prices and all.

Next possible option would be a hotel in hollister maybe (assuming you wanna go east side since youre talking about the canpground)? But i have no idea how good the options are or affordable.

And I'd have to talk to my girlfriend about the couch hhaha

Well I sincerely appreciate the offer, but yeah, that is rather far! I think I'll look into other options, but again, thank you.

I'd try the BLM camping near Bitterwater.  Maybe a tad more than 20 minutes.

This is excellent advice. For some reason I didn't realize there's BLM land. Doesn't look like there's any good BLM land viewer, I ended up having to transition coordinates from the BLM's site to Google Maps to figure out where in the hell this blm land is relative to roads, but it looks like there are good options on both the east side and the west side. There are these really small little pockets of BLM land that are accessible. If anyone wants the coordinates on google maps as I copied them from the BLM site here you go: https://goo.gl/maps/bF3weeSWab4pR4Ee8

I've marked the boundaries with pins, makes it much easier to see what is and isn't BLM land then using the BLM's site where many roads are not visible.

What about booking a legit site as many nights as you can, and on the nights that are full chat up one of the group sites?  Explain your situation and ask them if they wouldn’t mind if you parked by their site & slept in your car.  Tell them low profile and no hassles from you, you just need a place to park and sleep. Maybe they would even be climbers and understand your predicament.  Just an idea. Heck even camping at places like pinnacles is getting pricey compared to the way it used to be, especially multiple nights.

I think I would be very much into this idea except for I have no social skills and I'd probably rather do a scary lead than try and befriend strangers. And that's saying a lot, because I'm a rather large wuss.

Anyway, lots of great suggestions in this thread. Thanks y'all, I really appreciate it. I'll think about my options-- looks like another options is a private campsite called "Bill's Field." As you may guess, this is little more than a field owned by Bill, but this field claims to be 10 minutes from the entrance and isn't booked up, so it may be the way to go on weekends, or since it's a bit cheaper I might go that way entirely. Or I might save my shekels and hang out on BLM land.

Maybe I'll see some of y'all out there! If you see a tall dude rope soloing all the easy stuff come say hi.

Happy climbin

[NOAL]

Ricky,  there is a BLM campground Laguna Mt.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/laguna-mountain

John Cook knows the Bill's lot guy.  Might be a friend of or the same guy who cleans the bathrooms and drives the shuttle bus. Can't remember exactly...but John said he was a nice guy. 

[Brad Young]

 Not an original idea. This was suggested to me a few years ago, though I have yet to try it out. Seems like it’s worth a try.

Do I know who suggested that to you?

[Brad Young]

...I think I would be very much into this idea except for I have no social skills and I'd probably rather do a scary lead than try and befriend strangers.

This made me laugh out loud. It's in the best tradition of most Pinns climbers I have known!

On the other hand, my wife (a notorious supporter/enabler of Pinnacles climbers) says "ahhhh" in sympathy.

[Brad Young]

^^^

And I might as well suggest the new cologne to ricky if, as he claims, he "has no social skills."

It's a special new fragrance specifically for introverts. A scent that matches their personality.

It's called Leave Me the Fuh cologne.

[rickyharline]

Ricky,  there is a BLM campground Laguna Mt.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/laguna-mountain

John Cook knows the Bill's lot guy.  Might be a friend of or the same guy who cleans the bathrooms and drives the shuttle bus. Can't remember exactly...but John said he was a nice guy.

Oh right on! Sounds good, I suppose another 10 minutes of driving is worth it to minimize impact on nature.

This made me laugh out loud. It's in the best tradition of most Pinns climbers I have known!

On the other hand, my wife (a notorious supporter/enabler of Pinnacles climbers) says "ahhhh" in sympathy.

hahahaha well glad to do my part of the next generation carrying on a proud tradition!

^^^

And I might as well suggest the new cologne to ricky if, as he claims, he "has no social skills."

It's a special new fragrance specifically for introverts. A scent that matches their personality.

It's called Leave Me the Fuh cologne.

lol that got a pretty good laugh outta me. That's a good one!

[russ p]

Do I know who suggested that to you?

You should know this person better than anyone on this site...

[JC w KC redux]

Bill's field should be just a few minutes outside the east side entrance. His family owns a ranch there. I was in contact with him before the pandemic but have not tried since. He used to work in the park as maintenance and shuttle driver.