Amazing location, but significantly marred by horrid management.
We stayed here for a week with three other families. The camping itself was great. We were just a few hundred yards from the gorgeous beach and enjoyed the relative solitude, and great weather. Snorkeling in the kelp beds was awesome. Surfing, while a very mellow 3-4 ft shorebreak, is quite nice especially for beginners. However, if you're expecting a State Park Ranger level of competence with things like handling a reservation, getting information, or having a maintained campsite, you'll be sadly disappointed.
-Wildly Inept Operations Management
I won't bore you with all the details, but getting a straight answer out of the operations staff on a reservation, bus schedules or billing question is all but impossible. Imagine a cross between the DMV and Soviet-era Russian bureaucracy. Don't let the nice voiceover artist on the phone prompts fool you. This is a third rate operation. Want to get your stuff to the campground? Thought that'd be included in the $22/person each way "jungle bus" fare? Nope, $150 each way for a gear haul fee. Even when we were speaking directly with the staff, it was totally unclear what the policy was. We were quoted anywhere from $115 for a group of 4 families for a gear haul, all the way to $150 per family, each way. Depended on who you asked. It really felt like the fees were being made up on the spot. And as you might guess, if you're paying cash some of transportation fees become a lot more negotiable. Presumably there's a bit of "informal income supplementation" going on. Whomever is in charge of contracting with the group operating the campground should do a little diligence to see what the Catalina Island Company and the public are getting out of the deal.
-Filthy Facilities
Don't expect pristine wilderness in the campgrounds. The porta-pots are quite foul. Theoretically, they're cleaned once a week, but I'd rather use the bathroom at a gas station on route 5 than what you'd find here. Filled to the brim with waste. Joshua Tree, this ain't.
There is a ton of trash blowing around. This is as much a testament to the etiquette of the campers as it is of the management, but the fact is, there's a lot of crap you'll find strewn about: beer cans, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, etc. It doesn't help that the garbage cans are well overflowing before they're emptied. Added bonus: Bison feces!! While the Bison are pretty cool to see when they wander into your campground. It's a bit of a pain, when one of the kids takes a spill into a fresh pile. Yuck!
-Helpful Live-In Staff
The "live-in" rangers are as helpful as they can be in the circumstances. They'll gladly pick up ice for you in Little Harbor and drop it back off for a reasonable tip. Craving a six pack of beer one evening, but didn't bring it in? No problem. As long as you don't mind paying the usurious rates of like $14 a six that they charge in two harbors, you're live-in is happy to oblige. Just remember, they take days off, so don't count on them being there. We were running out of ice, but figured we'd just wait one more day before we got some. Unfortunately, the next two days, the live-in was off and the fill in staff was running around like crazy, so we couldn't easily get ice when we thought we could.
Overall, this setting is awesome. You can surf and snorkel until you get your fill. However, the painful process of getting here and the miserable management make the beginning and end of the trip horrible. You might be happier elsewhere. read more