SBVC - Bates Canyon-Los Padres National Forest-Arroyo Grande Strawberry Fest!

Bates Canyon Car Camp: May 23-26, 2019

Greetings Fellow GO Members! Looking for an inexpensive and fun option for Memorial Day weekend? Well here it is!

Bates Canyon campground is a nice little hidden gem in the Los Padres National Forest northwest of Santa Maria.
With our wonderful wet winter we had this year (even a LATE rainstorm this week!) everything is green, lush, and happily in bloom, and now is a great time to enjoy all that beauty!
Heads up, Bates Canyon is a rather basic campground, with vault toilets and no running water. But, it’s also far far from busy highways as well!

For those who haven’t camped with me in the past, know that my trips are not planned on a super strict time schedule, allowing all the more rest and relaxation to go on. After all, aren’t we on vacation?

Our soft schedule is as follows:

Thursday- Arrival, set up, get to meet your fellow campers around the campfire!

Friday- After breakfast, we’ll be heading out for some exploring of the local 4x4 trails, seeing some of the sites in the Sierra Madre Mountain range.
Lunch will be had (at your own expense)in the small town of Cuyama, enjoying the sites and tastes of this quaint little town!
Then more exploring, with us ending up back at camp in time for dinner beside the campfire!

Saturday- After breakfast, we’ll be heading out for a bit of a drive to the coastal town of Arroyo Grande, for their annual Strawberry Festival! This will be a day of sun, antique shopping, festival enjoyment, and lets not forget STRAWBERRY yumminess! Lunch will be at the festival(at your own expense), with more walking and enjoying the festival. We’ll eventually load back up into the cars to head back to camp for our traditional Saturday night potluck together at the fireside!

Sunday-After breakfast, we’ll break camp, leaving the campground even better than we found it, and make our ways home. We’ll probably stop at another central coast gem, Rancho Nipomo, for a delicious BBQ lunch (at your own expense) before hitting the freeways home!

So come on out and join us! See you there!