Montana de Oro State Park

Go to the main parking lot.. Then keep going south til the next spot and jump over the do not enter signs. Just be VERY Careful and climb down out onto the rocks for some spectacular views!

While it is not as talked about as Big Sur, it is just as beautiful. It doesn't have the waterfalls of Big Sur, but it has beach and forest hikes. It has rock formations as well. There are numerous beaches and tidal pools. My favorite trail is the Bluff Trail which is an extremely easy and flat trail. Sometimes, you can see a collection of otters off the trail. I have also seen migrating whales, but you have to be sure to go during migration season. I would recommend this to anyone passing through San Luis Obispo or Morro Bay.

This is a beautiful place! Definitely worth the walk. It's not a tough walk, either.

We mad this stop on a bit of a whim, while driving from Santa Barbara to Cambria, CA before doing Big Sur. Such a great decision! If you're passing through this area, definitely spend a few hours here. It's a ways into the park before you get to eh main parking lot, but well worth the drive in. From the parking lot, you have a few different options. You can hike down to the beach (there was a pretty clear path, and it's definitely a regulated trail), out on the bluffs, or head up into the hills to Valencia Peak. We did all three of these things, starting with Valencia Peak. It's quite a hike, and a pretty steady grade, but if you're up for it there are some spectacular views along the coast. Unfortunately, we were there on an overcast day, but there were some moments when the fog lifted and it was breathtaking. I would love to get back here again and do some more exploring, as it appeared that there were quite a few trails. Highly recommend!

Let me start off by saying that Montana de Oro State Park is one of the most beautiful places along the California coast. A nice trail system offers beautiful vistas of the beach and cliffs. There are benches along the trails and the Bluff Trail is mostly level. I stayed in the Islay Creek Campground, which provided easy access to the beach and visitor's center. The campsite hosts informed me of the raccoons and bobcat. I saw raccoons but not the bobcat. The raccoons come out in gangs of 3 and are not afraid at all to get close to humans to try to nab some food, you definitely had to make sure your site was really clean. The sites were reasonably spaced apart with little privacy, but there were a few trees. The bathrooms were pretty nasty, but I suppose they see a lot of action on the weekends, it seemed like a very popular destination. Overall 4 stars because of the pure beauty of the place. Sorry, I can't remember how the service was at the park, but I remember I made a couple of calls, and posted to instagram so I know there WAS service, I just can't remember how good it was.

We stayed here after 4 straight days of rain and a big storm. Many sites had standing water and fallen branches in them, but the park workers were already cleaning up branches. The campground is small, in a small canyon. There is no cell service in the campground, at least with AT&T. Our Verizon cell router had a tiny signal, but you'd best be prepared to walk to the main road to make a call. The campground is showing its age, but is in decent repair. There is poison oak on most of the trails, be prepared.
The historic ranch house is open Thursday-Sunday. You can easily walk from the campground to the beach, and there are trails everywhere.
Note this place is famous for its raccoons, with good reason. Don't leave food outside, even for a minute. (Good practice everywhere).

The sites here are very small and some extremely unlevel, stay far away from site 33, I had to use a hi-lift jack to get more blocks under the jack to even get level front to back. Most of the other sites were relatively level, but very small. I saw a couple 26' trailers that either had to drive through the grass to park parrallel in their spot, or come in at an angle, just beware that the website may say you fit when you may want to check it out first. The only large spot we came across is spot 40.

Great experience otherwise, campground is nice, has trash, pit toilets, fire rings, and water. Montana de oro is a beautiful place. If you are a photographer or surfer beware that Hazard Canyon Reef is 'protected' by some local surfer 'bro's'. We were warned by one of the nicer surfers that it is a major problem here and they go to great lengths to protect 'their' secret spot, going as far as slashing tires of unwelcome surfers or throwing photographers cameras on the rocks.

Cell signal is very spotty in the campground, in the first loop you might be able to pick up ATT 4G, most likely will need a good booster, otherwise nothing works. But, if you drive/walk over the hill near the visitor center you get blazing fast ATT, Verizon and T-Mobile, so checking in is easy.

Love this area. The views are beautiful. It feels like your away from civilization, but grocery stores, shopping, dining etc are within a short drive. The road in is paved, but windy and narrow. The sites are short. My 24 foot Class C just fit. The campground is just a short walking distance from Spooners cove and foot trails along the bluffs. There is parking at the beach also. There was potable water, then they turned it off while I was there. It has pit toilets. I have tent camped here in the summer and the raccoons freaked me out. I didn't see any in January. I didn't have Verizon cell coverage in the campground, but did have intermittent 4G LTE and cell service by the beach.

Montana de Oro is a beautiful state park on California's Central Coast, and Islay campground is right in the thick of it.

The road into Montana de Oro is narrow and windy. The campground allows a max camper/trailer length of 27 feet. If you're thinking about pushing the limit, know that there aren't any sizable turnarounds anywhere in the state park.

The campground is primitive. There are drop toilets and water tanks, but no dump station or other amenities. Sites are small and many are unlevel (I saw a small Winnebago "leveled" with its front wheels 18 inches off the ground).

It may be rustic, but the surroundings are beautiful. It's a nice walk to the beach and hiking trails. I saw deer, peacocks, and California quail. I didn't see any raccoons, but my neighbors saw "a big fatty."

There's no cell service to speak of, certainly not enough to work. Verizon had a bar of 1x in the campground, and I could get LTE walking along the coast. No AT&T in the campground, intermittent along the coast.

Montana de Oro State Park has been a wonderful place for our family to explore, with Spooner's Cove, lots of hiking trails, tide pools, and a small museum. But the campground leaves something to be desired. The bathroom closest to our site has a rotted out floor (I don't mind pit toilets, but I do mind rotten floors over a pit of poop), and the water spigot closest to our site only trickles. Our site is unlevel but trailer level easily fixed with blocks.