Laguna Seca Recreation Area

Rolling hills and green grass when we stayed here in Feb. would probably be scorching hot in the summer. Nice campground loops in the Chaparral area. Not a bad alternative when Monterey or Big Sur sites are full.

We found this "recreation area" listed online. We arrived late at night after driving up a scary steep grade road into the campground. In the morning we discovered "recreation" means the Mazda Laguna Seca road course race track on one side and a pistol shooting range on the other side. We fled after discovering the notice in the bathroom from the County Health Department stating that arsenic was found to be at unhealthy levels in the water.

Access: one star, crazy steep grade in and out of campground
Location: two stars, beside a racetrack and shooting range, but it IS in Monterey country
Cleanliness: one star, ARSENIC!
Site Quality: three stars, sites were ok
Noise: one star, again racetrack and shooting range!

Laguna Seca is a nice, clean campground with great views of the valley and it’s only 9 miles from Monterey. It is also the cheapest campground we found in the Monterey area, regularly $37 for a site with hookups (san dump hookups) and $32 during the off-season. There’s also a dry camping section for $32 regularly. There are two campground loops with hookups and we stayed at Chaparral. Each of the loops has sites that can fit a variety of RV sizes. The loop we stayed at had 6 pull through sites, which can fit large Class As, those spots were all taken when we got there. There are bathrooms with showers at each of the campground loop (didn’t check the dry camping section), the ones in our loop were clean. There is a dump station on-site, but it only has one dump and we were second in line with one RV behind us when we went to dump.

The campground is located right between a shooting range on one side and a raceway on the other side. While you can’t see either from most of the campground sites, you can hear shooting, engines revving and tires skidding during the day. This isn’t much of an issue if you don’t hang out at your campsite, which is what we did. We saw a sign for mountain biking and hiking trails from the campground.

We stayed here with 2 other full time Airstreamers- so my review may be a little biased. Everything is better when you have friends nearby.

You enter this park by climbing a 16% grade, which is great if you like your truck engine to get a workout. The campground sites are all on hills for the most part and surround the Laguna Seca Racetrack. Most sites seemed level. Yes there is noise from the track during the day, but just background. You can walk over to the track and watch races.

Trail access is great. There is a 5 mile loop at the top of the primitive camping area (beautiful sites) which we biked and hiked daily while there. You can also access nearly endless miles of gravel roads from that area. Absolutely gorgeous scenery.

Showers were HOT and clean. Almost too hot honestly, if that's possible. Don't forget to chat with Allen the campground host, nicest guy around.

Yes, there is a 16% grade hill-it's short and your engine will not come close to overheating unless you try to fly up the hill. We could not find any other road that was "closed" and not as steep. We have a 35' gas motorhome towing a CRV and had absolutely NO problem getting up the hill.
Yes, there are warnings not to drink the water because of arsenic. Here's the deal: the (somewhat) arbitrary "safe" level set by the EPA is 10PPB (parts per billion) and the water here has 12ppb. Now, in order to "possibly" suffer affects of arsenic poisoning one must drink copious amounts of water with 50ppb over any years. So, would I give this water to small kids? No. Would I drink it myself for a few days? If I didn't want to bother driving 12 min. to the nearest market to buy a 2 gal bottle of water, sure. But, really, that's the only thing I wouldn't do with it. Wash, brush teeth, etc.no problem.
Yes, there is a racetrack and sometimes they have events but they are not held at night or very often. You can always ask if there will be an event. (We were there for a week in June and there were none nor did we hear any driving school.) Hint: there are PLENTY of wonderful places to visit anywhere from Pinnacles to Big Sur to Watsonville and never mind the obvious-Monterey, during the day if there is an event or noise.
Yes, there is a shooting range below. They shoots pistols and rifles-not semi-and automatic guns. They go pop-pop-popopop a few times. They are not loud.

Laguna Seca is extremely convenient to all the Monterey Peninsula has to offer and Pinnacles NP is about an hour away. In June, when we were there, the nights were cool (50s) mornings were lovely (60s and 70s) and the temp never got as high as 80, yet in all the surrounding areas the temps were in the 90s and 100s. (We ended up coming here for 4 extra days after cancelling our reservations at Ponderosa campground because it was in the 100s there.) There are sites in Chaparral campground on the hill that face west and do not overlook the track, the sites are relatively spacious-except those in the low-mid 70s which are pretty much side by side and cramped. But, it was June and they were close to empty with a wide selection of sites. If you don't like your site, they are very willing to let you choose one that is not reserved and move. There is another hook up campground-Can-Am and a non hookup one-Grand Prix, and all are located at Laguna Seca, the last two are to the right as you pass through the entrance station. Chaparral is a sharp left turn after you pass through. The dump is only tricky if you have a really large rig (over 40') but not at all a problem if you simply drive up by the track and turn around in one of the huge areas. Chaparral has sites farthest from the track. Sites are gravel, mostly level and except for the few that are close together provide plenty of room and privacy. Some are wide open and sunny, some have trees.
The bathrooms are immaculate and showers have plenty of hot water although they are push button. There are a number of bathrooms with 2-3 buildings per loop.
Hook ups are 30amp electric and water. While we were there they had a problem with the water one day and we had none although the other two campgrounds did and we went over and filled water buckets that we ended up only needing that night. We could have showered in the other campgrounds as well. It was a bit of a hassle when it first happened because it was not planned but ended up being a minor ding in an otherwise great visit.
There is a brand new Safeway 12 min away in Seaside and a laundromat down the street from it that is clean and safe. A number of gas stations are in the area.
Oh, and at the gate they will give you two guidebooks-one for Monterey and one for Carmel but you can always find more at the Monterey Visitor Center.
In the final analysis-this is not the kind of campground you come to to get away from it all but a convenient, easily accessed one with nice breezes and temperatures even when the rest of the area is hot. We paid $32 in a hook up site because we got the senior rate (which applies to all seniors, not just CA residents) but had to pay $2/night for our dog which was the one thing we really thought was unnecessary.

We just did a quick one night stop here and didn't really hang out during the day. The RV spots in the Chaparral campground had some trees between them, for a tad bit of privacy. The area had recently been hit by a pretty bad storm and there were some downed trees. It was still quite windy up there on the hill that night. However, everything went without a hitch.
The bathrooms/showers were decent. However, there is still a notice from the County Health Department stating that there are high levels of arsenic in the water (and discouraged using it even for oral hygiene).
This wasn't one of our favorites, but would probably stay here again if coming to the area.

We knew about the non-potable water situation before we arrived and so we filled up our tanks before arrival and never ran out of water. This campground is set overlooking some beautiful hills/mountains. The race cars didn't bother us at all. We actually thought they were pretty cool to watch. They charge $9 for one day of internet (which we needed at one point) but Verizon cell service was great. Monterey is just a short drive away. If we could've refilled our water tank and had access to the internet, then we definitely would've stayed longer.

Great place to stay if you like racetracks
Hot showers, make sure you fill your drinking water before you come. Fire pits for cooking, trees for hammocks. Great place

Be aware the Monterey Park system no longer handles the reservations for Laguna Seca. The correct website is https://www.weathertechraceway.com/. If you "think" you're booking through the park system and have to cancel your reservation, you will be subject to a non-refundable reservation fee of $10 and a cancellation fee of $15. Don't make the same mistake! Happy Camping!

Rustic = very unkempt. Many of the sites are very unlevel, unkempt, the roads in the campground are narrow and the hill getting to the campground is really damn steep. Plus the water is not potable. Uh,,, and don't forget the shooting range below the campground...Really is a but overpriced for what you get...

All that said, the views are killer and the location to get around the Monterey area make it worthwhile. It is also fun to hike around the race ground ... there were no events going on while we were there but there was practice racing going on everyday.

We weren’t there to hang in the campground so the gun range and the car noise weren’t an issue in the evenings. It was really quite peaceful and the views/sunsets killer!

We needed an XL site as our coach is 40 ft so that does limit you a bit if you are in a larger coach. Our original site was 81XL but the road was a mess right in front of the site and it is on a steep hill so that would have made getting in and out of the site impossible. Luckily the camp Host Mindy was vert nice and accommodating, told us to drive through and take a look at the sites. There wasn’t a lot of other sites available but she recommended site 70XL which was okay to get into but had very little usable outdoor area and was right by the trash cans. We did have some nice views out the front the coach and could see cars on the track so it was ok. It was great to sit in the front seats of eat the coach and look out on the view, often in the morning. The fog was rolling in over the mountains from the coast and it was just beautiful.

If you are a big coach ...sites 40, 71 78, 79 are great. Bathrooms were clean but old.

The Monterey area is easily accessible form this campground and there is so much to do in this beautiful area.