Visitors flock to North Coast campsites for socially distanced summer getaways

Sheena Kawakami, of Pleasant Hill in Contra Costa County, was eager to go camping with her boyfriend and his son after they learned campgrounds across the state had begun reopening in June.

They weren’t the only ones. Kawakami spent three straight days scouring the internet for a campsite reservation before finally finding an opening at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay.

“Normally, we go at least three times a year, so to not have been camping at all, you get that itch,” she said.

With most campgrounds in Sonoma County and the broader North Coast now open after a monthslong shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, cooped-up visitors are flocking to local campsites to escape into nature this summer.

Reservations at many area campgrounds have been booked weeks or even months in advance by those seeking outdoor getaways that don’t require boarding a plane or checking into a hotel during an intensifying pandemic.

“It’s one of the few vacations I feel where you can still socially distance properly,” Kawakami, said.

On June 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom allowed camping to resume with county approval, provided that campground operators follow hygiene and distancing protocols. Both Sonoma and Mendocino counties gave campgrounds the go-ahead to reopen about a week later.

Meda Freeman, a spokeswoman for Sonoma County Regional Parks, said over 200 sites at the agency’s five campgrounds on the Sonoma Coast and at Spring Lake have been open since July 1. The department allowed campsite reservations the next day.

“There was so much demand at first that our online and phone systems both went down temporarily,” Freeman said.

Regional Parks campsites already are reserved through most of the summer, she said, although there still are some vacancies for midweek reservations.

The surge in camping comes as confirmed coronavirus cases across the state continue to climb at alarming rates. In Sonoma County, cases have more than doubled in less than a month, surpassing 2,700 on Wednesday. The county has reported 32 deaths.

To guard against spreading the virus at county campgrounds, only one household and no more than two vehicles may occupy a site at once. Campers are asked to not host visitors from other campgrounds. They also must wear masks in common areas and bring their own cleaning supplies to wipe down picnic tables and water spigots.

Reservations are required for all sites. Same day, drop-in camping has been discontinued.

Steven Alderson, an avid camper from Santa Rosa, said he’s made a point of following similar public health protocols on camping trips to the Mendocino National Forest and elsewhere in Northern California. Still, he has gone on trips with friends from other households.

“I can appreciate that (campgrounds) are practicing an abundance of caution, but the other side of it is what better place to be if you're out in a natural space and have plenty of social distance?” he said. “If you're less than 6 feet away you’re probably too close to the campfire anyway.”

In Mendocino County, all campground operators also must follow a local public health order limiting campgrounds to 75% capacity to ensure proper distancing. Sonoma County campgrounds can operate at full capacity.

Terry Bertles, local district superintendent for State Parks, said most state campgrounds in Mendocino and Sonoma counties are open with hygiene and distancing rules in place. In Sonoma County, campgrounds at Sonoma Coast and Salt Point state parks, in addition to the Bullfrog Pond Campground in the Austin Creek State Recreation Area, began accepting visitors this month. Across California, 85 state parks have opened for camping.

At Lake Sonoma, which is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, drive-in campgrounds are available for reservations starting mid-August. Boat-in campgrounds are already open for reservations, although group sites are limited to 12 campers.

Bertles said the majority of people booking tent and RV campsites at state parks on the North Coast are coming from the Bay Area or Sacramento region.

“People really want to get out, so we’re getting swamped with calls for info about availability,” Bertles said. “In all honestly we don’t have a lot.”

The phone is also ringing of the hook at the privately run Mendocino Coast KOA campgrounds at Manchester Beach, which closed online reservations to comply fully with the county’s health order limiting occupancy.

“We have an average of 300 telephone calls per day and 50 emails per day. People are eager to come camping,” said Yolanda Orozco, the site manager.

Linda Burke, an owner of Burke’s Canoe Trips in Forestville, is busy renting kayaks and canoes for people to paddle down the Russian River. She plans to wait until August to open the company’s campsites on the river. Burke is asking camping visitors to call a few days in advance to make sure there isn’t a local COVID-19 outbreak and that it’s safe to travel to the area.

“In normal years, we take a reservation as early as a customer wants to make it, but now we ask people to call us three days ahead so that we’re in a better position to say ’come on up,’” she said.

This spring, Jeff Corcoran, owner of A Fun RV Rentals in Santa Rosa, had been renting RVs to local nurses and health care workers who couldn’t return home or didn’t feel safe going back to their families after work shifts. Corcoran said it’s back to business as usual this summer.

“This is really exactly as it is normally for us,” he said. “The only thing that’s changed a little bit is that people are staying closer to home.”

For those looking to make a longer trip to popular camping destinations in the Tahoe National Forest, 58 of 76 total campgrounds are open, but availability is extremely limited through Labor Day.

“(We have) approximately 95 to 100% occupancy during the weekends, and 75% occupancy during the week,” Tahoe National Forest Service representative Joseph Flannery, said in an email.

In the Tahoe National Forest, and in other National Forest land in California, “dispersed camping” is allowed in some areas without campground facilities. Dispersed camping permits must be bought online at least a day before any trip, and campers should be aware that campfires outside of fire rings within developed recreation sites are prohibited.

Yosemite National Park, which opened to visitors in June, has kept most of its campsites closed because the park is operating with greatly reduced staff and is unable to enforce distancing protocols. Currently, just one drive-in camping area, the Upper Pines Campground, is open at half capacity with about 100 available sites. Almost all of those campsites appear to have been booked into November.

Backpacking in Yosemite is allowed with a wilderness permit, which campers can apply for online by entering into a lottery up to nine days in advance of a trip.

Alderson, the Santa Rosa camper, said finding campsites in California already had become increasingly difficult before the pandemic. Though COVID-19 has made reserving sites even more of a challenge, he’s thankful for the opportunity to get outside with his family and friends this summer.

“It’s such an odd time, so for us to load up and get in the wilderness and set up camp, it's kind of return to normalcy,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian