Travelogue

Malibu Beach RV Park SunsetIn all our travels, I would have to say that we have never had a better view from a campsite than the one we had from ours at the Malibu Beach RV Park -- and that includes the national park campgrounds as well. Surprisingly, it was only given a scenic rating of 7 in our West Coast RV Camping Guide, which now makes me somewhat skeptical about their ratings. What were they thinking? Maybe they base it totally on natural beauty, and there were a few too many mutlimillion dollar beach houses obstructing the incredible view of the ocean and shoreline, positioned in such a way that amazingly both sunrise and sunset occurred over the ocean.

Also, the campground was very reasonably priced, at least off season as it was. For a partial hookup with ocean view it cost us only $40 per night -- $5 more than sites without a view. I would have paid a lot more than $5 for this view, but was certainly glad we didn’t have to.

Lolo on Malibu Beach RunAs we often do when arriving at a new place, Herb and I set out on an exploratory run. At first we tried the Coral Canyon Trail, which started right from the campground, but the trail was so ridiculously narrow, overgrown, and steep that we quickly abandoned that idea and worked our way down to the Pacific Coast Highway with the intention of running along the beach. Not such an easy thing either, as most of Malibu Beach is privately owned, by people that very much want their privacy. However, after running for about ¾ of a mile on this way too busy road, we found a public access point and then proceeded to run along the beach, past the houses of the rich and famous, being careful to stay below the high tide line, which we figured was fair game. Property rights, we hoped, only extended to the high tide line. It was beautiful. The sun was getting low and the lighting was great. The houses weren’t too bad either, but I am always amazed when multimillion dollar houses are so close together that you can probably hear your neighbor cough. I guess the land is too valuable to waste on anything but opulent square footage.

Malibu Beach RV Park view from Lazy DazeBy the time we got back to the campsite, the sun was just dipping into the sea, but we would be here for another night, so perhaps we could get some better photos the following evening.

One of the reasons we selected this campground, even before we knew about the view, was its proximity to the Getty Villa. As I mentioned, the weather had turned considerably colder, transforming our sunny Southern California sojourn into more of a museum tour. Not such a hardship though, as the Getty Villa and Getty Center were places we very much wanted to visit anyway.

We spent the following day visiting both (see next stop) before returning to this campground to enjoy a more leisurely sunset.

Description

Malibu Beach RV Park

Malibu Beach RV Park Lazy Daze on BluffThe Malibu Beach RV Park is located on Highway 1 between the Malibu Pier and Paradise Cove. This lovely campground is perched atop a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the world famous Malibu Beach. Since it faces south over the ocean, both sunrise and sunset are viewable from the campground.

There are 140 RV sites with full or partial hookups. Other amenities include a spa, recreation room, WiFi, and cable TV.