Camping near Malibu Creek

After some extensive googling, it seems there are no free or cheap campsites anywhere near Malibu Creek. The state parks are $45 a night, and the nearest BLM land is prohibitively far away.

Are there any other choices?  Or do you think some of the beach campsites, or the MCSP campsite itself, are worth the price of admission?

No.

Find an airbnb.

I see you are from LA.... why camp at Malibu state park or anywhere in the Santa Monica mts?

This is a serious question 

Prices have really gone up but let's be realistic, it's a nice campground on the outskirts of one of the biggest cities in the US. I've camped there a bunch of times. I avoid it during the summer vacation because the whole scene gets pretty loud and trashy but the rest of the year it can be really nice. Same thing applies to all the other Santa Monica Mountains camping options including Leo Carillo, Sycamore and the rest. 

I'm new to the area and still getting the lay of the land.  From where I live, it takes a long frustrating drive to get anywhere worth climbing, so I thought I would look into other options in order to spend more time at the crag and less time in traffic.  Clearly there aren't, and I'll have to deal with making day trips, then do longer multi-day outing at other destinations.

Guy, do you have any recommendations in SoCal outside of the obvious answers (JTree, NJC, etc)?

Granted, the climbing in LA is spread out, but there's always something local within an hour and far  more within 2-2.5.  It's just what people who live here learn to deal with.  Where exactly do you live in LA?  The South Bay or  South Central is probably the worst for proximity to climbing. 

Patrick S wrote: I'm new to the area and still getting the lay of the land.  From where I live, it takes a long frustrating drive to get anywhere worth climbing, so I thought I would look into other options in order to spend more time at the crag and less time in traffic.  Clearly there aren't, and I'll have to deal with making day trips, then do longer multi-day outing at other destinations.

Guy, do you have any recommendations in SoCal outside of the obvious answers (JTree, NJC, etc)?

Where in L.A. do you live?  I'd rather drive two hours home than camp around West L.A.  Jusy saying...

Theres also a small backcountry hike-in (1 mile hike I believe) camp in Topanga which isnt too far.

Patrick S wrote:
Guy, do you have any recommendations in SoCal outside of the obvious answers (JTree, NJC, etc)?

Lots of places. Jtree and NJC just not the only obvious answers. A few more include the San Bernardino Mts and San Jacinto area. Great camping, mush if it free. There are bunches of routes too. And although it may be obvious, some of the routes are High Quality Awesomeness that people drive and fly a long ways to get to.

Southern Sierra is also close to LA... SoCal is filled with climbing opportunities.

I have a buddy who lived in Santa Monica, he'd make the trek out to Idyllwild often. He would leave by 5am Saturday, be at Humber by 7. Climb all day Saturday, Camp for free, climb all day Sunday, be in bed by 11pm Sunday, ready for rest at work on Monday...

Your dirtbag desires will sadly go unfulfilled at Malibu Creek... but you might try Idyllwild/Tahquitz for free camping and world-class climbing.

There are less "obvious" versions of J-Tree/NYC out in the Mojave... like Apple Valley, for instance... everything's a trade-off...

Patrick S wrote: I'm new to the area and still getting the lay of the land.  From where I live, it takes a long frustrating drive to get anywhere worth climbing, so I thought I would look into other options in order to spend more time at the crag and less time in traffic.  Clearly there aren't, and I'll have to deal with making day trips, then do longer multi-day outing at other destinations.

Guy, do you have any recommendations in SoCal outside of the obvious answers (JTree, NJC, etc)?

Where do you live? Also, what's a "long frustrating drive" on Friday afternoon is a short, fast drive on Saturday early. I live at the beach on the Westside and can be in Humber Park at the base of Tahquitz or Suicide in less than 2.5 hours on a early weekend morning. Same for the Big Bear area.  I can hit the SM Mountain crags like Corpse Wall, Echo Cliffs, Malibu in less than an hour, any time but rush hour. 

I'm west-side LA and I day trip to Echo, Malibu, Josh and Idy. The latter two I would rather camp at least one night and keep my carbon footprint lower but it's not always an option. Camping near Malibu just sounds miserable.

You're new to the area so you just haven't become accustomed to the fact that it takes an hour to drive anywhere. Day trip to Malibu for sure.

Charles DuPont wrote: Theres also a small backcountry hike-in (1 mile hike I believe) camp in Topanga which isnt too far.

Hi Chilly,

Can you post the GPA coordinates ?

There is a fair bit of camping in and around Big Bear, both in established (pay) sites and at Yellow Post sites that at 1st come 1st served.

I camp off the side of random roads nearby. Just don't get caught. yay