Wow, this adventure was gorgeous! It was a perfect way to end the weekend.
Cleveland National Forest
I was told about this spot by one of our friends in the FI community Mike and Janelle. So I knew if they recommend it we would have to check it out. It’s about 50 minutes from San Diego and I love the vibe. When we went It was a bit cold which was a nice change and to me super cool. The picture below is a pull-off spot we almost stayed at for free. Yet just took a break and kept driving down the windy road seeking the great beyond!
Costs
The sites are not bad at $27 a night. There were mostly tent campers when we went and a few C-Class RV’s. We seemed to be one of the bigger setups at 32″ with our Salem River. This is odd as we are used to being one of the smaller setups amongst 5th wheel setups. I still get a kick out of looking at someone in a tent next to us and we both are paying $27 for that spot. This is Travel Hacking at its best! It’s another win for living full-time in our RV.
The Pro’s
It’s out in the middle of a forest and it was not a packed campground. Which is nice when you just want to get out and have room to breathe. The chilly weather this time of the year felt incredible when we woke up early in the morning. There are a ton of trails to hike and just gorgeous views all around you. Dogs are allowed and we even let ours off the leash to what I call free-range.
The hosts are also incredibly helpful and easy to find. Which can be a hit or miss at most parks I have visited. Even have great trails for offroad mountain bikes as well. Or you can bicycle around the park on the paved roads.
The Con’s
There is not a lot I can say is bad about this place. If you have bigger than a 32″ RV it will be tight to drive through the park. It was tight for me on some of the roads I had probably about 6 inches of clearance on some parts of the road due to big trees. We went here with no real planning so due to that, it was a bit of a pain to find a spot. I big part of the park is first come first serve. Most of the spots for an RV our size seemed to be taken by tent campers. So if you have a good size setup I would call ahead to reserve a spot and make sure it fits. All the maps that you could take at the beginning were out so we had to wing it on which roads to take.
Final Thoughts
Overall I would come to visit this place again no questions asked. I was sad that we could not have stayed longer. It refreshed my desire to keep adventuring to new locations when I can on long weekends or short trips on regular weekends. The forest was great and it felt incredible just to get away from people in general. It’s really how I love to recharge as a person and refocus on what is important to me and my life. It was cool to wake up and open my door to a pack of turkeys lol.
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