South of Carmel, Highway 1 climbs onto the cliffs above the kelp line and mostly stays there. The night that belongs to that drive is Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, about 26 miles down the coast, where the sites sit back in the coast redwoods along the Big Sur River. It is the largest campground on this stretch and the one that books first, and its sites open about six months ahead on ReserveCalifornia and go that far out even in winter. Book the site first and the van second.
Whether you get that night depends on the road. Highway 1 is the only through route past Big Sur, and slides and fires close it, sometimes for a season. As of August 2026 Caltrans has roughly 40 miles of Highway 1 closed south of the Big Sur village for fire work, US-101 is the posted detour, and Pfeiffer and the other Big Sur state parks are closed until further notice, so a Monterey rental is a peninsula trip until it reopens. Check Caltrans QuickMap before you load the van, every run.
Point Lobos and the day on the peninsula
Before you drop south, spend the day at Point Lobos, three miles below Carmel on Highway 1. Wind-bent Monterey cypress stand on the granite headlands, otters work the kelp in the coves, and State Parks calls the reserve the crown jewel of the system. Locals name it before the aquarium when the question is where to go outside.
If the fog sits all morning, Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are the in-town afternoon. 17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach is a paid loop worth one slow pass.
Kirk Creek and the bluff sites south of the village
Kirk Creek is the ocean-bluff campground people plan around. It sits on an open grassy bluff about 100 feet over the water, and every one of its 40 sites faces the Pacific. Two are first-come and the rest go on Recreation.gov, so book ahead. Come stocked: there is no potable water and RVs are capped at 30 feet, with no hookups and no cell signal.
On the drive between Pfeiffer and Kirk, pull off for McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, an 80-foot ribbon that drops straight onto a walled cove. You see it from the fenced overlook trail; there is no beach or ocean access and no overnight. Plaskett Creek, just inland of the highway under Monterey pine and cypress and a short walk from Sand Dollar Beach, is the backup when Kirk is full.
The close-in night above Monterey
When Pfeiffer is booked or the road is shut, the close-in night is Veterans Memorial Park, up in the forested hills about a mile above downtown. It is first-come with no reservations, open all year, capped at 21 feet and three consecutive nights; fees run about 50 dollars for a site with one vehicle plus a 10 dollar RV surcharge as of August 2026, cash or check.
For a longer rig or an event weekend, Laguna Seca Recreation Area on Highway 68 toward Salinas takes RVs and trailers to 40 feet with utility hookups, though the hookup water is non-potable. Nothing on the coast side goes that big. Pfeiffer stops at 32 feet for a motorhome and 27 for a trailer, and the bigger classes are on the California RV rentals page. The August Car Week reunion and the April Sea Otter Classic fill the Laguna Seca loops and the peninsula, so book those first.
Head north instead and the Santa Cruz Mountains and Henry Coe are the trip; that ground is on the San Jose campervan rentals page. When Highway 1 is open the whole way and you keep driving south past Gorda, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, and Montana de Oro pick up on the San Luis Obispo campervan rentals page. The rest of the state sits on the California campervan rentals hub.