NORTH COUNTY – The local mountains can't match the scenic wonder of Yosemite or Yellowstone, but they are being rediscovered by campers looking to save tankfuls of money.
As the price of gas skyrockets, many are choosing to vacation near home at the campgrounds of San Diego County.
“This time last year we were in North Dakota, don't you know, to visit relatives,” said Jerry Nelson of Clairemont. “On the way back, we stopped at Yellowstone and really enjoyed it. It cost us like $600 of fuel. This year it would cost us maybe twice that.”
Nelson and his wife Nancy bought an AirStream trailer a couple of years ago intending to travel the country. He also bought a diesel pickup to haul the Airstream. Diesel fuel now hovers around $5 a gallon.
“I recently retired, so for the first time in my life, I'm on a fixed income,” he said. “Gas keeps going up, but we still want to go. So we're making do with what we have,” he said.
Last weekend the Nelsons were relaxing in campsite No. 99 at the Burnt Rancheria Campground in the Cleveland National Forest.
It was a perfect day in the mountains, where towering pine trees offered shade from the sun, and visitors hiked the area's numerous trails.
“There are a lot of beautiful places in California we're going to be seeing because we're not going very far because of the gas,” Nancy Nelson said.
Jim Foulk, one of the campground hosts at Burnt Rancheria, said he's been hearing the same story from campers the past few months.
“They say they're staying closer to home and it's a little more affordable to come up here two or three times than it is to go to Northern California or Arizona or Colorado,” Foulk said.
Steve Werner, vice president of American Land and Leisure, a private company that contracts with the National Forest Service to manage many of its campgrounds, said statistics support the idea that people are driving shorter distances to go camping.
Campgrounds far from major cities have been seeing a marked decrease in visitors this year, but ones close to large metropolitan areas such as Denver, Salt Lake City and San Diego are busier, said Werner.
For instance, he said, campgrounds in southern Colorado are usually filled with Texans in the summer. Not so this year.
Visits to the two campgrounds in San Diego County managed by the company, Laguna and Burnt Rancheria, were up 36 percent this May compared with May 2007, he said.
Joe Arkeder of Carlsbad came to Burnt Rancheria with his wife and children last weekend.
“Last year we went up to Lake Tahoe, and we were considering going up to Big Bear, but because of the cost of fuel we're trying to evaluate some other options. I keep hearing that phrase 'staycation.' I think we might have a 'staycation' this year.”
He said the Lagunas are only an hour from his home. “At a time when you want to save money it's a great place to come and vacation, to spend a few days or even a week.”
The Tsefrekas family of Santee decided to spend this week at Dos Picos County Park near Ramona rather than some far-flung destination, as they have in the past. Their motor home gets only seven miles to the gallon, Steve Tsefrekas said. Many motor homes have 100-or 150-gallon fuel tanks. At $4.50 a gallon – well, you do the math.
The beach campgrounds in the county won't provide that quick vacation escape. They're fully booked from Memorial Day to Labor Day, usually seven months in advance.
“As soon as we hit summer, it's full,” South Carlsbad State Beach senior park aide Russ Arant said. Just like every year, a good number of campers at all the beach campgrounds are from Arizona, he said.
Surveys conducted by the Automobile Club of Southern California indicate that local travel for the Independence Day holiday will decline by less than 1 percent compared with last year.
“Our record gas prices clearly are affecting travel for the second holiday in a row, but not by a significant amount,” said Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring.
Trent Gibson of La Mesa went to the Laguna Mountains last weekend with a bunch of friends associated with their kids' T-ball league.
“I don't like the price of fuel,” he said. “But you still have to drive, still have to entertain your kids, and so here we are, local, 50 miles away from home.
“We did negate going to the Sierras this year because of the price of fuel. I'm not going to pay a thousand bucks going round trip hauling a fifth wheeler.”
This year, the family has taken other camping trips at the Santee Lakes and Lake Jennings in Lakeside, Gibson said.
“It's been good. It's actually better for the kids because they're with friends they'll be going to school with,” he said. “If I'd gone to the Sierras, I'd probably be alone with the kids.”
J. Harry Jones: (760) 737-7579; jharry.jones@uniontrib.com
