Camping in Malibu and a Super Moon

One Day in California, This Happened…

The Super Moon Makes an Already Fun Malibu Camping Trip Unforgettable

Malibu is the land of celebrities and the uber-rich. It’s not a place one usually thinks of for camping, and until a few weeks ago I didn’t know that camping in Malibu – make that oceanview camping – could be done. Thanks to my friend planning a birthday extravaganza, I found out about camping in Malibu, and I learned about a little phenomenon called the super moon.

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The Malibu Beach RV Park is a private campsite in Malibu that offers both RV and tent camping. The campsite has an arid feel to it, void of the normal trees and forest one expects from camping, but the cliffside location has the same spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean as the multi-million dollar homes on the bluffs just down the road.

The views make up for the fact that the campsite doesn’t allow campfires, which makes for a decidedly non-camping like feel, but there’s good reason: Malibu has been the victim of many wildfires, the last widely devastating one in 2007.

Luckily we didn’t have to worry about not having the light of a campfire. It may as well have been the brink of dawn all night, thanks to the…duh-duh duh-duh…super moon!

Upon arriving at the campsite, the birthday girl kept gleefully talking about the super moon. Having never heard the term before, I thought she’d made it up, but it is in fact a scientific term for when a full moon happens at the same time the moon is at its closest distance to earth. Our vantage point on the cliff overlooking the ocean gave us campers a stunning view of moonlight on ocean. The moon was so bright and the light cascading over the ocean so vivid that it seemed as if it were a muted sun we were looking at, not the moon.

Sitting around the picnic table playing games that night (before the grumpy camp attendant came around shortly after 10pm to tell us to use library voices – this is not a campsite to head to if you want to party into the early morning hours), my friends’ faces bathed in moonlight as if it were silver sunlight, I marveled at the magic of the universe and that normally I would have been inside on a Saturday night oblivious to the magic unveiling in the sky. Who knew I’d find that bit of magic just a couple hours away from my home on a last minute camping trip to Malibu?

When I stayed, oceanview tent campsites at Malibu Beach RV Site were $47 during the week and $60 on the weekend. See current rates and request a site by visiting the online reservation form. Parking is extra per night and is located just down the hill from the tent campsites. Wheelbarrows are provided to get your camping equipment from the parking lot to your site. There are also bathroom facilities with several bathroom stalls and showers. Though bonfires are not allowed, there are grills on each campsite for cooking with charcoal.