Selby Campground
Camp Review
Selby Campground is one of two established campgrounds (the other is KCL Campground) at Carrizo Plains National Monument. They are both first-come, first-served campgrounds with no reservations.
Selby Campground has 14 sites, each having a cement picnic bench (with a small roof over it) and a fire pit. The campground also has a vault toilet (which was surprisingly clean) and running, non-potable water (at least at the time of writing).
There is no camp host, but people at the campground had great etiquette as no one played music out loud and were generally quiet during quiet hours.
What Happened?
Carrizo Plains National Monument is one of my favorite places in California. I like to imagine that looking over the undeveloped plains is akin to traveling back 200 years and looking at California in her glory before it was industrialized.
Because of my love for this place, I had talked to Cassie again and again about how beautiful this place was—and I finally got to show her this weekend. To make it even more special, Steve and Mercedes wanted to join, which just meant more merriment, though also more planning.
I had initially thought to disperse camp both nights, but since we had to meet up with Steve, I decided to meet him at Selby instead, as it was a guaranteed spot and I figured if the campground was full, I could camp somewhere nearby and just meet Steve at Selby in the morning.
We rolled into Selby at around 11:30 p.m. and took one of two remaining sites. We brushed our teeth and went to bed, all as quietly as possible. I had a great night of sleep and woke up around 7 a.m., where we then had breakfast, and met up with Steve for a fun day of adventure.
After a fun day of adventure with Steve, Mercedes, and Chris (a new friend that Steve and Mercedes brought along), we decided to come back to Selby (given the low clearance vehicles of Chris and Steve, we felt like Selby was the best choice for a camp spot). We rolled back into Selby around 5:30pm to grab the last remaining spot. We setup camp, cooked dinner, watched a moonrise, and stayed up talking around the campfire (Chris had generously picked up wood on the way in) until about 10pm, when we doused the fire and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke, cooked a yummy breakfast, went hiking up the mountain behind us, and then left the campsite as clean as we found it.
Overall, I still prefer dispersed camping at Carrizo, but having a bathroom was quite nice. It also made hanging out with friends a whole lot easier.
