California’s several hundred parks feature some of the most beautiful wilderness in the country, many within a few hours drive of Berkeley. But reserving a campground can be unduly challenging.
The state and national parks reservations websites are so popular that you often have to make reservations six months in advance, or more for holiday weekends or popular destinations. And you’re competing with the San Francisco coders, who crawl the sites to notify them of cancellations and book open spots.
But if you are willing to be a little more adventurous, there are still many places you can get outside without too much advance planning in under four hours from Berkeley…