Camping at Castaic

Happy Labor Day!  I hope you are all out enjoying the sunshine.  I spent the long weekend camping on Castaic Lake with Sean and Bo.  So here’s the scoop...

If you are looking for a quiet, remote, secluded camping trip, this is NOT the place to go.  However, if you are just looking for fun, pet-friendly lakeside get away that's not too far from home then this fits the bill!  Perhaps our experience was a bit rowdier than usual, as it was Labor Day weekend and everyone was out celebrating.

 

The campground is pet-friendly, as long as you have your dog on leash.  However, we just used a 10ft rope to keep Bo within the confines of our campsite and he was perfectly content. The one issue with our campsite was that there was no shade so we had to create some with what we brought.  In hindsight, it would have been really smart to bring a shade canopy.  However, despite the lack of shade, make sure you get a campsite on the water (not in second row because it feels like you are camping in a parking lot) and on the outskirts of the campground.  The main campsites are on top of each other and it looks like a tailgate party, whereas we had no one behind us (we were at C15, but C17 might have been the nicest).  Definitely bring LOTS of water for you and your dog also… it is so dry out there and it’s easy to get dehydrated.

We spent most of the trip enjoying the lake.  The first day we discovered that dogs couldn’t go to the swimming beach, but humans couldn’t swim anywhere but the designated swim area.  So even though we could not swim with Bo, we realized that we could let him swim on leash by our campsite while we lounged in the shade.  The campground also allows dogs on the grassy area just behind the swimming beach, so you could spend the day on the grass in the shade and go swimming with an eye on your pup.

Another fun way to take advantage of the lake was to rent a kayak for the day and bring the dog with us.  It was a simple two person kayak that was perfect for Bo’s first boating adventure.  One important tip: bring a puppy life jacket with you!  A dog life preserver is required if you want to bring the dog on the boat, but (unlike human life jackets) they do not provide them.  In fact, the guys who rented us the kayak said that Bo was the first dog they had ever let onto a boat because we were the only ones to ever bring a life jacket.  We are such pioneers!

I got Bo the Paws Aboard yellow life jacket and it was perfect!  It had a handy leash hook so the jacket doubled as a harness on the way down to the beach.  Most importantly, it had a study handle on the top of the jacket so if your pup took a swim, you could just lift him out by his handle!  I assume this would be more difficult with a large dog, but it was perfect for my 15 lb. furry friend.

Bo absolutely LOVED kayaking… especially jumping off the boat to swim and torment the ducks.

The second day, we took Bo on a hike down an old entrance road to an abandon 1970s campground back from when the dam was constructed.  It was shaded by giant pine trees and looked out over the dam, the main lake, and the old campground ruins. 

It was only about 1.5 or 2 miles down and back, so it was a short, easy hike for a hot day.  The trail head is at A (and there is a loop at B to head back):

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We spent the rest of the trip sitting by the lake in our camping chairs reading, eating, and chatting while Bo swam in the lake and napped in the shade.  It was wonderfully relaxing!

As far as a pet-friendly travel destination for the weekend, Castaic certainly worked for us.  I would say that as long as you come prepared (sunscreen, some kind of shade, lots of water, doggie life jacket, and earplugs) and are creative with the way you spend your time, then you can have an enjoyable, inexpensive outdoor mini-vacation!