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Submission
Located half way up Mount Tamalpais' forested southern slopes, Pantoll Campground is one of two first-come, first-served walk-in campgrounds within Mount Tamalpais State Park (Bootjack being the other). With 16 historic campsites lying beneath a quiet Douglas fir forest, time spent next to the campfire here will quickly expunge thoughts of the big city that lies just a few miles to the south.
The campground has an assortment of sites that are distributed on the hill that extends from the Pantoll Day Use Area; sites located further uphill offer greater privacy and more room. All 16 sites are within a short, 100-yard walk from the car park. Each comes equipped with campfire pits and historic, stone-built campfire grills to accommodate all of your cooking and warming needs. Since advance reservations cannot be made for Pantoll, arriver earlier on weekend days to ensure you’ll have a site. You’ll likely have the campground to yourself if you are there mid-week.
The park is located North of San Francisco's Golden Gate. From Highway 101 take Highway 1 to the Stinson Beach exit and follow signs up the mountain.
Campground with many picnic tables, water fountains and restrooms.
The dipsea trail passes through it, so it is a nice resting point after the hike up.
Parking is available at this campground.
Great camping location that is surrounded by many trails. This campground is first come first serve. There are 16 campgrounds with plenty of space from each other. There is one handicap spot very close to the parking lot. You leave your car in the parking lot and move your camping gear to the camping spot, it is close by, unless you pick the campground that is high up the hill and want to be more secluded. The range office is there too so you can pay and ask questions to the officer. You can buy wood there (if I remember, the office is closed on Tuesday, call to make sure). There are 4 clean restrooms (flushable toilet, no shower head). The individual campground space is also great...it has flat surface to place your tent, one big fire pit, one grilling station, locker to store things (you need to bring your own lock), a picnic bench and plenty of room within your camping site.
Campgrounds are clean and surrounded by tall trees. It is beautiful to wake up to birds chirping and sunlight in the morning. It is quiet at night...I went during the week days.
I would definitely go back and camp at Pantoll Campgrounds.
We camped January 1 and 2. No problem getting a spot at 3pm . Ranger was very nice. Parking can be tricky but we got a spot right away. We camped in #8. Did a day hike toward on easy grade trail toward boot jack. Great views of the bay. Did a night hike to same spot to see the lights. Next day hiked dipsea Matt Davis trail loop, fantastic.
Beautiful campground! We came at 12 and got to pick from all the campsites. We were the only ones here for most of our stay. There are amazing hiking trails right off of the campground. The only thing is It was super windy but that was because a storm was coming.
If you have young kids and you want to take them somewhere for quick and easy camping trip, Pantoll Campground is a great choice. It's not far from the Hwy 101 in Marin County but you leave the city behind as you drive up Mt. Tam and the scenery changes quickly. This spot is popular so it's a great choice for a last minute weeknight in the summer or weekend in the winter. It's also nearby the coast and some great hiking trails on Mt. Tam. NOTE - it's a hillside campground and you may have to schlep your stuff up the hill to your campsite. Enjoy!
