Our last camping trip was to the always hard-to-get Pfeiffer Big Sur campground. Unfortunately, due to school schedules, we were only able to spend two nights in the area but we tried to make the most of our time. We also visited Limekiln and decided to include a review of the campground.
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park – October 2014
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: Located in the heart of Big Sur right off of Hwy 1.
Amenities: Flushing toilets and showers.
Pets: Allowed for no additional charge.
Sites: 13 and 15
Pros: The campground is centrally located in the heart of Big Sur. Within the campground there is the Big Sur Lodge, a convenience store, and Pfeiffer Falls. There are also many places to visit in the area including Andrew Molera State Park, where you can see where the Big Sur River meets the ocean, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to catch a glimpse of McWay Falls, and Limekiln State Park.
Cons: The campground is one of the largest that we have visited so it got rather noisy at night. Sites within our loop were really close together and we did not have much privacy. The sites on the outer loop were much larger and offered more privacy. The bugs were persistent so make sure you bring bug spray!!! There were only two showers, which were operated via token ($1 for a 5 min token). Expect a line during peak hours and hopefully, the coin machine is working properly.
Limekiln State Park – October 2014 
Rating: 3 out of 5
Location: Located south of Big Sur right (about 56 miles south from Carmel) off of Hwy 1.
Amenities: Flushing toilets and showers.
Pets: Allowed for no additional charge.
Sites: —
Pros: This park is beautiful and has limited sites available amongst redwood trees or along the ocean. The trails within the park are amazing and meander alongside a creek. You can hike across three scenic bridges to enormous furnaces that once supplied lime used for mortar in San Francisco’s earliest brick buildings. You can also hike along Limekiln Creek to a beautiful 100-foot waterfall. The beach is rather small and the surf is pretty powerful but you can definitely spend a few hours under the sun. Hopefully you can spot a seal from the shore, like we did!
Cons: The campground has limited campsites available so you have to make reservations well in advance. Campsites are REALLY close together and are very small (think pup tents). The best sites are under the redwoods while the ocean sites are not private. These sites were exposed to the elements (sun and the morning ocean mist) and would not be ideal. Although this was a great campground to visit, we were glad that we weren’t staying there.