Davy Brown Campground - Car Camping with Soph

Davy Brown Campground
Dates Visited: 05/31/2014-06/01/2014

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05/31/2014
Once again, I had an opportunity to go camping with my daughter.

This time, because I recommended it about 7 months ago in the winter, she wanted to go car camping. That doesn't mean she wanted to go to a campsite and pitch a tent next to a car, she wanted to actually sleep in our car.

I scanned the maps and searched for a campsite that would be dog-friendly and not have a lot of people. Davy Brown Campground stood out among the others.

I gathered our things, my daughter, and our dog, Isaac, and headed out.

It is a pretty far drive from Carpinteria as seen in the video, but it was pleasant enough. We passed some amazingly beautiful areas on the way in and made it to our campsite late in the day. Isaac whined the entire way, so my nerves were a little shot.

This was Isaac's first time camping, so I had to keep an eye on him and make sure he was comfortable.

We chose a nice camp spot at the Davy Brown Campground, since most of the others were already taken.

I was a little surprised, since we were so far out. I imagined the campsites closer to Santa Barbara were likely completely full. I was hoping to be able to let Isaac off his leash, but there was another larger dog that was off-leash that kept coming over and freaking Isaac out, and the amount of poison oak around the campground was overwhelming.

I had to leash Isaac to the picnic table and I put down a blanket and his bed so he would be comfortable. He continued to whine the entire time while I got out his water bowl and his dinner. He immediately spilled his water bowl with his leash and proceeded to get muddy. He is a white dog and didn't stay that way very long.

The flies were pretty aggressive, so we put on some repellant and headed down to the creek, which was pretty low. Soph had a great time making moss cakes, while Isaac couldn't settle down and was constantly whining and pulling the leash in the other direction. Any pictures I took was with one hand while the other one was wrestling with the leash.

Making moss cakes at Davy Brown Campground

We had dinner and decided to go to bed early. Isaac settled down in the driver's seat, while we spread out in the back of the Tiguan. It was actually quite comfortable.

We played Uno for a while and then just chatted.

That's one of my favorite parts of these trips I take with my daughter. We just chat away about anything and everything. She asks me my favorite color. She asks how was the universe made. She asks what kind of bug she sees. She asks me all sorts of philosophical questions that no one knows the answer to.

We make each other laugh out loud as we play with words and invent stories. She sleeps like a log in the outdoors.

What helped was the fact that we could keep our windows of the car rolled down while the Skeeter Beaters kept the bugs out. The company sent me a few to try out and they worked great.

If Isaac hadn't woken up every hour or so barking at some noise, then we would have slept great.

Davy Brown Campground is a very comfortable campground. It has picnic tables, fire pits, barbecues, permanent restrooms, a babbling creek, and plenty of hiking trails nearby. The campsites seem the right distance from one another. We had a beautiful view of the sunset on the surrounding hills.

Next time, Isaac stays home.