Emma Wood Campsites Damaged

Three campsites at Emma Wood State Beach remain closed off because of damage. And it’s not from the Solimar fire that burned 3 miles down to the coastal campsite Christmas night; this damage came at the end of last month during destructive king tides.

“I was amazed they were able to open the campsite without taking a couple of weeks of work,” said Don Harper, the campground host. “They did it in four days. That was pretty awesome.”

Strong, massive waves rearranged and damaged five campsites and pushed an 8,000 lb. K-rail onto the roadway.

“The boulders and rocks all washed up over the road and you couldn’t even hardly walk through here, let alone drive a vehicle,” said Harper. “So, they brought in bulldozers and front loaders and pushed all the rocks back into the campsites and down towards the ocean.”

The remaining 87 campsites are back open, some a little longer or shorter than before.

The Solimar fire licked the edges of the campground but left a one mile stretch of campsites unscathed simply because there was no vegetation to burn.

Harper said rangers now have a new concern because of the charred-out hillside across the way.

“Mostly, people are concerned about what’s going to happen when it rains here because that’s a pretty steep mountain and the rangers think it might come down when we get mudslides and stuff from rain.”

Parks officials could not give a date when the sites would reopen.