EV Charging on a Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip

The Route

The Pacific Coast Highway runs from San Diego to the Olympic Peninsula, hugging the coastline through some of the most photographed scenery in the country. Big Sur, the Redwoods, the Oregon coast, the San Juan Islands. It is the road trip that makes people buy cars in the first place.

We track 33 RV parks and campgrounds across California, Oregon, and Washington along this corridor. Seventeen are EV-friendly (stations or campsite charging allowed). Sixteen prohibit EV charging entirely. California still carries the load, but Oregon has gone from a single listing to eight parks, including two state parks with on-site charging stations. Washington has more than doubled to eleven parks, and it is now close to an even split.

California: The Best EV Campground Corridor in the Country

Nine of California's fourteen coastal-corridor parks support EV charging. Three in the San Diego area have chargers, including the 12-station Mission Bay setup. The Central Coast, Bay Area, and Sonoma Coast are covered. Even Yosemite, which is not technically coastal but draws the same road trip crowd, has charging stations.

California Parks That Do Not Allow Charging

Five California parks in our directory prohibit EV charging. The good news: California's public charging network means you are never far from an alternative.

Oregon: From One Park to Eight

Oregon was the biggest gap in the first version of this guide. One park, one listing. That has changed. We now track eight parks along the Oregon coast and Columbia River corridor, including two state parks with on-site EV charging stations and one private park allowing campsite charging.

The state's public charging infrastructure was never the problem. The West Coast Electric Highway network, now operated by EVCS, has 47 charging locations along I-5, Highway 101, and other routes. EVCS has been upgrading every station with new CCS and CHAdeMO connectors. What was missing was campground data, and now we have it.

Oregon Parks with EV Charging

Three Oregon parks support EV charging. Two are state parks with dedicated stations in the day-use parking areas. The third allows campsite charging.

Oregon Parks That Do Not Allow Charging

Five Oregon coast parks prohibit EV charging. Most are KOA properties or marina parks where electrical infrastructure was built for RVs and boats, not EVs. The silver lining: Oregon's public charging along Highway 101 is strong enough that none of these parks leave you stranded.

Washington: The KOAs Say No, the State Parks Say Yes

Washington has grown from five parks to fourteen in our directory. Eleven sit on the west side of the Cascades or along the North Cascades Highway loop out of Anacortes, and those are the ones below. The other three (Leavenworth, Daroga State Park on the Columbia, and Lyons Ferry in the far southeast) belong to a different road trip.

Five of the eleven support EV charging and six do not, but the pattern matters more than the count. All three KOAs on this list prohibit charging. Washington State Parks, meanwhile, has been adding stations, including one at Schafer State Park on the way to the Olympic Peninsula. The coast is no longer a blank, either: Ball Bayview on Birch Bay, a few miles from the border crossing, has an on-site station.

DC Fast Charging Along the Coast

The West Coast Electric Highway spans 1,300 miles from the Mexican border through British Columbia. It is one of the oldest and most developed EV charging corridors in the country.

In California, DC fast charging is abundant along Highway 1 and Highway 101. San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Francisco, and Eureka all have multiple fast charging options from Tesla Supercharger, Electrify America, ChargePoint, EVgo, and EVCS. You are rarely more than 50 miles from a fast charger on the California coast.

Oregon's Highway 101 has been thinner historically, but EVCS is actively filling gaps. Major coast towns like Astoria, Tillamook, Newport, Florence, and Coos Bay have DC fast charging, though options are more limited than California.

Washington is improving quickly. EVCS completed a major expansion in 2025, adding 41 DC fast chargers across 24 locations statewide, including ultra-fast 350 kW chargers. The Highway 101 corridor through western Washington is getting 40 new chargers across 12 locations through a federal CFI grant.

Planning Your PCH Trip

• Start in San Diego. Mission Bay RV Resort has 12 EV chargers, tied for the most of any campground in our directory. Top up before heading north.
• Big Sur has no campground charging and limited cell service. Charge fully in Monterey or Marina before entering. The stretch from Big Sur to San Simeon is about 90 miles with no reliable charging.
• The Redwood coast is a charging desert for campgrounds. Giant Redwoods RV & Camp will fine you $75. Use DC fast chargers in Arcata, Eureka, or Fortuna instead.
• Oregon now has real options. Cape Lookout State Park near Tillamook and Tugman State Park near Lakeside both have on-site stations. Between those two and EVCS stations along Highway 101, the Oregon coast is no longer the gap it used to be.
• The Winthrop area in Washington (North Cascades) has two campgrounds that both prohibit charging. Winthrop has an EVCS DC fast charger in town, so top off there, because the passes in either direction are a long, empty climb.
• Headed for the Olympic Peninsula? Schafer State Park near Elma has on-site stations, and Aberdeen, 13 miles away, has Electrify America and Tesla Supercharger. Fill up there before Highway 101 turns north into the rainforest, where the towns get small.
• For campsite charging basics, see our outlet guide. For what adapters to bring, see our adapter guide.