With the whole Pacific Coast to choose from it shouldn’t be too hard to
find an area that suits all the family. You will be smart to pick a spot
not more than an easy day’s drive from home. If it is only a few hours
away, so much the better. Within less than one day’s drive from most
points on the Pacific Coast you can lose yourself in a paradise of
forests, lakes and mountains, or stand on the ocean shore and hear the
breakers boom.
Naturally, you’ll want to invest most of your money in the cabin or
beach house itself. That being the case the best place to go for
low-cost mountain cabin sites is the United States Forest Service, which
controls millions of acres of the finest timber and mountain country in
the world. Beach property, on the other hand, is largely a commercial
proposition, and you’ll more than likely have to consult your real
estate dealer.
The National Forests offer cabin sites to suit every taste and every
purse. However, certain areas are not open to settlement, and all cabins
must conform to standards set by the Forest Service. You can’t buy the
land, but you can occupy it under Special Use Permit. You get low cost,
freedom from crowding and assurance that the area will not be ruined by
commercialization.
The Forest Service opens new tracts for summer cabin sites when those
opened in previous years are filled. Cabins are not crowded together as
they are in some commercial tracts.