>By Eric Noland, Travel Editor

SANTA BARBARA - Wind-blown leaves in the frying pan. Drippy condensation on the inside of the tent. A sleeping pad that can't quite cushion that rock or acorn or whatever it is digging into your hip.

Camping isn't for everyone. Or everyone in a particular traveling group.

El Capitan Canyon, along U.S. 101 just north of Santa Barbara, presents a compromise. It offers safari tents, which are outfitted with wood floors, beds with linens, electric lights and small space heaters. Guests can cook dinner on a camp stove and gather folding chairs around a fire ring, but when it's time to go to sleep, more civilized creature comforts beckon. Also, a short walk away is a bathhouse, with showers and toilets that flush - further smoothing out the concept of roughing it.

The private campground also has cabins with bathrooms, and for all guests there is a heated pool plus a market and deli.

This comparative camping luxury comes with a price, though - a steep one. During the peak months of April through November, a safari queen at El Capitan rents for $145 a night. (Cabins, by contrast, are priced from $225 to $350). Triple digits for a tent - and you still have to walk to the bathroom and cook dinner on a rusty grill grate. But for families that have both camping devotees and others who want sheets and showers and maid service, the fare may be justified.

Although the campground's Web site characterizes this as "beach camping," don't believe it. It is set in a canyon - though a beautiful one - that is inland of El Capitan State Park, U.S. 101 and the South Pacific railroad tracks. The beach is fairly convenient, but to get there guests must trek out of the canyon, under the highway and through the state park. Bikes are available for guest use, but they are one-speed cruisers, and that climb from the beach involves a long stretch of brutal pedaling.

The state park campground has a more enviable setting - some of the sites have ocean views - and its basic rate is $25 per night. But it is also subject to crushing demand; most of the summer is already booked up.

Reservations may be made online up to a year in advance, and availability is a little looser now and in the fall. A campground map reveals the prime campsites - close to the ocean bluff and far from the highway - while a master calendar reveals open dates by campsite.

El Capitan Canyon: www.elcapitancanyon.com; (866) 352-2729. El Capitan State Park: www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=601 (click on "Online Reservations" for availability); (805) 968-1033.

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