Best Campgrounds near Ocean Shores, WA

This Olympic National Park Campground along the Washington coastal route is highly coveted, and frequently packed. If you’re lucky enough to get a reservation, or a cancellation (see the Dyrt Alerts), you’ll be treated to some of the best sunsets that the Olympic Peninsula has to offer, if you don’t mind a little traffic noise. 

Many of the campsites are tucked away under the spreading canopy of trees and moss, and little sunlight filters in. While others face the ocean and have more expansive views of the sky. We were lucky to grab one of the latter and had plenty of open sky for solar power and satellite internet. 

The bathrooms offer clean flush toilets and sinks, but no showers. The sites all have the typical picnic table and fire ring, but pay close attention to size limits within each site on recreation.gov because the sizes vary widely as does the space between sites. 

Activities abound in this park of the park, road cycling, nearby hiking in the forest, or miles and miles and miles along the wide sand beach. The shore is quite shallow here so the tidal flats are very wide. Many different beach access areas within a short drive bring you to different types of beaches, some with sea stacks, stellar tide pooling rocks and backcountry trails.  Head to the Kalaloch Lodge for a tasty dinner out!

Many NPS Park Ranger programs meet at these different beach locations. The Hoh Rainforest Visitor’s Center is about an hour and 20 minutes from the Campground. Also be aware of the traffic congestion at any of the visitor centers in Olympic NP, which can have you waiting for several hours to get into the park. 

The nearest town with groceries, laundry and restaurants is Forks, about 45 minutes away, but the nearby Kalaloch Lodge served an excellent table, reservations suggested.

This Olympic National Park Campground along the Washington coastal route is highly coveted, and frequently packed. If you’re lucky enough to get a reservation, or a cancellation (see the Dyrt Alerts), you’ll be treated to some of the best sunsets that the Olympic NP has to offer, if you don’t mind a little traffic noise. 

Many of the campsites are tucked away under the spreading canopy of trees and moss, and little sunlight filters in. While others face the ocean and have more expansive views of the sky. We were lucky to grab one of the latter and had plenty of open sky for solar power and satellite internet. 

The bathrooms offer clean flush toilets and sinks, but no showers. The sites all have the typical picnic table and fire ring, but pay close attention to size limits within each site on recreation.gov because the sizes vary widely as does the space between sites. 

Activities abound in this park of the park, road cycling, nearby hiking in the forest, or miles and miles and miles along the wide sand beach. The shore is quite shallow here so the tidal flats are very wide. Many different beach access areas within a short drive bring you to different types of beaches, some with sea stacks, incredible tide pooling rocks and backcountry trails.  Head to the Kalaloch Lodge for a great dinner out, then walk along the beach at sunset.

Many NPS Park Ranger programs meet at these different beach locations. The Hoh Rainforest Visitor’s Center is about an hour and 20 minutes from the Campground. Also be aware of the traffic congestion at any of the visitor centers in Olympic NP, which can have you waiting for several hours to get into the park. 

The nearest town with groceries, laundry and restaurants is Forks, about 45 minutes away, but the nearby Kalaloch Lodge served an excellent table, reservations suggested.

I had a reservation for Friday, March 21 to Sunday, March 23. I arrived after hours and just drove right in to my campsite. The campground is set up in sections A, B, C, and D. Section D is near the entrance along a lake. The other sections are down a long drive close to the beach. Section C was closed. Each section is divided into smaller circles of 10 campsites each. Although there is not much privacy between sites, the sites are still spacious and mine backed up to woods. My trailer has a large stargazer window on the back and I was able to leave my shades open most of the time. Section A also has full hook-ups. While my loop was farthest from the beach, you could still hear the ocean which is lovely and relaxing. It's not a far walk to the beach and my toddler did it easily. Once on the beach, there is a big sign with a giant A so you can find your way back should you go for a walk. There are two lighthouses in the park, trails, jetty, and an interperative center. Once out of the park, Long Beach is a short drive. I enjoyed our time and would love to go back for a longer trip.

I got zero reception in the campground. I use Verizon.

Located just past the restaurant on the southbound side there is a drive that goes back into Rock Candy mountain Road trailhead. I drove 5 mi up the road. There are few houses on the side of the road. Speed limit is a maximum 15 mph. There are signs posted thinking drivers for slowing down. Mainly a logging Road well if you pull out to the right on the main road. I noticed a road that had a pipe gate that was closed and locked. It gets pretty steep going up the road. The right steep. They wrote it on barely white enough for two vehicles to safely pass each other. Not suitable for anything wider than a class B. In my opinion this area is not suitable for winter camping. In my opinion if this road got congested it would become pretty dangerous thus why caution is needed driving on the main road and on other roads leading from main road. Definitely not road you want to be intoxicated to drive on. There is a long drop if you lose control and fail off road. I feel if you did and survived the fall it would be expensive to recover your vehicle. To me it's to dangerous to risk trying to camp here if it ever became busy.