Stillwater Cove Regional Park on the northern Sonoma Coast features a picturesque crescent of beach, a small campground, and hiking trails through redwood forest and along ocean bluffs. The park is a popular spot for tidepooling, picnicking fishing, diving (abalone season is closed), and ocean kayaking. The historic, one-room Fort Ross Schoolhouse is located in the park's interior, moved there decades ago for preservation. Stillwater Cove features an inland campground with 23 sites available for year-round reservation. Stillwater Cove offers more than 3 miles of trails. The 1.6-mile Canyon Trail loop follows Stockoff Creek through a canyon of towering redwoods filled with ferns. Just north of the cove, Stillwater Bluff Trail curves above the rocky coastline and offers beautiful views of the Pacific. Parking is available at the day-use parking lot east of Highway 1. A pullout at the cove entrance allows for loading and unloading of small craft.

Stillwater Cove Regional Park

This is the most picturesque campground! Short walk to a rocky beach across highway 1\. Beach is not for swimming since the rip tides are dangerous. Abalone diving for experienced folks. You can find plenty of treasures on the beach including abalone shells (just make sure you leave the live abalone alone). During low tide you can find tons of crabs, sea stars, sea urchins and more! Walk through the redwoods by the creek for an incredible tour of the forest. A short trail to the old school house and you can also take the trail a short walk or drive up the highway for beautiful sunsets among the cliffs. Some spectacular views of the ocean. Kid friendly, family friendly, friends friendly!! One of my favorite campgrounds on highway 1! 10 mile drive to a winery, and fort Ross as well as Salt Point state park!

Incredible campground in the forest 

This is a lovely little corner of the universe. We used to come here for abalone diving. The campground is perched just above Stillwater Cove- so just a couple minute hike down through the redwoods to get to the beach. A really nice feature of this campground is the fish butchering station away from the campsites. That way it is fine to get guts all over the place and then have a way to wash off - there was a hose or something right there. Campsites were really nice- most of them seemed pretty shady- I don't imagine they're _warm_ most days of the year, but the beach warms up.

Hike through redwoods to reach the beach

Driving down the coast is always breathtaking, however if you ever find yourself driving down and finding those heavy coastal turns too nauseating, THEN YOU HAVE TO STOP HERE! 

This beach has a picnic area, a bathroom, a small stream leading to the ocean and a nice wading area for the kids to get their feet wet before heading back on the road! I love this spot but be careful, this is a dangerous beach due to the sleeper waves!! 

Quick stop of fresh air!

We decided on this park based on the reviews and pictures. It was out first attempt at boondocking, and we noticed water and dump was available on the premises, so we figured we were set. Unfortunately, when we arrived all of the water faucets were placarded with E. Coli warnings! I only brought up about 1/3 of a tank of water along with 6 gallons of drinking water. Given this, we immediately went into conservation mode! We ended up picking up 4gal of drinking water and pouring it into the fresh water tank for dishes and flushes.

  

We chose Site #7, which was one of the few "shared" pads. Even so, it was a left site so our door faced out towards trees. You can definitely hear the waves crashing from the site, which was awesome. Just loud enough to hear, but not overwhelming. Highway 1 is about 200m from the campground, so you will hear the occasional car drive by. Walking around I'd say Site #10 is the best...very isolated and a great view of trees all around.

  

I can confirm there is no cell service nor wifi at the campground. We had to drive about a mile north to pick up a signal. There are a couple restaurants close that do have wifi.

  

I recommend taking the canyon loop trail, and also take the short trail down to the actual Stillwater cove. The trailhead is in the day use area. I'd also recommend visiting Fort Ross and Shell Beach, which has great tidepooling at low tide (the camp host posts the tides at the campsite).

  

We saw the camp host was on site, but we didn't actually see them at all. We just placed our receipt on the dash in case they came by when we were out.

Quiet and spacious, relaxing views of trees and sound of waves crashing

Mellow campground. Well maintained.

The trailhead to the beach or a forest hike is right next to the overflow parking lot. 

The beach is rocky and not suitable for swimming but there were lots of people fishing. 

The hikes are simply gorgeous and no one was on the trail despite a full campground.

A good mix of small travel trailers and tent camping. 

Firewood is available. The water is not suitable for drinking due to e.Coli. 

There are no first come first serve sites, or ability to take unreserved sites and everything must be reserved using the site. This was frustrating because empty sites went unused and the camp host was unwilling to let anyone use them lest someone made a last second online reservation. 

We camped at site 15. It was nice and fit a 18ft travel trailer perfectly. It was not a back in site so our trailer was a great privacy wall against the road and there were nice trees on the other side.  A small berm blocked the other site on either side.

We found a HUGE tick in my daughters hair so check yourselves. 

The dump station started to back up about halfway through dumping our gray water, so beware. I notified the ranger and he was pretty nonchalant about it. 

Others reviews say they didn’t have cell but we have AT&amp;T’s and had good coverage 

Great Family Spot

I spent one Saturday night in November at this small campground. It had all of the basics amenities except for clean water. There is a boil notice for the whole campground to not consume unboiled water due to testing positive for E. Coli. 
My campsite was adequate and has plenty of parking, although you have to pay extra if you bring more than 1 vehicle. There were other campsites with very small parking areas and small site as well. The camp host was friendly and ranger was on site as well. A short walk to the woods and the beach are convenient. No cell service for me in this area. 