Best Glamping near Forks of Salmon, CA

This is one of the nicest and quietest California State Parks in the system. The individual sites are separated by foliage and everything is green. The walk to Agate Beach is a must, where you can find interesting drift wood and other interesting beachcombing stuff. Need to reserve your campsite early, however you might luck out if you just show up. The staff is very friendly.

Emerald Forest is just that, nestled in a forest. It was a little muddy when we visited but California was smack dab in the middle of a very wet season. Our campsite was level and secluded. The bathrooms were clean and showers had nice warm water, did have to pay for the showers but a couple quarters isn’t much. We stayed two nights and walked to town every morning for coffee and scones from Beachcomber…delicious! Our dogs absolutely loved running on the beach which was also a couple mile walk away. Our second visit to this campground was as good as our first. Love this place and would return again.

General: Five campgrounds – Agate, Abalone, Penn (tents only), and two group campgrounds (Red Alder and Beach Creek) situated just north of Trinidad. 

Site Quality: Not all sites are created equal. Many are not level; we had a challenge in Site 123 and saw a few others in the same situation. Fortunately, we changed our sleeping position (we don’t carry levelers for our van) and parked sideways. We did see some larger RVs but many of the sites would be challenging for large rigs to fit. The sites themselves are very generous in size with a large picnic table and fire ring and plenty of room to set up a tent. Many trees separate the sites, providing privacy. There are no hookups at any of the sites. 

Bathhouse: The bathhouse was very basic with concrete floors, three small stalls, and two sinks with cold water only. Soap is provided but no dryers, paper towels, hooks, or shelves. Clean enough. Only one bathhouse in the Agate Loop had showers. I have no idea how many minutes each quarter will buy you in the shower as this information was scratched off, however, just the fact that you can use 15 quarters tells me not very long. I didn’t attempt to try it. 

Activities: There is a nice rim trail that will lead you to various points. Wedding Rock, Ceremonial Rock, Mussel Rock, and both Patrick’s Point and Palmer’s Point. Palmer’s Point is where you can explore tidepools at low tide (the times are posted as you enter the campground). The wildflowers along the trails were beautiful. Several other trails take you to Sumeg Village and Agate Beach. Although we saw many dogs while there, be aware that many of the trails do not allow dogs. While there was good signage on most of the trails, I did manage to get lost a few times while wandering around. California may not invest in many other campground upgrades, but they do spend money on signs! 

Two nights here was the perfect amount of time to explore what Patrick’s Point has to offer. This was the very first campground we stayed at where campfires were allowed as the fog is so thick that fire danger was not an issue. However, there must have recently been a price increase for wood as the price was scratched off the sign; it is $10 per bundle. A shout out to the two rangers who had great attitudes and were tons of fun to interact with!

Campground Review: Abalone Campground at Patrick's Point State Park

I love Patrick's Point State Park. It's literally one of my favorite places in the world and I've been coming since I was a toddler. These sites are what I compare all other campgrounds to: huge sites that can fit multiple tents and smaller trailers, lots of space and trees between sites for enough privacy, fun trails between spaces for kids to explore, and just a short hike to the beach. Yes, it's often foggy and cold, but it is stunningly beautiful with so much to do.

All that said, my most recent trip rates just a four out of five stars for several reasons including the horrific new reservation system, gross bathrooms that were often out of toilet paper and needed to be cleaned, and camp hosts that were never available. The lack of funding for state parks is sadly showing here, but I'd still go back in a heartbeat.

Product Review: Primus Classic Trail Stove

Last summer we drove 4000 miles, camping across the country and back, without a stove or really any cooking utensils. Combine that with a fire ban throughout much of the Western U.S., and it meant a lot of cold meals and mediocre fast food.

So for our next camping trip in the California Redwoods I decided to get out my old backpacking stove and see if it might still work. I was honestly doubtful. I bought my Primus Classic Trail Stove maybe 15 years ago and for the past decade (since kids) it's mostly sat on shelves in basements and garages through several moves. I expected to find it rusty or possibly broken, but was incredibly surprised to pull it out of its tiny black bag and find it looking like new. I did some online research to make sure it would still be safe to use and found out they're still selling the same or very similar set, so after some inspection I packed it up with my gear without much expectation that it would actually work.

Oh man, why didn't I do this sooner? As soon as I fired the Primus stove up and cooked our first batch of mac n' cheese (followed by popcorn) I was shocked at how easy and quickly everything cooked. Lighting the fire was easy, the flame didn't go out once, the pot was completely stable, and food cooked even more quickly than it did at home. After three days of cooking we still had plenty of fuel left and clean-up was a breeze (basically, just wait for the stove to cool down, unscrew it from the gas, and pack it up). My primus stove is coming with us on all future camping trips. 5/5 stars for the Primus Classic Trail Stove

No where to be found ... don’t plan on going here ha !

Pretty basic ...can’t camp here just a cool spot to park with a little bit of river access and some park benches..

Ashley here from The Dyrt! We’re excited to have this new partner online. Don Ellis has owned and managed the Strawhouse Resorts since 1998. Officially opened in 2000, Don and Julie have continued to pour themselves into it and their community. Check them out and leave them some love!

We stayed here for 4 nights in a towable trailer.  I highly recommend getting a spot near the tents and exit to the river road if you are towing a trailer.  We were on the end of Raccoon Rd and it was fantastic.  The tent sites looked great with plenty of space for you to set up.  Several people even brought small trailers like RPods into the tent area and just didn't use hookups.  There are plenty of dirt paths out to the lake both from the KOA and nearby.  Many people brought ATVs to utilize these and it looked like a great time.  We used out truck and mountain bikes to tootle around on them and had a great time.  This place would be great if you tow a boat and just want to set up with tents in an RV site as well - we saw many people doing that.  Kayaks were available to rent in set 2 hour timeslots, banana bikes available if you are into that.  There are plenty of games like bocci and ladder ball.  All in all we had a great time and would highly recommend it.  Great place to use a base camp to hit nearby rivers, ponds, trailheads, or even the lake.  20 minutes away from the main marina on the south side of the lake where you can rent a boat for the day too!