Best Cabin Camping near Mendocino National Forest

Location • state park located north of Sonoma and an hour south of Mendocino • in the Virgina redwood forest • closest town: about 6 miles away

Facilities • Bathrooms & showers easily accesible for all sites - cleaned regularly • some bathrooms updated very recently • Spigots every few sites with good draining • campfire theatre • firewood sold on premises • about 70 campsites • some cabins • day use picnic area • wheelchair accesible trails

Ambiance • quiet hours 10pm - 8am • mostly families • dogs allowed on leash

Sites • Small to medium, close together • More open than private; good for groups who need multiple sites • Most hace at least part shade throughout the day • ring fire pits with grill • wooden food locker at each site • wooden picnic table at each site • enough space for 3-4 cars

Things to do • Variety of easy hikes/walks • drive to Mendocino • wine tasting in town

Beware • Poison oak

We were lucky to get a site right next to the beach for our class B RV. This is a beautiful site along Highway 1.

PS if this site is full, there is a dry camp about a mile north on Highway one. It is right next to the remains of old Highway One and it’s called Oyster Point. It is a rustic grass lot with space between sites, but not much privacy.. There are picnic tables and fire rings. A couple of pit toilets are located around the site. There are about 45 campsites here. Sites here are on a first come basis and self registering. The photos included here are for oyster point.

Spacious sites with fire pit, wooden food box and picnic table. Potable water available at spigots along the roads every 3-4 campgrounds. The campground has restrooms with sinks (bring your own soap), flush toilets, coin operated showers. Campground ha easy access to hiking, swimming in the river, and wine tasting just up the road. There a local produce stands just up the road where you can expect to buy tasty Gravenstien apples if you visit in August! Mosquitoes are present so bring bug spray! If you forget anything, there is a Mom and Pop store up the road that sells almost everything you need including batteries, tableclothes, butane, ice and firewood for about $6 a bundle. The campground host sells firewood for $8 a bundle. Campsites are for 8 people maximum. Even with 8 people, we didn't feel cramped. Sites come with 2 parking passes. If you have more than two cars in your party, you can pay for additional parking passes. Dog friendly! I was the only person in my group to have cell service here and I have Verizon.

Jughandle is a beautiful area between Mendocino and Fort Bragg. It contains excellent hiking, a beautiful beach, and even a Pygmy Redwood Forest. I booked it through Hipcamp and you could tell that was the majority of their campers. 

We were able to score a site that was very secluded at the end of the road before the private property line. It was the perfect spot to set up two(or more) tents. There was a great fire ring and picnic table at the site. 

A short less than a minute walk to the porta potty bathroom that is at the edge of a big field. In the field are two more sites on either side of the road and a large communal cooking area with a water source. 

There is also a large fire ring with stump seats in case you want to have a gathering. The sites were pretty quiet even when they were all full and you were able to get to your site without distracting others too much. 

There is a hiking path that takes you down to Jughandle Beach where you will find all kinds of tourists, animals, and great sand to play in or up to the pygmy redwood forest.

A simple, rustic cabin.  As noted by others, it suffers from a little damage/neglect—many of the windows are boarded up—but it's an old fire lookout so we didn't expect a rental cabin atmosphere.  Views are exceptional, as is the peace and quiet.  Get up early and you'll catch the dawn chorus of an amazing number of birds: warblers, woodpeckers, quail, juncos, grosbeaks, cowbirds, even robins.  The cabin is roughly outfitted with cots, bunkbeds, a table and chairs.  There's a clean outhouse down by where you park and a firepit, which we didn't use because it was windy when we were there.  Keep your food up on the table at night--the mice are nocturnal visitors and will help themselves if you leave food on the counter.  Only caveat is the access to the cabin.  They're not kidding when they warn you to bring a chainsaw.  Two of the three roads in and out were blocked by downed trees (so big our small chainsaw wasn't helpful), and in places the road that was open had pretty deep potholes and gullies formed by last winter's heavy rains.  I was really glad we had 4WD.