Best Cabin Camping near Mendocino, CA

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

This State Park is awesome to experience camping in the dense redwoods. They have flush toilets and showers available which were nice and well maintained. We went in the beginning of May and the mosquitos were out in abundance. The young lady manning the entrance kiosk was very nice and allowed us to check out the sites in advance of deciding whether to stay or not. Each site had a fire pit, picnic table and bear cabinet. No reservations were required and was first come first served on a wednesday afternoon in May. We stayed only one night and was worth the $35. Very nice park.

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.

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.

We stayed at Hendy Woods for one night in early October. What a beautiful campground! Nestled under a redwood forest with great running/hiking trails in the park. Very close to multiple wineries (we visited 3) as well as Anderson Valley Brewing Company (fun local craft brewery, beer was good and a fun outdoor seating area.

Campground was clean, not busy at the time we were there so plenty of privacy and peace and quiet. Bathrooms were clean, water close to our site, and there were showers available which was nice. We did a trail run on the trails right in the park and it was so much fun! So cool to run around all of those big trees. Found the tree home of the "Hendy Hermit", a man who had lived inside a tree "fort" in the hendy woods many years ago and was somewhat of a local legend. Highly recommend this campground. This was a perfect stop as we headed down the coast from Mendocino. The drive there is beautiful, past a whole bunch of wineries.

It's a KOA. It's pretty much exactly what you might expect. It's beautiful hinder the trees, with an excellent location to make beach access pretty convient too. Being so close to the beach though, it gets COLD at night. We usually rent a cabin. The cabins have heaters with is definitely nice. They also have beds, but the beds are really uncomfortable, it's just a pad on top of a slat wood frame, remember to bring a foam topper. Store/pool/hot tub. Perfect location to set up and use as a base of operations while you explore up and down the mendocino coast.