Best RV Parks & Resorts near Rutherford, CA

Checked in a little later in the day- they had our name and spot on a sheet tacked on the bulletin board at the check-in area-

Our spot was very close to the entrance – mostly level a little angle downhill so bring some blocks.

First made the mistake of trying to back in- it turns out these are pull in spots, so make sure if you’re not in a pull through that you read the sheet and determine if you should pull in or back in.

Fairly quiet on a Saturday night close to town and a very comfortable stay.

Only electric and water hook ups but 50 amp is really nice and they have a dump here at the park. You can use when you check out.

When I did have a chance to meet them in the office, they seemed really nice at the front desk, and kind of surprised that we would check in our second vehicle :) maybe most people don’t. ;)

This was some “glamping” for us. We’re in a van with no consistent onboard power or water, so we do a night or two out and a night at a site with more amenities. This was a perfect stop driving south on the 1 after the previous night remote on the coast and a planned need for StarLink with power source. Park is clean and well-organized, if tight, and the bathrooms are super clean and door-coded, with included hot showers. Right on the marina, fun if you enjoy harbor/boating scenery, and good food within walking distance. No way - that I found - to reserve online, but a phone call at 9am on a Saturday was returned within 10 minutes and got it done. Range of big rigs to camper vans, easy access and enough room to negotiate into spots. Very welcoming, safe, laid back environment.

First, you stay here for the views. Great views from the first two rows closest to the water. There are very few plantings between spaces. No hook ups at all, but water is available if you fill before you park. Seven dollar dump station. Each campsite has a fire ring and a wooden picnic table and grass. Since there’s no hook ups between the hours of 8 AM and 8 PM, you will always be listening to somebody’s generator running. Always. No privacy at this campground. I did not check out the bathrooms for the campground, but I did look at the bathrooms for the large boat launch area next-door. No showers in that bathroom, but it was clean. A bit spendy for no hookups. Safe. Zero long term campers when I was here. There are no first come first served campsites at this location. All camping spaces had a reserve sign on them, even though the place was about 40% full. Completely dark at night, which was great.

We are full-timers in a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow. We were in site 61, a“Premium” Pull-through site, for 3 days in early October, while visiting family in the area. This is probably the most critical review of a CG that we have posted in the 2 years we’ve be full-timing and for$76/night(with discount), I would expect much, much more from a CG. The staff at checkin were very friendly, but we didn’t see anyone patrolling the CG while we were there. It was fairly quiet when we arrived during the week, but got a little raucous on the weekend and I-505 road noise is fairly noticeable at night. The CG is“clean” and otherwise quiet, but showing its age a bit. The two pools looked pretty decent, but we didn’t use them. All of the sites are fairly short and very close. Bigger rig tow vehicles either extend into or are parked partially on the roads through the CG, although the roads are fairly wide throughout. The CG consists mostly permanent/semi-permanent residences. Most of those sites are are all gravel. There appeared to only be a few transient spaces, maybe 12-15, which were also short, but with grass, tables and foliage between sites. There are no green spaces to walk your dog. Everything that isn’t paved or graveled is basically bare dirt or tall, dead weeds, except the playground and one other area, and neither of those areas allow dogs. You are pretty much relegated to walking the CG roads or using the“off-leash” area, which is a fenced in treed area but is also just bare dirt and clearly not everyone cleans up after their dogs. They have signs for a Pet Walk, but this is just a very short walk on more dirt. The ponds on the map are fenced off and are either muddy brown or algae green pits with fountains- not very aesthetically appealing. AT&T coverage was just ok, with 2 bars of LTE and speeds up to 0.8 MB/s. The CG WiFi through TengoInternet.com is bit wanky, only allowing 3 connected devices and requiring a Browser to connect, so devices without one(Apple TV, WiFi router, etc.) are out of luck. Their website had a link to a page that was supposed to tell you how to connect them, but resulted in a 404 page not found error. We saw speeds up to 1 MB/s., but much less when everyone is online. Disconnecting WiFi and reconnecting seemed to help some. We were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site. There were 35 OTA channels to be had with our fixed omni antenna. We would not stay here again.

The campground at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park offers a range of decent sites. There are certainly some that are better situated than others regarding size, shade, and other amenities--but the entire campground is nice. Well maintained, and located in a State Park that is run by a non-profit "Team Sugarloaf". Sonoma Creek runs along the campground and there is a waterfall a short hike away. There are showers for a quarter per minute, if you want to freshen up after a big hike like to the peak of Bald Mt. Visitor's Center has educational displays, maps, and a variety of items for sale. Ice and fire wood available. Each site has a table and fire pit. Great little get away spot that feels farther in the wilderness than it is at all. Close to Sonoma and Santa Rosa. Year-round camping--beautiful in all seasons.

There is also an observatory in the park, one Saturday night per month the hold "Star Parties" and for just $2 you can spend the evening looking through great telescopes and learning about space from experts. Kids are free! It is walking distance from the campground. If you have flashlights that have a red night-vision setting, those are recommended to use there--otherwise they'll give you red cellophane to cover your light so that it doesn't interfere with star viewing.

I've camped here about half a dozen times over the years and while each experience has been different, they were all enjoyable and I would easily return again.

There are a variety of campsites, and they are many - we camp as close to the ocean as possible in the meadow area. There are port-o-potties on site but they're not always super close to your campsite. You typically do have to hike the ocean from the dunes, and while some consider it a light and easy walk, for others it could be difficult. There are other sites closer to the waterfront, but I haven't personally camped there yet and can't testify to the ease.

The weather is GREAT, and you can usually count on some light wind daily. It's amazing kite weather. The sites are in full-sun, so plan for shading yourself. I suggest a pop-up canopy, and double suggest staking it down.

We've run out of firewood on occasion and bartered with other campers (some have kindly donated some for the night and we reimburse their wood in the morning). There's a lovely general store and restaurant nearby with delicious clam chowder. There is also a day-area beach, a really cool pier where folks crab, and loads of fishing. Pet friendly, sand dunes where you'll see lots of action, and just a lovely area. Camping is year round, and the weather is typically PERFECT.