Best Campgrounds near Samoa, CA

The entrance is well marked. The drive to the check-in office winds around a residence on a tight dirt road, so proceed slowly. The check in was pleasant, nice folks here. Our pull trough site was great. Very private with a planted wall on one side, and patio on the other side that has plants screening it. We thought we got one of the best sites, but looking around, we saw other sites that offered some space and privacy. There is a pond area that is very nice and as the name suggests, azaleas and other colorful plants abound the park. On 2 different occasions,  we hiked out of the park, up the road to Sue-meg park and hiked tails and points there. If you have All Trails, it will be helpful. Not too many rules here, biggest two is don't smoke or charge your EV. I would stay here again.

Really love this campground though it does have some limitations. It's about 15 minutes west of Willow Creek off the 299. Very well shaded and has a creek running through it alongside the majority of the sites. There are two larger group sites towards the back, and at some points the creek gets deep enough to recline in, though not fast or deep enough to be unsafe for anyone older than a toddler.

For me, the major drawback was that the cell service gets patchy as this site is in somewhat of a cleft in the mountains, and the geography also limits the amount of direct sunlight throughout the day. As such, I had a difficult time getting signal and had trouble sending or receiving texts the further away I got from the camp entrance. Though some might view this as a positive, it is also a potential safety concern should an emergency arise. This may be mitigated to an extent by current technology allowing some phones to utilize satellites for emergency communications, but I can't speak from experience as to whether or not it's effective in this case.

Additionally, the mosquitoes can get pretty thick due to the proximity to water. 

Usually this would work best for me as a base camp to return to after a long day at the Kimtu shore.

Very close to Willow Creek which is convenient, but once night falls, beware, or bring very good earplugs. 

This never would have occurred to me as a potential issue before experiencing it firsthand, but the site is right next to the highway, and cars are not the issue. This is a precise point where due to the grade of the road, every. Single. Passing. Semi. Downshifts, and there are plenty that go by all night. It's like sleeping next to the gods themselves, if they had sleep apnea. I slept miserably because I kept getting jolted awake by that unmistakable, obnoxious gurgling of exhaust at random intervals anywhere between 1 to 20 minutes at a time. If that's not a big deal to you, then you'll probably be fine, but I would have been eternally grateful to have known that in advance.

Campsite was pleasant, though the neighbors were loudly coughing the whole time and we could hear dogs barking all night. There needs to be more showers available and a curtain of some sort between the shower and the stall door. Cost was .25¢ per minute- I didn’t notice a change machine near the bathrooms but the front office girl said they could make change, they closed at 9 when we were there. All throughout our PNW camping trip, this was the only site we needed bug spray/bands and a bug zapper light to sit comfortably around the campfire. Overall it wasn’t a terrible experience, but not my favorite.