Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Lincoln City, OR

This used to be part of the Elks system of rv destinations but has been sold to private owners who still honor an Elks discount to members camping there. we stayed here in the fall of 2017 as we traveled home down the Oregon coast. Having stayed in Lincoln City at the casino rv park and not being impressed In the past we rolled south lookIng for another optIon. Just south of town(2-3 mIles) we saw a lIttle roadsIde sIgn wIth the traIler logo and word “campIng“ and an arrow to the next left turn....I took the turn and about 3 mIles Inland found a charmIng little campground wIth some water/ electrIc hookups and a dump statIon as well as no hookup and tent sites wIth a large expanse of green meadow. We stayed one nIght wIth hookups and another In the meadow as we had made no advance reservatIons. Helpful staff, very mellow, positIve old school vibe and Inland enough to be cool but sunny midday as the coastal fog burned off. Not glampIng but also not prImItIve and a farmlIke setting wIth lots of open space. WIll defInItely return whenever In the Lincoln City area. class C rv, two adults and a Lab

We've stayed here before and really enjoyed it. This time was another great trip. The campground is in Lincoln City but feels like you're in the woods. There is a huge lake on site and enough trees that you don't feel like Safeway is 10 minutes away. There were a lot of barking dogs in the campgrounds this time, but we were able to ignore them for the most part. Very kid friendly location and the spots are very clean and well managed. The bathroom/shower situation was clean and convenient. We love to get Tie-Dye Pizza and Jays Fish and Chips every time we're in town.

We enjoyed ourselves well enough at this location. It was pleasant finding a campground that didn't require you to cross the highway to get to the beach- we have small kids and you can see the problem there. The Forest area IS right next to the road though so you CAN hear traffic driving by, but it wasn't a deal breaker (for double the cost, you could have a beach site and be spared the noise if it really bothers you). 

The lady at the front was a bit gruff, but did give us a bag of salty water taffy for our first stay there. 

Overall, it did the job by giving us a place to stay so that we could be on the move for most of the day- but not much ability to play out and around our 5th wheel during downtime. 

Pro: 

-clean sites

-electrical and water

-no crossing the highway to get to the beach

-pretty trail to get to beach

-ocean area bathrooms are nice

-very close to stores and Lincoln City

-washers and dryers available

Con:

-"forest" bathroom requires payment for showers

-sites are VERY close to each other with awkward place of fire pits (forest area)

-front desk staff...little rough around the edges. 

-Pitbull dog ban. What year are we living in? (we don't own one currently, but this is a dated practice)

Ended up staying here (Light site) for 3 nights after my group had to make a last second pivot with smoke in Central Oregon. We were super happy with the location and privacy of the site (quick 15 minute drives to Pacific City/Lincoln City or 5 minute drive to Neskowin).

We ran into a bit of confusion booking through the Dyrt as it wasn’t clear what the difference was between Light site and Sublime site (Hipcamp clearly shows the difference btw). The difference is that Sublime is a pretty open plot of land with plenty of room to run and explore whereas Light site is a narrow 15x80’ strip of land on the side of a hill. It sounds lame, but it actually worked out well. A lot of the exploring areas on the property described on the Dyrt seem only to apply to Sublime site. Also, The Dyrt makes it seem as if pets are allowed on the whole property, but apparently they are only allowed on Sublime. So if your booking through Dyrt, check out the Hipcamp description of sites to make sure you are getting what you want.

My biggest quibble is that while this ended up being a great site, we probably will only come back here in a pinch because the price is nearly 4x what you would end up paying at a public campground and there is no water, trash, or bathroom services included in this price. We had a large group and there is a surcharge of $5/person/night (including kids) over the base (2adults/2kids)…so we ended up paying $270 for 3 nights. In comparison, the campsite in Central Oregon that we cancelled due to smoke was $60 for all three nights.

In summary. This is a great spot, but the price is bloated for what you get (especially for larger groups).