Olympic Peninsula-Port Angeles KOA

We usually travel with a pop-up camper and tend to prefer USFS campgrounds or dispersed camping. But we are currently travelling in a rented 30' RV during a holiday week, so we decided to give this KOA a try.

I was pleasantly surprised! We stayed in site 130 for 2 nights, and it was quiet and peaceful, despite the proximity to hwy 101. We arrived late at night and had no problem getting checked in and finding our assigned spot. We opted for a site with electric and water hookups. It had a picnic table and a fire ring, but we didn't get a chance to use them because we were constantly on the go. Our site was $63.99/night.

They have Wifi, which was a nice feature that we weren't expecting. There is a picnic pavilion, horseshoes, tetherball, a swimming pool, a playground, a game room, and these really cool looking big wheel things that you can rent for $5/30 minutes. There is also a nice little general store that offers most things a camper could need. The folks who work there are very friendly and helpful. They offer free showers and a sink with hot water for washing dishes also. There is a large laundry room, but we didn't use it. We refilled on water and propane and we used their dump station before we left.

Overall, this KOA was clean and quiet and offered many amenities. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for "camping" with all the luxuries of home.

The laundry room was large and extremely clean along with the individual public bath/showers. They’ve added cute touches around the premises. A kids BMX dirt bike area, secret gardens, walking nature paths and a pond with their own resident ducks. We’ll definitely would go back!

We rode our bikes out of the park, across the bridge on a busy highway to eventually find the bike path into town. This was a little scary with the large logging trucks, etc and frustrating as there was a narrow shoulder and no clear direction to the safer bike path. Cedars, the floating restaurant, walking distance from the park has superb food. It’s a popular place and reservations are required. Book them a few days ahead for your choice of times.

Another great KOA in the books! We loved the location to the Olympic National Park, Port Angeles and Victoria, BC. We had so much fun exploring we didn’t spend much time at the RV. What a welcoming place to return to after a full day though. We were struggling to find a park anywhere in the vicinity. Once again the KOA app said this park was booked but I called anyway in case there was a cancellation. Barry called me back and found a way to squeeze us in. It pays to make the human contact. We had site 215 in the trees with water and electric. We used the “honey pot” service for only $20. Laundry room had a good supply of machines for the park’s size. We’ll definitely go back!

We are full-timers in a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow, were meeting friends in the area who were also staying here. We were in site 908 for 3 days in late August. The CG is fairly large and the sites fairly well spaced for a private CG. Ours was even separated by privacy fences. Now the bad. We were directly across from a family who let their young kids run around playing in the road and screaming a lot. They also routinely left their dogs off leash despite a leash rule and several warnings to put them on leash. At least once the smaller of the dogs ran out barking and snarling at a couple walking their two dogs past their site. I even notified the office twice, once about the aggressive behavior and once about the frequent off leash situation. After that many warnings, they should have been asked to leave. AT&T coverage good, ranging from 3-4 Bars of LTE with speeds up to 8.6 MB/s. The CG WiFi was descent, with speeds up to 1.2 MB/s. We were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site. There were no OTA channels to be had with our fixed omni antenna.

Tenting at this KOA we found some bright moments along with a few sour notes. I like to be positive, so I’ll start with the plus list.

Bright Moments:

The staff and one of the owners (male) are all super friendly. There is a pool and a hot tub—although anyone under 18 isn’t allowed to use the latter. There are two dishwashing sinks, which is handy. There is also laundry, showers, a nice little outdoor recreation area, and a family friendly game room along with the typical, convenience camp store. There were some activities on the weekend, which is always great for establishing community. The facilIities are all very clean. The game room really was a very nice touch and nicely done.

Sour Notes:

The campsItes were really crammed. The corner of our tent was only 4 ft from our neighbor.

The road noise!!--I mean we were practically shouting to be heard over it, and it NEVER stops…ever, not even to sleep. Some sites are likely quieter being further from the road. I uploaded a video. The birds were really close and should be loud. If you can’t hear them, then turn your volume up! On a positive note, the road noise almost covered up our neighbors who were shouting until 11. We‘ve never been so tired; our kids were a mess.

The bathhouse only had 3 showers for the whole, large campground--and they were super tiny. There were frequently lines. The access to toilet stalls and showers, etc is super tiny. There is no way there could be handicapped access unless there is another office bathroom available somewhere that is hidden from the public. I would give 3 stars if it weren’t for this

There is only one bathroom anywhere on the property, and it closes for one full hour for cleaning. Gotta go? Hold It please.

Finally, I found one issue to be particularly frustrating because I believe in honesty and transparency. This KOA goes through great lengths to advertise free WIFI. It was only after registration and payment that we learned only 2 devices can be connected. Electronic access these days are so frequently device specific. With a family of 5, sharing wasn’t an option. The funny thing was that we didn’t even care if only 2 people used it at a time…but we needed to be be able to exchange devices. I nicely asked the woman owner about thIs, and she was immedIately hostile and defensIve. I got the impression that she is approached about this issue all the time. I suggested at least making this information available so that people can plan accordingly—all she had to say in reply was that “we said we offered free WiFi, not unlimited WiFi.” She was shockingly rude. After this encounter she gave me a smug and rude smile whenever she saw me, and I really felt rather uncomfortable staying there. Which is a shame, because her husband was so, so nice, and cares so much about the property. So for the record: there is only WiFi, free or otherwise, for 2 devices. Further access codes cannot be purchased either. This owners sheer rudeness also contributes to the 2 star rating. Had she been friendly and if there were ADA bathrooms, then I would bump up to a 3-star rating.

I forgot to take the usual number of campground pics that I like to share, in part because it was crowded, and in part because I was pretty tired. There is so much to do in the area. We enjoyed Olympic, and a whale watch tour with Island Adventures. They brought us up to Minke whales, Orca and a Humpback all in one night!