Pros: clean, well-maintained sites. Visible park rangers who were friendly and helpful. Close to the beach. Lots of amenities and trails.

Cons: (1) the electricity is not consistent and it is weak. Like you can’t run your microwave and your electric water heater at the same time weak. Make sure you have a surge protector/line conditioner on your electrical hookup because you could seriously damage your rig plugging into this park’s electrical. (2) no cell service. Not a single bar of Verizon LTE anywhere in this campground. This wouldn’t be a big deal if we were expecting that kind of experience but, to the contrary, the Dyrt’s listing for this campground says Verizon service is good. It is not only not good, it is nonexistent. (3) once you enter the park, there are no signs directing you to the campground. The address in the confirmation email sent after we reserved our spot was not anywhere near correct. Luckily there were 2 park rangers there when we pulled in who helped us get un-lost. This is a huge state park so it is unacceptable not to have any signs that even say “campground” with an arrow. There are signs for everything else, just not the campground.

The sites at this campground are pretty close together but you can find a few that have some foliage in between. Luckily since we went during the winter we were able to find a spot without neighbors. In the summer I’m sure it is packed and you’d be very close to everyone.

The campground is close to lots of great trails. The beach is a short walk away and has nice picnic areas and super clean bathrooms. Firewood is available for purchase for $7/bundle. The camp host, Marshall, was very friendly and helpful during our stay.

The one complaint was the dump station was closed and the winter water spigot was not working well, neither of which was reflected on the state park website. Fortunately we were able to use the winter water spigot, it just took a long time and sprayed water everywhere because it had been broken and they were still working on repairs.

There are some sites with beautiful views of the water (7-10 I believe), which I would recommend if you can get them. Overall, nice campground.

The campground itself was nice and quiet in January. I think there were a few other campers based on the website’s reservation page but they weren’t near our site and we didn’t hear anyone while we were in the campground. The larger loop is closed during the off season so there was a lot of space to explore and we got a good look at all the different kinds of sites. I agree with previous reviewers that the campground itself feels pretty remote even though it is in the middle of a residential area. The state park was a different story, however. Very busy, lots of day use.

The frustration I have with all state park campgrounds (this one included) is their fees. It’s $20/night, which is reasonable during the season when there are amenities but it is unreasonable when there are no amenities during the off season. The dump station was closed at this one and there was no water, not even a communal spigot. The bathrooms in the campground were also closed. What am I paying for? We already paid for a pass to access the park. There’s a lot less maintenance of the campground in the off season. There should be little to no fee from October through May, which is what many other kinds of campgrounds do.

We stayed here as a backup when Mora was closed unexpectedly. We turned right at the bottom of the main loop road and ended up having 3 campsites all to ourselves. The main loop has 5 additional sites. Beautiful river and rainforest. No amenities but a perfect setting for what we were looking for.

This campground is closed. Their website says it is open but that is not accurate. I’m not sure if it’s a temporary closure due to recent weather or if it is seasonal but it’s very frustrating to have driven 3+ hours out here only to find it closed.

When we came here in February, it was snowed in and we stayed at the fork of forest roads 23 and 2353. This time we decided to check it out in the fall so we came in November. There was a light dusting of snow in some places but the roads were clear and the weather was beautiful. The campground is closed but the off season sites are even better than the campground campsites, in our opinion.

This campground had availability when I called less than a week in advance and was not super busy when we were there, making it the perfect place for our family to group camp for mom’s birthday weekend. We were in sites 15 (20’ truck camper) and 16 (30’ Class A RV), which both have water/electric hookups. Some sites have full hookups but there are super clean bathrooms with showers and porta potties so you’re good to go even if you don’t have a full hookup site or if you’re car camping with a tent. Both of our sites had gorgeous views of the lake.

The campground has a cafe and convenience store in the main building. Firewood for sale. Dump station for those without the full hookups. It is close to hiking trails and scenic attractions. We walked the Clear Lake interpretive trail (paved and accessible for all ages and abilities) and checked out Clear Creek Falls, which was spectacular.

Couple minor drawbacks: the road noise since you’re right off hwy 12 and the sites are pretty close together. Considering the size of the campground, they did a good job with site placement. It is definitely not one of those parking lot campgrounds where rigs are lined up side by side. But if the place go busy, it would be a little cramped for our preference.

Overall, a great place and we would come back again!

This campground is open and there is no warning in effect. I have no idea why The Dyrt has inaccurate info on this page. I tried to update the listing but there is no option to correct it so I contacted customer service but they said they would not help. The campground definitely is not closed, though, and there is no warning or any other advisory in effect.

As other reviews have stated, this is a great place to stay for a couple nights if you are in the area for a specific reason. It isn’t a great place if you’re just planning to hang out at the campsite. The trail along the river is pretty limited and the sites are close together. The one thing about some of the full hookup pull-through sites that was a huge bummer is the picnic table and fire pit are on the wrong side of your camper. If you want to sit at the picnic table or have a fire at your site, you’re sitting along the main road instead of with your camper in between to give some privacy. I have not seen this at other campgrounds. Probably because most people don’t want to be in the middle of the road when they’re hanging out. Our site was one of the ones like this and we tried sitting out there for a bit one evening but it was just awkward. Not every full hookup pull-through site was like this but a lot of them were so choose wisely if you can.

The camp host is super nice, firewood is available at $5/bundle, and there is a dog park. The dog park is not exclusive to the campground, however, so it’s very busy since it’s public. $35/night for a basic site and $38.50/night for full hookups. There is quite a bit of open grassy area, which was nice to walk the dogs through, but again everything is public so you’re sharing it with day use people or anyone who wants to come in and hang out for a bit. The bathrooms are functional and pretty clean, although the water does not work consistently in the sink in the women’s restroom near the first few sites. There are showers and laundry.

For off season campers, if you’re going on a weekend, we highly recommend making a reservation. We reserved a spot one day ahead of time and it was only one of two left with hookups. When we arrived, the other spot was also taken. It’s an $8 fee to reserve online but it turned out to be worth it. We were there on a holiday weekend so keep that in mind. There is campfire wood available but no camp hosts during the off season so if you do not bring your own wood (like us), you’ll need to flag down a ranger who will grab some for you. They come by fairly regularly so it’s easy to do. The sites have fire rings and picnic tables and at least the one we were at (63) was paved and level. There wasn’t a ton of privacy between sites but it wasn’t a parking lot. $30/night for partial hookups.

The trails along the lake are alright. There isn’t a lot of distance of trail but the views of the lake are beautiful. There is another trailhead on the other side of the highway, which we did not explore, but I suspect it would be more of the same.

There was solid cell service (Verizon) the whole time. Overall, good place if you’re fine with lots of people.

This is more of an informational post for anyone looking to camp here off season than a review since we technically didn’t make it to the campground. It is a campground that has sites available year round, however, and no one has posted an off season review so we figured we should provide some info from our experience for our fellow off season campers.

The last 6 or so miles before the campground are pretty snowy and there is a lot of tree fall. They have done a ton of work to clear the trees so it is passable but it gets fairly narrow at times. We got there after dark on Friday and a couple times we weren’t sure if we should continue on because the snow got pretty deep and icy. We trudged through to where forest road 23 forks to 2353, about 1.2 miles from Brown Creek Campground, but from there it was impassable due to lots of snow and tree fall that had not been cut so we pulled off the road and camped on the shoulder for two nights. A guy came up Saturday and cut the trees for that full 1.2 miles to the campground but it was still pretty impassible. A couple jeeps made it down but most people parked at the top and walked or turned around and went home.

We hiked to Brown creek Campground on Saturday. Lots of scrambling over and around tree falls but it was a really nice walk. The campground is in a beautiful location and, true to what their website says, there are 6 sites along the river available for off season camping—when you can access them. It is probably best to access these off season sites in the fall, before the snow and storms interfere. We will definitely return and hopefully camp in one of the established sites when they are accessible. There is a pit toilet open year round and the sites have picnic tables and fire rings. No hookups. $14/night.

One thing that was very sad to see was the amount of litter at this campground and in the area in general. There is no garbage service so we need to pack out what we bring in. It’s a small job to carry out your own trash but it becomes a big job, not to mention unsafe for wildlife and a real eyesore, when everyone leaves it behind. Please remember to take your trash home with you!

This place is ok. It’s pricey for off season: $35 for full hookups and $20 for dry. They also charge $5 for dumping so we skipped that and went to one of the numerous free, nicer dump sites on the way home. All water was on, which was nice. Our dry site (132) was right next to a water spigot so that was convenient. The walk to the beach is nice if it isn’t flooded. The first day we were there, part of it was flooded but we were able to get around it. It rained that night and I doubt it would be passable again. This means you should have a car to get to a beach during the off season if you come here. The path just isn’t reliable. There wasn’t a ton of flooding in the sites while we were there but if this rain keeps up, I think most of loop 4 will be pretty unusable, especially the full hookup sites. Not a terrible stay, but not great.

This is a small campground with 11 sites. Even in the off season, this campground was busy. During the day, people drove in and out presumably to look at the river, and, while we had the campground to ourselves during the day on Saturday, there were several campers Saturday night. There is good surfing in the area so a few of the campers were there for that purpose. Most of the sites are very close together with only a short fence between them and are not very private. If you could reserve a few sites close together, it would be great for a group.

There is an easy, 1.25-mile (2.5-mile round trip) walk to the beach—trailhead at the entrance to the campground—that is really nice.

There are 3 water spigots open year round and 2 pit toilets, one of which is open year round. One site (6) has hookups and a cement pad but the hookups were locked for the season when we were there. We were able to get about 1 bar LTE/2 bars 3G with Verizon but cell service overall was limited.

The river was lovely but we probably won’t return to this one. Just too crowded for us!

This campground is a hidden gem. Just 6.5 miles past Upper Clearwater Campground you’ll find a well-marked trailhead where you can park and hike in. The hike is super short, probably less than 1/4 mile, and you’ll find yourself at a pristine lake with primitive campsites, the first of which has a metal campfire ring and a raised platform with benches. There is a trail around the lake with other campsites. The first weekend of December there was already snow and the boardwalks along the trail around the lake were icy so catch this location a little earlier in the season or prepare for cold weather.

We were the only ones at this campground the first weekend in December. Got to the location about 9:45pm Friday night in the pitch dark so we were especially glad it wasn’t busy. We took spot 1, which in our opinion is the best location right on the river. During the high season some of the other spots might be better, though, since spot 1 is close to the entrance and the pit toilet. There are 6 spots, one of which is pretty big and would accommodate a group.

The road getting to the campground is really nice. It is paved, which surprised us based on other reviews. Some sections narrow to one lane, but there are plenty of shoulders and turnouts so if you had to reverse to allow someone to pass you wouldn’t have to reverse very far. In a few spots the road is gravel with some potholes but not bad at all.

There is a pit toilet at the campground we did not use but we did look inside and it was clean. Right across from the pit toilet is a trailhead. It looks like there used to be two trails, one leading down to the river and another that goes up to a creek that feeds into the river, but parts of both trails are washed out and blocked by tree fall. We hiked as far as we could along them, though, and it was a nice walk.

When we left on Sunday, we decided to drive to Yahoo Lake Campground just to check it out. About 1/4 mile (or less) beyond Upper Clearwater, the road splits. Take the right fork for Yahoo. We took the left fork and went about 3.5 miles before realizing it wasn’t going to take us where we wanted to go. It was a beautiful detour and we saw some nice views but it’s just logging roads. Trust that Yahoo Lake Campground exists because there are no signs but if you go about 6 miles from that split in the road, it is there. You’ll arrive at a well-market trailhead where you can park and take a short hike to the lake and campsites. The main road continues on but, during the off season, it is closed for elk preservation. We walked to the lake and checked out a couple of primitive sites that would be great for tent camping. Super remote, beautiful little lake.

Overall, Upper Clearwater is a really nice campground and a great place to stay.

We came for 4 nights before Thanksgiving. The only part of the park that is open for overnight camping during the off season is Quarry Pond. About half of the sites with hookups (water, electricity) are reservation only and the other half are first come first served. There are also 7 primitive sites with no hookups that are first come first served. The first night we got in after dark and snagged a first come first served spot (336) but were able to reserve one in the reservation section after everyone cleared out on Sunday (315). The location is great for lots of hikes. Bathrooms were warm and clean. There is water at the sites with hookups up until late November when they turn it off after Thanksgiving but electrical is still available. Primitive sites are $20/night, sites with hookups are $30/night. There is a store at the entrance with firewood, food, propane, gas, etc. They have coin-op showers and provide a coin change machine.

Awesome campground off season. Would probably be too busy for us during the high season but we were able to snag a spot right next to a beach path on the bluff overlooking the ocean for the Sunday/Monday leg of our trip this time. There are lots of view sites so try to get there early. Dogs are allowed on the beach so we spent a lot of time walking our two little ones. There are bathrooms (no showers), a dump station ($10 fee), and clean water spigots for your fresh water tank. Lots of wild life—look for the sea otters surfing the waves! This campground is easy to get to right off Hwy 101 and does not require forest road driving. Overall, a great trip!

The campground was great. Lots of sites and secluded enough in the off season we had most of it to ourselves the second night we were there.

We took one star away because there is a stretch of forest road for about 2.5 miles before you get into the national park that is almost impassable due to massive potholes. We do a lot of backcountry backpacking so we’ve driven on many miles of forest roads but this was another level. The potholes were constant, deep, and there were so many of them they could not be avoided.