Eel Creek Campground

I arrived at around 8 pm without a reservation on a Wednesday night and got a spot. There were multiple open spots. There’s a volunteer host here, but all reservations must be made via recreation.gov .
We have t-mobile and Verizon, both work well with LTE service. We chose spot number 30 which is pretty amazing! It’s huge! The “driveway” can fit at least 2 vehicles (car or minivan). There’s a secluded area with a fire pit and picnic table next to a flat area where you can fit at least two 2-person tents. Access to water, bathroom, and garbage is nearby from this spot.
For a paid campground, I would say this is one is pretty private. Location is very convenient, off HW-101 by a minute or two.

Most sites have distance and foliage between you and your neighbor. The trail to the sand dunes was a few hundred feet from our site. There were a couple of trails to choose from in length and difficulty. This is a reservation-only park. there were a couple of sites available during the week but none on the weekend. The bathrooms were clean and the park was well maintained. The only con was when the weekenders showed up and were still loud at 1:30 am the camp host did nothing to enforce the rules. The loop we were in was dry camping. There is a great off-road vehicle rental place about a mile away to ride in the sand dunes. You can do tours or do it on your own. It was a blast roaring up a sand dune at full throttle.

I traveled to Eel Creek in a 35’ 5th wheel and stayed in site #48, a pull through spot. I booked this CG at the last minute to get out of the heat further inland. It was a delightful stay. The roads and sites were asphalt. Some areas were a little beaten up. While my site was a pull through, I ended up backing in to get better positioned to catch sun on my solar panels. Plus, it was a crescent shape that had a tight curve which would have made it difficult for my rig to get around. The best thing about the sites around my loop was where the “outdoor living” area was positioned. Generally they were back behind a hedge of sorts so the picnic tables and fire pits were very private. This is also where tents would be pitched. The other side of the CG wasn’t quite so private for these spaces. The downside is that this loop is closer to the 101 so there is some road noise at times. The other loop is very quiet. The bathhouse was closed due to a water line break. The portable toilets needed to be serviced as they were very full. There was no dump station at this park, but right down the road was Tugman State Park where you could dump your tanks. You could hike up to the dunes directly from the CG which was nice. Strong Verizon signal (could stream), didn’t check OTA, no wifi. I would stay here again if I was in the area. Note: the camp hosts were largely invisible during my stay.

This is a beautiful little campground. Everything is well groomed and the bushes look like they have all been trimmed up. Very quiet (during the week, don't know about week-ends), and you hear no road noise from Hwy 101. This is a great location to venture out from. A trip to Coos Bay and a cruise down Cape Arago Highway is not that far away. Just outside the entrance and about a quarter of a mile down the road is a Dollar General. Outside of the Dollar General store you have to drive into Coos Bay or Reedsport to do any shopping.

Reserve America does a great job in showing pictures of each of the sites. Getting in and out of here with a big rig is not a problem. Very high clearances, but be aware of which site you choose. Some won’t work for bigger rigs. For those of you with solar panels be aware that not all of the sites are sunny.

I would avoid at all cost site #44. It looks like the sand dune behind the campground has completely taken over this site.

The Geo coorindinates for the entrance is:
46.587047, -124.184396

Now there are a few negative things to report. One is the water situation here. This campground has been without water for some time now, so the bathrooms are closed and portable toilets have been put up. If you are a fully self contained RV camper this won’t be a problem. There is a state park about a mile north of this place that provides water and a dump station at no charge, so it is easy to fill up there before coming into the campground.

The pavement is sinking in places. The dips can be hard to see, so drive very slowly, otherwise you might get a good jolt.

A great place to camp. Cozy and quiet.

Rate paid reflects 50% discount

We got to this park and thought eh, it's okay and felt bad that we are getting so picky because we truly have been to some beautiful parks. However, we just wanted a place that we could stay overnight with the thought that we might go to Coos Bay to explore. We also found out that the dunes were accessible from the park so we thought great, we will go for a hike on the trail. The hike was maybe 1/2 mile or less to get to the dunes and it was a pretty steep hike up the dunes but it was the most incredible experience and view. Our kids went nuts when they got up to the top and were running around in excitement!

For details, it is dry camping. There were accessible water spigots available. They did have flush toilets but the bathrooms were not very clean. There are no reservations and this place is first come, first serve. The host said that it gets super busy during the Summer and during good weather days. The sites themselves were clean. We walked on the little path to the bathroom and we saw banana slugs for the first time!

Reception wasn't that great, but enough to attempt a facetime with the grandparents. That was without our cell booster too.

Not only are most of the sites setup to have private areas (ours had two, one for the picnic table and fire and another down a trail that you could put a yoga mat or tent) but the dunes were in our front yard. We even moved our camp chairs up on the dune to get some sun since it is October and the weather is constantly changing. The John Dellenback Dunes Trail #1339 trail is right there. The trail starts manicured with wood chips and wood boarders and trees, then sand dunes with markers that leave something to the imagination as it should, then beautiful rhododendron trees that lead into sea grass before hitting the beautiful beach complete with Snowy Plover (birds listed as endangered species). The grassy area before the coast was the only area I needed to wear shoes in fact. There are little thorny things we have seen the like of in Arizona before…ouch!
If you want a city experience, this is not for you. We wanted to check-out for a few days (but had good wifi) and could not have asked for anything better. I personally saw and smelled the bathrooms being cleaned. Yes, someone that came in for a night in a yellow VW while we were there left trash...people suck, the campground does not! I do not agree with the past reviews on cleanliness as it was very clean everywhere we went. Also, there was NO checkout time so our last day, we went up to Florence and then came back for our rig late in the evening.

This USFS campground is close to several Oregon coast parks and attractions but doesn't a lot more going for it. LOTS of trash in sites and on dunes trail. Flush toilets that should have been clean since I used it right after the park employee cleaning staff left it. The trash hadn't been emptied and clearly nothing had been wiped down. One positive is the dense vegetation that gives most of the sites a lot of privacy. There is a lot of noise from nearby highway and motorized off roaders on dunes. There were about 6 sites not reserved for a weekend in late July if you are wondering about walk in availability. The Oregon state parks we have been visiting spoiled us so we didn't think too highly of this place. There was clearly a group that was not typical campers who had sketchy behavior (walking through other people's sites right after they left for a day activity, among other perhaps drug induced behaviors), so maybe locking up valuable items if you leave your site is a good idea. This may not reflect on the park necessarily but since I often camp alone it is information that I would appreciate. If you use a campfire ring, my site just had 2 metal panels at a 90 degree angle for a fire place. See pic.

Nice large park close to Coos Bay. Park has water, flush restrooms and garbage collection / no showers. Most of the sites are shaded so if you want solar be careful on site selection. Park appears half full during the week and full on weekends. This is a good alternative to some other campgrounds near Coos Bay because there is more room between each site. One downside is there's no camp host at this park. More than one camper let their dog roam free causing problems. In the future I would stay here again and hope for better Neighbors.

We didn’t stay here but we drove through it on our way to hike the sand dunes by John Dellenback Trail. There are a bunch of campsites and a handful of them are big enough for RVs (although I wouldn’t recommend anything bigger than our setup). Some of the sites are back-in and others are pull-through sites. The sites are on the narrow side. It’s all dry camping and $20/night. There are a few water spigots scattered around the campground but they’re not there for RVers to fill up fresh water tanks. The spigots don’t have threads on them. There are two bathroom areas with dumpsters. The John Dellenback Trail can be accessed from the campground. This is a 2.5-mile (or 3.5-mile depending on who you talk to) one-way hike out to the ocean. There is also a trail across from the last bathroom of the main campground loop that leads out to the sand dunes and it’s a shorter hike out to the dunes than if you go on the John Dellenback Trail, which worked out great for my older dog.

The sand dunes are right behind the campground! They just can’t be seen from the campground because of all the trees. The sand dunes here are the tallest dunes out of all the dunes in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and they are accessible to hikers – no ATVs or horses allowed.

I didn’t notice a dump station by the campground but the Oregon Dunes Visitor Information & Interpretive Center in Reedsport has a dump station ($5), but I didn't look to see if there's potable water there.