Humboldt County Fairgrounds

Good base location for things in the area. The hosts are nice, lots of mature trees, green grass and places to walk around the fairgrounds. The 2 downfalls are: 1) The bathrooms. Beat up, neglected, dirty. I used them once. Then just used my tiny trailers potty. Lots of hair in the shower stall floors. Needs a complete work over. Humboldt County Fairgrounds should be ashamed of this bathhouse.

2) The Dump station was covered up and unusable, really gross. We were directed to Fortuna Shell Station when we left.

People living here but everyone seemed tidy and friendly. A little road noise as the road in is well used by the locals going to and from Ferndale.

Stinky cow pastures close by but thats part of the fun.

We wanted to get away from the smoke of all the fires and didn't want to spend a lot. We had hook ups except for sewer, but they do have a dump station. Host were friendly and we would stay there again. Great, cheap base camp. You can see many things from this base camp. The only reason we gave 4 stars was the traffic going in and out, they drove fast thru there.

There’s nothing spectacular here, as it is a county fairground. I stayed in the area without hook ups as I am self-contained. The cost was $12. Showers are included in that price. It was a mix of trailers, vans, and tents. Everyone was pretty close together, but it was quiet, and I slept well. When I checked in, there was a woman on a bicycle in front of me and the hosts were explaining in detail where this woman might want to camp other than the fairgrounds. Very thoughtful and kind.
If you need hook ups, I think the cost is $28, and there were some relatively large rigs parked there.
I wish that all campground hosts were as nice as this couple.

We were sitting in our site at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, looking to get out of the heat and mainly the smoke from all the fires in our area and doing a lot of fruitless searching until we saw a FB post from a guy who had just pulled into this place. We called and spoke to Ken (nice guy) who said that while they don't take reservations, we should have no trouble getting a site. So we drove up (in smoke most of the way) and are sure glad we made the drive. We are parked inside the fair gate, on the midway and were rewarded with an amazing sunset that first night. The sites inside the gate are not numbered and we got to pick the one we wanted. I suspect they are where the food trucks park when the fair is going on. You park beside one of two big yards and there is water and electric and a dump station behind the building that houses the Eel River Model Railroad Club. There is also a number of spaces outside the gate, on grass, but we are on asphalt. The fairgrounds are on the NW edge of town in a very peaceful setting. We have been walking on the horse racetrack in the evenings. We paid our $28/day fee to Diane (Ken's wife) who is also very nice. There is a $5 fee to dump and/or take a shower. Unrelated, but the same price. If you stay here, you have to go to Ferndale Pizza, it is some of the best we've ever eaten. We got the Wildcat and asked them to add onions. You also have to check out Sweetness and Light, which is a small candy store that makes it's own candy. Check out the "about us" story, that is so sweet.

California isn't a cheap place to visit but this site is priced well for boondocking or for those who need services.

When boondocking the parking lot is flat with access to the dumpsite. The dumpsite is a bit hard to locate in the dark. Nothing overly fancy about the place but it worked for a night. The bathrooms are in need of some TLC but still the best place to camp in this area.

Nice affordable location in Humboldt County. Fairly level sites with water and electricity at a reasonable rate. 15 minutes walk to Ferndale. Bathrooms a little rundown but lots of hot water in shower. Dump is in an odd location on the on the northern edge of the fairgrounds along the fence behind a building, you will have to ask where it is to find it. Lots of sites available. Good Humboldt PBS stations on over the air TV. Will keep it on my list of a place to return to.

Bare bones campground and this ended up being our first time camping without sewage. Site was pretty level for being grass and dirt. I checked out the bathroom and decided on military showers in my RV. My daughter chose the public bathroom and said there was plenty of hot water. It took me a couple if walks to find the dump station (behind the first fairground building). Next to the dump station is a few trailers in bad shape with people living in them. The camp host is across the dirt road from me. I have seen several people asking questions but I have yet to talk to them. They were outside their motorhome about 1230AM making enough noise that I went to investigate. As far as shady people, I have seen people pull up to use the locked bathrooms and drive away as well as a homeless couple sleeping on the bench near the front office.

Stayed here overnight on a July weekend and there was a dog show at the fairgrounds which was kind of fun but no hook up sites were available. They have field parking for dry camping which is what we did, then watched some of the dog show in the morning. There was also a foul (birds) event at the fairgrounds as well. Seems the fairgrounds are used regularly. They have a nice little campground and a very friendly host. The rodeo/horse races/town fair is August 16-26, 2018 and it sounds like this campground and dry camp areas are completely full during that period so if you are planning to come through during that time, I would avoid the fairgrounds. The campground has Wifi but it is extremely slow. It might get better if it was a quieter weekend or during the week but I found it more reliable to hit the road and pick up Wifi at the next Starbucks/McDonalds. The bathrooms have showers but it's not the cleanest facilities I've seen. Registration is done with the camp host, but the fairgrounds do have an office as well.

A three-star campground given an extra star for being a reasonably priced option on the California coast.

Humboldt County Fairgrounds is located walking distance to downtown Ferndale, a cute little town with Victorian structures and a cool cemetery. The fairgrounds is surrounded by pasture and cows, making for a slightly pungent odor that you get used to pretty quick.

The campground is a plot of grass with hookups, bathrooms, showers, and a dump station. When I was there in April 2018 there were two campground hosts, though I never saw either. I paid for my site at the fairgrounds front desk, which is located next to the campground and is open during the day. They also provided information on the town, the nearest beach, and directions to a neat coastal lookout.

Campsites are $28, but the fairgrounds also allows dry camping in their parking lot for $12. Kudos to them for this second option, which I gladly took them up on. They didn't mind a portable solar panel being placed in the parking lot, either.

Showers weren't too clean but the hot water was plentiful. The dump station is not at the campground but around the back of one of the fair buildings. Behind that building were three or four permanent rigs in rough shape...not sure what was up with that but it wasn't an issue. I didn't even notice them until we utilized the dump station.

I didn't see any sketchy characters. There is some traffic through the parking lot as the fairgrounds is used a park for baseball, football, etc. It was quiet overnight. My first night there I was woken up at 2:00 a.m. with an air raid siren. Since the fairgrounds is in a tsunami zone I called police dispatch to double check what the siren was for - it's the call to arms for the local volunteer fire department. FYI if that happens to you. I imagine an actual tsunami warning would last longer than the 2-3 minutes it did for the fire department.

Enough AT&T for me to work, hovering around 7/mbps down. Overall, a relaxing and inexpensive place to stay after too many nights of paying California campground prices.

I was here New Years 'Eve, so the noise level from a rental party was unusually late. Once they left (about 2am) it was very quiet and peaceful, which I would think, is the norm.

The shower was very good and very hot. The bathroom could use some cleaning (especially taking the spider webs down). The bathroom is pretty cold, but the shower was SO hot and unlimited! And included with the $12 dry camp fee!

The host was friendly without being too friendly.

I was in the paved, level parking lot not far from the bathroom.