Lighthouse Cove RV Park

Verizon speeds fast enough to hit my plan cap of 50 Mbps download and 5 upload. ATT was 191/45. Verizon via a roof mounted Pepwave antenna, ATT via smartphone.

We rolled in without reservations on a Thursday and it was sparsely populated. We were able to snag one of the premium sites backing up to the ocean with a good view of the lighthouse. The site was gravel and lightly unlevel side to side. Sites were fairly spacious. The camp host came out to help us check-in before their official opening hours.

No issues with any homeless or theft. Power was stable. The threads on our sewer hookup didn't work. There's a bit of noise here from sea lions and a navigation beacon. The beacon didn't bother us much because we'd been in another area with one for a week.

No tree cover

Crescent City has been ruined by crime and homeless. This RV park is no exception. When we pulled in they offered us a huge chain and lock for our bikes because they said homeless come around during the night and steal stuff particularly bikes. It’s a sweet location, close to the beach, but being uneasy about your stuff makes it crappy. Also the fog horn is annoying. Blares every 10 seconds 24-7. We stayed one night and planned two but we’re outta here.

First, the basics: the campground is a collection of back-in and pull-through sites with full hookups and decent site spacing. The interior roads and site pads are hard dirt with embedded gravel, and each site has a small square concrete patio and a grass lawn. Some of the back-in sites on the perimeter are under or near trees that provided a little shade. Next to the small office is a building containing bathrooms and showers as well as a laundry room (all secured by coded locks). There are two dumpster areas on opposite sides of the park along with dog waste stations and decorative statues. There were plenty of places to walk our dogs, especially near the front of the campground.

What makes the campground special is its location. It is right on the shore of Crescent Harbor, with a view of the Pacific Ocean to the south. A walking path between sites 12 and 13 goes over the earthen berm and leads right out onto the sandy beach, where dogs are allowed to be off-leash. At low tide you can walk quite a way out into the harbor (although the sand out there is more like mud and you’ll want proper footwear or no footwear at all). The northwest side of the campground ends at an embankment next to Elk Creek, which would widen and narrow with the tide and was frequented by waterfowl. We stayed in site 37 (considered by some of the campground staff to be one of the best sites), which gave us a view of the creek out our back window and harbor views from our living area windows.

At the front of the campground is a paved bike trail that leads to the marina area on one end and to the public pier and lighthouse on the other end, making it easy to explore the waterfront area without a car. I took one early morning walk to the lighthouse and saw crabs and starfish in the tidal pools; another morning I walked to the other side of the marina and saw the sea lions and seals napping on the floating docks.

In terms of cell service, the best speed I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna the Sunday we arrived was (according to the speed test sites) about 20Mbps down and 1Mbps up. But I had no trouble working and we were able to stream video with almost no buffering. The best speed I got on my AT&T smartphone was 49Mbps down and 28 up.

Two things that could be considered negatives. There is a horn in the harbor which sounds like a fog horn that goes off every 7-8 seconds and lasts for about 2 seconds. Sometimes it’s very noticeable, sometimes you can barely hear it: I guess either the horn volume or the acoustics of the harbor change. Even when it was noticeable in the RV, we were able to tune it out and it didn’t disrupt our sleep. The other thing is that there are a few homeless people who reside in that area of the city, particularly around the public park on the other side of Elk Creek. None of them ever ventured into the campground though.

We would stay here again if we were in the area.

The park was easy to find. It is located just off of highway 101. Signage is adequate. There is pavement all the way until you arrive at the park. Check in was efficient and friendly. The rules are fairly basic.
Our site, 25, was a nose in that was long enough for our Coach and Towed. Services (30/50 amp, water and sewer and cable TV) were to the left side. Distancing is very reasonable for an urban park. There is no vegetation barriers or foliage to speak of other than grass, Each site has a table (in season) concrete patio, power (30/50) water, sewer and cable TV.. Our site was flat and even. Hardly an effort to level. Overall the park was clean and well manicured. The interior roads however, were atrocious! It is impossible to dodge potholes….wait, craters!!
The included wifi worked very well with a log in password. We did find a few OTA TV. Satellite would not be a problem as there are no trees to hinder reception. The included Cable TV worked very well but with very few channel options. We did not use the washrooms or pay showers but we checked and found them clean.
There is NOT a pathway to the beach that we found. One has to endure the hazards of stumbling down the broken concrete chunk barrier to get to the beach. Once over the obstacle course one can walk forever. We did note some trash along the shore line but not too much.
Within walking distance (about a mile) are two seafood restaurants. Fisherman’s and Crescent Seafood. Crescent was highly recommended by the Camp Host. We did not try either. There are many other dining options as well as most other services within an easy drive. We found this park to be a well run urban RV park (except the roads). We paid $50.00 for an ocean front site plus $1.00 for the dog and $5.05 Tax for a total of 56.05 per night and we feel we received very good value. We will be back if in the area again. Be advised, this is a very popular park in season so book ASAP.

The sites aren't as close together as you might expect for an in-city campground, though there are no trees or other screening between them. It's a close base from which to explore Jedediah Smith State Park, and still pick up groceries, etc in town. We didn't use the laundry or restrooms so I can't comment on those.

Pros:
- Staff is friendly, work to keep the place nice, provide maps and info on things to do, restaurants etc. They seem to keep a watchful eye on who's coming and going.
- Spaces aren't super close to one another, as in many commercially-owned parks.
- GREAT beach access. The cove is big and super shallow so at low tide the water leaves lots of beach. Saw a few folks clamming at low tide. At high tide, the water comes up almost to the berm the sites back up to.
- Great place to watch the kite surfers, flocks of pelicans, storm watch, and listen to the seals.
- Nice back-in spaces along the shoreline for great views.
- Good wifi, cable. T-Mobile had 3 bars of 5G.
- Hookups all in good shape.
- Concrete pad next to your site for your own chairs, picnic table, etc.
- Sites are so level we didn't need to do any leveling at all

Cons (none of which are the park's fault)
- There's a marine signal horn on the jetty that sounds loudly every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day. It's not bad if there's wind to muffle it or you turn a fan on, but when it was quiet it kept me up all night.
- Crescent City itself has become pretty sketchy. You can't go to the Safeway or the Home Depot without at least a couple of tweakers on bikes cruising up and down the parking lot looking for opportunities. One even followed us into the lighthouse parking lot and then not-so-discreetly waited for us to leave our vehicle to walk out to the lighthouse. We decided to wait for another time. We didn't see any in the RV Park, and I think that's due to the efforts of the hosts, but there's nothing preventing anyone from coming in from the city park next to it.
- The city water tastes horrible - even our two filters don't get rid of the chemical taste. Our coffee and soup came out tasting like wet paper towels.

For an RV campground right in town, this was good enough for our needs, which was for a base from which we could explore Redwoods. The sites are not too smashed together with nice grassy areas all around and concrete pads to picnic on. We got a spot that backed right up to the water, which made for a nice, big play area for kids and dog. The beach gets huge during low tide. However, there are a couple of fog horns that are rather close and not sync'd. This has been a fact of life at all the campgrounds we've stayed on along the Pacific Coast from WA to here the past several weeks. This one is not much worse, but was the first time it started to affect sleep. But earplugs did the trick; it was not an issue during the daytimes. Again, not specific to this park. Grounds are well maintained. Roads are all gravel: not an issue for me personally, but kids seemed to care. There are no trees, so high wind days can be blustery. Solid wifi and cell signal on T-Mobile. Staff was very friendly and super helpful pointing out things to do and recommended driving routes. Great location from which to check out beaches, lighthouses, town, and Redwoods.

When we pulled in, I wondered if we had made a mistake booking our stay here. Grass between the site was rather brown, and the gravel roads were somewhat worn. But we decided to stay...didn't really have a plan b. Glad we did. Our site backed up onto the bay, making for some pleasant afternoons/evenings just passing the time looking out from the beach.
We came to the area to be able to walk among the Redwoods....and they did not disappoint. So majestic! It's amazing to think these giants have been here reaching slowly skyward for hundreds of years. In addition, Crescent City has a nice drive along the shore (Pebble Beach Drive) with plenty of spots to park and either walk down to the beach or enjoy the view from your car. As others have noted, Crescent is a beach town, without being a resort tourist carnival. We liked it enough that we ended up putting it on our short list of places to spend a goodly amount of time in once we retire.