Lighthouse Cove RV Park

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.

This is a great park on many levels.
1. The staff is very friendly and so helpful
2. Direct access to the quiet beach and walking distance to restaurants and stores
3. Pet-friendly
4. Short drive from Jedediah State Park, which has beautiful hikes
5. Great cell service and internet for working
6. Easy access and good size sites

Will definitely be back.

We paid a little extra to get a site backing up to the water. The site is large and grassy and the view is very nice, with the lighthouse, water, wind surfers, etc. There is a path to the beach right next to this site. It is also a great location for a short drive to see the beautiful redwoods. There are quite a few potholes, but if you go slow you’ll be ok. The check-in person was very nice and recommended the Howland Hill drive, which we really enjoyed. Kind of surprised, however, by the sound from the lighthouse (?) that occurs every 9 seconds, 24/7. It’s not an issue if there is rain hitting the roof, tv or a/c noise (didn’t need a/c here), but in those quiet moments, it feels a bit like the battery is going dead in a smoke alarm somewhere on the other side of your house.

Overall, a nice place that may or may not drive you batty. We made light of the noise by letting out random “bloooo”’s during conversation and didn’t end up spending a lot of time at the site - the trees are where the action is!

With immediate beach access, and a view of the lighthouse this place is a find. Although it’s a treeless big open lot, it was easy in and out. Hood WiFi and cell coverage. The staff was awesome especially Ed. The facility and grounds are ok, but everything else supersede and of those small shortcomings

The fog horn and channel marker noise just added to the experience

It was pretty windy here, 20mph in the afternoon. We had to be caret not to lose our door in the wind, most sites are out in the open, next time I would ask for a site that is partially protected.
The facilities are nice and clean, it looks like they are spending money on the park to make it better, they said they plan to pave the roads next year.
Lots of paved trails along the waterfront for walking or biking
It's definitely a good stopping point if you are traveling down the coast