Samoa Boat Ramp County Park

What a disappointment. All showers were closed with no explanation. A crazy woman apparently staying in a tent in the campground with loud, shouting outbursts could be heard from the campground all day and all night. The price for what you get is robbery. $25 per night. Welcome to California! 🤣😬😞There is a host on site. The north end campsites at the edge of the parking lot are nicer because they are right on Humbolt Bay. But only have a fire pit, no picnic bench. The sites on the western edge of the lot have no waterfront view but have fire pits and a picnic table. The restrooms are open and there is a place for your trash. Like many other rigs, I did not disconnect my trailer. Like many others, this is only an overnight stop. There is a trail on the south side of the lot leading to a small beach and the trail continues on to a very small day use area and connects to an off roading trail that continues south. I only went to the day use area and turned around and came back, since the sun was setting. Didn’t know how many other crazy people might be wandering around. Not a great place, but might be okay for an overnight if you have a way to secure yourself and all your stuff. The lady yelling all day and night was very disturbing. Why do they let people like that stay at the campground and ruin everyone else’s experience? I don’t think I would come back.

It’s a parking lot but there are tables and fire rings at the sites on the perimeter, showers are not bad and only 50 cents for 5 minutes. Lots of neat trails and day use areas nearby. There is a bar and cafe a half mile down the road at the Samoa Social Club and famous Samoa Cookhouse 3 miles away. Woodley Island Marina has a nice little restaurant for breakfast or dinner if you want something nicer but not too spendy.

Campground felt safe. There is a host on-site to enforce the 7 day limit.

We couldnt find anything around the area seemed everything was full. This is first come first served with coin operated showers n flush toilet on the older side. Basically a parking lot. Some sites had tables n firepit. Seems like local pple living there not sure. There was a camp host with sign dont bother after 8pm. Starlink n good mobile service a bonus. Negative was at nite lots of smoke from firepits get trapped here with the marine fog layer so quality of air not as good as in am. Close to Samoa cookhouse which we tried awesome food there.

Eureka has issues, loads of homeless and zombies. I was really surprised that it’s as bad as it is, with no corrective action.

I chose the boat ramp/rv park because of safety. The lot was very busy and had approximately 30 RVs in it. Most were better quality rigs, and some tent camping.

So far, so good. It’s not great, but it will do until we head further north.

If you’re looking for a $25 paved parking spot, this location is for you! The Moon campground guide gives this area a scenic rating of 7. I have absolutely no idea why. There is natural beauty around the area, but none in this campground (aka parking lot) directly. Great access to Samoa Cookhouse (FANTASTIC stop, BTW), and good enough for a relatively expensive overnight stop.

Somoa Boat Ramp County Park Campground
[Internet. Verizon via iPhone 12: 40 mbps down and 20 mbps up with 29 ms ping.]

I have to compartmentalize in order to review this campground. The campground itself is surprisingly well maintained, however Eureka has an inadequately addressed housing affordability issue as well as a mental health crisis. This gives the campground some shadiness. It’s clear half the people there were living there. No one bothered us. They kept to themselves inside their RVs or tents.

But with that said, I’ll actually review the campground. First off, the campground is FCFS and you do the cash envelope payment thing. The camp host DOES check these in the morning (we watched). The campground is literally a boat ramp parking lot. During the day anyone can park in the lot but you must be a registered camper to stay overnight. There are showers but they were closed. The bathrooms were strangely clean but with lots of cob webs. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I didn’t see any trash on the ground whatsoever in the campground. There’s threaded water spigots so you can technically fill up your tank if no one is occupying the spots in front of the spigots. There is no dump station or power. The sites are $25 which is a lot for what you get.

Just to paint a picture for property and personal safety, I’ll mention some non-campground things because I think it’s relevant in deciding to stay at this campground. According to some research, in the last year or so the city put up no parking signs on the road that leads to the campground. Before, cars lined this road with people sleeping in their cars. That is not the case now. We saw a couple of cars parked on the road in the wee hours of the morning but not many. (I work east coast hours, that’s why we were up.) The homeless issue is quite evident in Eureka city proper. Starbucks has an electronic pin pad on the bathroom doors so people on the street don’t just waltz in and use the bathrooms. One lady with apparent mental issues did come in and ask for hot water so she could put a packet of hot cocoa in it. It seems Walmart is the big place for the displaced road campers and people have reported in forums that the security guard will warn you that’s it’s probably not safe to stay there overnight. (Some Walmarts allow overnight parking.) That the other overnighters can get into fights. We did a lot of research after driving through town to the campground the first time because we wanted to make sure we’d be safe. We were only leaning towards this campground because I couldn’t book anything and this was in between other booked campsites along the 101.

It’s extremely basic and serves as a place to sleep for non-boaters and kayakers. I’d give the campground 3-stars but with the creepiness that whole area has I give it 2-stars.

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[Rig. Mercedes Sprinter. 22 feet]

Dump station? - No
Water fill? - No but they have water spigots
Clean site? - Yes
Clean bathroom? - The toilets are clean but there are some serious cobwebs
Flush toilet? - Yes
Showers? - Yes but they were closed
Laundry? - No
Dish washing sink? - No

i really like this place! it is basically a glorified parking lot but i still really like it. not great for tent camping but you could make it work. the area is clean and rangers come by often. i stayed wednesday-friday. the first night the area was pretty empty with a few overnight campers. by friday the lot was getting a bit full. its such a huge place that you could get a spot without much trouble even on a weekend but all the good spots will be taken. the spots on the western and northern perimeter of the lot have picnic tables and fire rings. if you are tent camping you will want one of these spots as they are the only ones with sand. if you cant manage to snag one of these you will be pitching a tent on asphalt. the weather here is really nice and stays about 55-60 degrees all the time with fog/clouds. i dont like heat so this is perfect for me. if you rely on solar this wouldnt be ideal. the campground is right on the water so at night you can hear the gentle waves. the beach right at the campground is nice as well. if you drive a little bit more down the road you will reach a slighly larger bay beach. on the opposite side of the penisula you can access the pacific ocean and a super long beach perfect for a stroll. the bathrooms are clean enough but sadly the showers are closed. most people here are in an rv so there is generator noise and the sound of atvs, children, talking, dogs, etc. around 10pm it gets silent though.