Samoa Boat Ramp County Park

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
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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.

If you are not tent camping then i reccomend this place. The winds get pretty rough durring the day.

The beaches are beautiful and the dunes are only a mile away which is nice. The bay view is wonderful and its just far enough from Eureka to not experience the tweeker population.

Over all i would reccomend this spot for short term camping.

We stayed here a few years ago and returned to spend a couple nights. It certainly not fancy but it is next to the water and you can walk the beach on the bay side for a nice time. At night we watched the Coast Guard Helicopters training in the channel...very cool.

I highly recommend this location. Make sure to check out Somoa Dunes, a short distance from the park and consider walking the jetty into the ocean...very exciting with spectacular views.

We have stayed here a few times on our way through Eureka. Open parking lot style camping out of town but right on the water. No hook-ups but there is water available. There are bathrooms and pay showers but we have never used them.

BEWARE-the area is frequented at night by transients that live in their cars and squat at the campground at night. They are usually gone in the morning. Don't leave anything outside you don't want stolen. Also seriously beware of the raccoons. They come out at night in packs.

Our spot at the Samoa Boat Ramp County Park was right on the water, and there were only a few other rigs here. The camp host was helpful and kept the grounds tidy.

We were here in May, and the ticks and mosquitoes were crazy. We avoided walking through the grass and near the ice plants but still had to do a tick check every time we got back in the trailer.

HDTV worked great (CBS) and so did NPR.