South Beach State Park

We scored a last minute reservation (only 4 spots open the third week of October) and luckily it had a spot long enough for our truck and trailer.

Covid closed: showers, Junior Ranger program, yurts, group sites
Open: playground, restrooms, trails to the beach, 18 hole disc golf course

There are lots of trails from the campground, many of which are paved. There’s even a boardwalk area to the dunes overlooking the ocean with interpretative signs and interesting info. In the area most stuff is Covid closed, but in normal times Newport has a lot to see.

Our section of the campground was quiet, even though it was very full. Mainly saw travel trailers. Some sections would be tight turns for larger units. I don’t remember seeing any pull through sites. Decent Verizon cell/data coverage.

This park has ALOT of RV sites with ample loops. The sites are actually spread out well and divided by landscaping. About 1/2 mile walk to the beach, closer depending on your site.

Pros
lots of sites so likely you can find a site
beach is nice if weather is nice
close to town
they sell ice, firewood

Cons:
Kids playground closed
Baths and showers closed
Long dumps station lines because they only have one dump station (sites do not have sewer)
(If you are taking longer then 5 minutes at the dump station, you are doing it wrong.)
Warning horn from the jetty all night long
Sites don't drain well if it rains hard

Granted it was during a pandemic, but this was just too tight & crowded for us. It’s a good location for young families with many paved surfaces for bikes, disc golf, and and easy enough beach access, but our inside site was not very pretty & it was a bit cold even in July. Plus, there is a 24-hour warning sound from the jetty that will disturb light sleepers! If staying here, definitely go for one of the outside spots, which offer more space and privacy.

Pretty standard state park on the coast. Here's my negative thoughts: There's beach access, but it can be a bit of a hike. And the mosquitos are out of control in spots such as the hiking trails to the beach and the RV dump station. (Full on mosquito swarms)

Other than those negative items, it's a very nice state park. It's close to civilization so the phone service is pretty good. (Could be considered a negative for some) It's a good size park, lots of room for the kids to ride their bikes around. The playground is kept up nicely. Lots of well kept fields for tossing the ball around as well. We had a large spot in the "D" loop, which is a plus for us. Lots of trees for shade and breaking up the wind.

We will return here.

If you want to be on the beach in Oregon, this is as good as it gets. We could walk from our site to the ocean in about 10 minutes. The park is located just over the Yaquina Bridge from the downtown area, and the Yaquina Outstanding Natural Area is about 20 minutes away. The park's location is fantastic.

Because this was a state park, we had more space than we would have had at a commercial park, however, we still felt pretty close to our neighbors. There was a ton of greenery which helped a lot. We just wish the spaces were a bit bigger.

Otherwise, sites were mostly level, though some were better than others. The park only offers water/electric, but there are helpful gray water dump stations throughout the campground, so if you have a plastic bin you can put in your sink, you can collect your dish water and dump it at the stations, saving precious gray tank space. The main dump station is severely lacking in that there is only one dump station for well over 100 campsites. This is simply not enough. We lucked out with just a short 20 minute wait, but we can imagine how bad it would be on a weekend. The roads are reasonable, but tight. Like everything in the campground, they just seem overly busy and compact.

Overall, while we liked this park, it wasn't our favorite. It just felt too busy and compact. The neighbors were a bit close, the roads were a bit narrow, the dump station was insufficient, etc. We loved the park's location for exploring the nearby area, and we would certainly stay here again, but when comparing it to other state parks we've visited around the country, it didn't rank particularly high.

I stayed here on a December road trip up the coast. It was awesome and empty. Very open and spacious but I could see it being loud and busy in the summer. I had no neighbors at all and I stayed in an electric site with my car, and only paid for a tent site - I guess the tent section was closed. But of course I was told not to use the hook up.
Lovely trails to the beach. All the tsunami warning signs kinda creeped me out haha.

Hi all. Overall good OR state park. We went at peak of summer so very busy. It is not a ‘get away from it all’ kind of place. Big groups, lots of kids, bikes, dogs.
Favorite things about park:
Trails to ocean.
Location to other area attractions
HOT water!
Friendly neighbors

The not so great:
Sand spurs in doggy paws
Only 1 dump station so a long line
Limited privacy - trees don’t provide too much of a barrier
A bit noisy

Our favorite things we did in the area;
Ona beach to Seal rock beach walk
Visiting Cooks Chasm / Thor’s Well
Yaquina light house and the cobblestone beach
Nye beach Taphouse

Happy travels!

This is a huge campground (227 E/W, 60 tent, 27 yurts, plus group sites) and most of the traffic passes along a main two-way thoroughfare. Even early in the season, the traffic was near constant so pick a spot on the far side of the loops if you can.

The sites are paved and level but relatively close together without much in the way of vegetation for privacy. Also note that many of the sites have huge puddles a couple of inches deep after the rain – and this is the Pacific Coast so it rains a lot! We debated tying the kayak outside the RV door – ok, it wasn’t quite that bad. 😊

Each site has a picnic table and firepit. Bathrooms and showers were fine. There are lots of camp hosts zipping around in their golf carts keeping things spiffy.

The real attraction is the beach and that bumps this campground from 3 to 4 stars. We had a great time romping on the lovely miles of clean, pet friendly beach. In mid-March it wasn’t crowded at all. We also liked both the paved (South Jetty Trail) and nature trails (Cooper Ridge and Old Jetty Trail) that wind through the Shore Pines.

The campground is close to Newport. Highly recommend the Saturday Farmers Market! Local Ocean Seafood is a great place if you want to dine out. The town has plenty of tourist kitsch and the vocal sea lions make for an entertaining stroll along the marina.

We had 3 bars of Verizon 4G unboosted.