Van Duzen River Dispersed Camping

I came here despite previous reviews because it was convenient to my route. I opted to stay a second day because it was so lovely.
Yes, you do have to drive through a poorer neighborhood, welcome to free camping.
The gps coordinates take you to an uninteresting spot however it is level and would work nicely for a big rig, if you dared the windy roads of 36. For something smaller, take the turn on the right for riverfront camping, it's very scenic and level. Not sure if the river is higher due to all the snow but it sounds as pretty as it looks :)
Some Verizon coverage but used Starlink more as it was in a clearing

After driving through the town of hoarder style homes, right outside the town is this “camp” which is basically a pull off on both sides of the road with undefined camp areas. One of the maybe six “areas” was filled with garbage. I never do reviews but felt that I must warn others looking for clean, fun, family camping to avoid this “camping spot.” If you drive approximately one hour further on the main road going west, we found a beautiful, clean, family friendly site with Redwood trees!
This spot- #notacampingspot

There are a few “dispersed” spots here on both sides of the road, also some more space a couple miles up the road at a horse staging area. The spots are all kind of out in the open, can be seen from the road, and get constant traffic from logging trucks pulling over and locals dumping trash in the woods. Got the feeling more than a few times that locals were stopping and staring. There were at least 3 burnt out rvs on the road within a mile, also found a dead dog by the river which really creeped us out a bit.
There is a scary burger trailer/bar 8 miles south on the highway which encompasses “downtown Mad River”, an extremely overpriced grocery/gas/hardware store 8 miles north on the highway, and a ranger station 4 miles up the road; thats about it. Only 1 bar Verizon LTE at the campsite (when in the perfect spot), no data just voice/text. Ranger station up the road had full verizon data though.
The Van Duzen river is gorgeous further NE up the highway, just not at this section. Might have decent fishing here in season. Redwood forests are accessible about an hour up the highway.
Not sure i woukd drive rt36 again in my rig. I have a 40’ skoolie and averaged 20mph for 150 miles of rt36 (speed limit 55). The road is paved and well-maintained but riddled with steep grades and switchbacks. There were 3-4 rockslide areas that were being cleaned up, i could imagine getting stuck back there for weeks after a bad slide. I would NOT recommend oversized big rigs for rt36, a 5th wheel or Class A towing a trailer would be terrifying, but fine for a Class C or A by itself or travel trailer.

Very glad we checked this place out. The road to get here cuts by a school and a residential area before it takes you to this spot. Because there are houses within a half-mile, I could see this place becoming crowded often. However, we came on a Tuesday and had the place to ourselves.

There are two connected dirt lots you can pull into off Van Duzen road, one has a nice amount of shade. You can also drive town right next to the river- in fact, a truck crossed the river while we were there.

We were greeted by a friendly ranger within a half hour of setting up. He let us know that despite the signs in the area, fires were allowed with a permit (which he gave to us free and on the spot). He also let us know that further down Van Duzan Road there was another camping spot called Crook's Creek that was more wooded- worth checking out if this site is full.

The closeness to the river was excellent. We came in early July, there were mild mosquitos at night but we did not encounter any ticks. I would have given this place 5 stars were it not right off the main road (quiet at night but pretty active in the early morning).

There was a small amount of trash around, but not much. If you camp here, you will be digging poop holes, so come prepared. Be ready to pack it out and leave no trace to keep this place beautiful for the next group.