Lighthouse Cove RV Park

We stopped here in late April, 2013 when the park was near empty except for what appeared to be some fairly long term residents. We stayed in a W/E site that had a great view of the lighthouse in the sunset but the site was very rough. The facility is old and really needs some loving care, but the washing machines worked and the water was hot in the showers.

Access is a bit tricky. The entrance is very close to a traffic circle.

For what California has to offer in the way of oceanfront RV parks, Shoreline is one of the very best we've found. We stayed in 1991 when the park had many trashy looking locals residing. About 10 years ago we checked it out with the dinghy and it had further deteriorated. Having read that major improvements had been made, we revisited. It's great. Mid-November we got a front row pull in site that gave our Class A front window an awesome vista of Crescent City Harbor. Any seasoned Class A traveler will readily acknowledge how rare pull in sites are. A small concrete patio is provided where a DP door would be. Gravel pads provided excellent support for our 37' gasser at a time when the area was saturated with much needed precipitation. The grass between the sites could use some weed killer but looked good. And the view out our front window . . . We've paid 3 times the price for lesser waterfront views on the rare occasion when we could find them. In a separate area (so no dreaded side-by-side hook-ups) towables can be backed into harbor front sites also. The ever present distant foghorn simply added to the coastal ambience for me as did the occasional barking of sea lions. This park is the model the state of California needs to follow with its aging, over-priced, overcrowded beach area RV parks. The city of Eureka is to be commended for providing this well designed facility at a bargain price. (An added benefit is the access to a bike path at the very entrance of the park. It's a nice ride for the casual rider.)

If you are looking to get out of the dark redwood forest, this is the RV park for you. There is not a single tree in the entire lot. The woman who checked us in said the place has been completely remodeled and reopened last May. You can get a back-in site at the water's edge, otherwise they are all pullthroughs.The roads are gravel and the sites are a gravel pad with a grassy area between. Though it has been raining a lot, there wasn't an overwhelming amount of standing water. Our was mostly level and required only one lego. Each has a concrete patio, but no picnic table. The restrooms were clean, but two of the showers in the women's room were out of order, leaving only one. From speaking with the front desk woman, it didn't sound like that was going to change any time soon. Cell service was good.

We like to keep things positive. We've stayed at a lot of parks and campgrounds, and even when there's bad, there's good.

Here's the good at Shoreline:
-If you're in sites 14-28, you'll have a view Crescent Harbor with its lighthouse, and you'll be able to climb over the rocks to get to the beach, which is nearly always empty
-Crescent City has some decent restaurants and grocery stores, and it's a good launch point for exploring redwoods and the coast
-Verizon and AT&T signals are strong
-The laundry and shower facilities are fine
-One of the camp hosts is easy to work with and gave us no problems
-Perlita's Mexican Restaurant across the street is so tasty, and we adore their staff and food (and we're Texans, so we know good Mexican food!)

Unfortunately, the bad is a lot longer, and mostly centers around the rest of the management.

We decided to book a month-long stay at Shoreline to get a low rate (nightly is around $35), and we had to pay the full amount up front. We did see that there was a sign that said no refunds. Within 24 hours of our arrival, our bike seat and post were stolen right off our bike, which was chained securely to our RV. The police came to take a report and mentioned there is a meth problem in town, which leads to thefts.

Suddenly feeling unsafe and nervous about staying a whole month, we asked the office if they would consider refunding us a portion of our stay so we could leave without losing hundreds of dollars. The camp hosts passed the request on to their boss (Crescent City Planning Department) who simply said "no." When we said we'd call the Planning Department to discuss with them further, he told us, to do "whatever our pretty little heart desires" in a tone that felt disparaging.

We did call the Planning Department and left a message asking them to reconsider our request, providing more information about the circumstances. Unfortunately, we never even got a call back. We understand that we weren't entitled to the refund in any way, but we felt ignored. It felt like the City had no empathy for our plight, and that they didn't even care enough about our safety to have a conversation with us.

On top of this, one of the camp hosts told us that a refund had been issued to a previous guest under different circumstances, so it seemed the "no refund" policy was not as strict as they were making it out to be.

That same camp host made comments in front of us that, in our opinion, were overtly racist in nature, and he acted in ways that we felt were rude towards us several times. Needless to say, it made us uncomfortable to interact with him.

Moving away from the management, the roads in the park are all gravel and full of pot holes which can fill with murky water when it rains. This means RVers can't see the bottom to know how deep they are.

There is a nearly-incessant "toot" sound from the harbor that started to really wear on us after we had been there for a few weeks. It sounds about every 5 seconds (sometimes pausing for an hour or two, but often going even into the night).

The bottom line: Were the negatives limited to a rocky parking lot and an annoying sound, we could handle that. The location is nice, and it's a quick drive into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. But some of the staff made this place a really unpleasant stay for us, where we felt trapped the whole time. Sadly, we can't recommend it to other campers based on our experience.

We originally planned to just stay a few days, but ended up extending because it was a positive experience! Especially after reading some of the reviews on here, we didn't expect much.

Regarding Management: I was a little hesitant to interact with the management because of some of the bad experiences on here, but I was pleasantly surprised and I actually really LOVED interacting with the couple that ran this place! The woman was super helpful in finding us a spot that would be great for our kids and next to people that would be tolerant and nice to our (not always quiet) kids. She happily found us the perfect large spot! Her husband who is also a manager was fun to talk with and he was super kind to my son who came in with me to check in. A chatterbox for sure, but a sweet grandpa. Yes we did hear about a theft problem that they occasionally have happen in the area, but the managers were able to give me their side of the story and how they are trying really hard to make sure there aren't shifty looking people in their RV park. The local police don't seem to be able to help much, so the managers are doing their best to help protect the area. We were warned by RV neighbors to lock up our bikes well, so we put a heavier duty lock and we had absolutely no issues, and we felt safe the whole time.

Our lot backed up to the estuary and it was absolutely perfect for my kids who love to be out of doors. In the morning hours, I would go outside and enjoyed watching the Great Blue Heron really nearby trying to catch his breakfast, and we frequently saw lots of different birds and wildlife including some gutsy squirrels.

The weather was very foggy almost the whole time we were there, and a bit humid, but cool temperatures (I recommend bringing jackets as they said the temperature stays the same all year round). Even though there is wildlife nearby, I didn't see any bugs whatsoever (besides a very few mosquitos after dark) in August. I was amazed!

I used the laundry facilities and they were outdated machines, but worked just fine. Only $1.25 per load. We didn't really use any of the other facilities, but were grateful for the full hookups and 50amp.

Overall I would definitely recommend! Especially if you can get a spot that is backed up to the estuary or the beach. The other spots in the middle were very plain with not much to them.

Clean showers. Cheap laundry facilities. No fire pits. It’s nice for a couple of nights. The surrounding area is a little sketchy. The seals make lots of noise and the foghorn blares all night. But it wasn’t a dealbreaker.

In town, easy access to stores, Redwoods, beaches. Good hookups. If you are able to secure a waterfront site (14-26) you'll looking directly out to the bay and you'll feel like you are alone in your spot. The gravel road does have some potholes (they really show up when it rains). The only trees are along the edges of the park. You'll hear sea lions, seagulls, buoy bells, the fog horn (every 5 seconds), the waves, in other words 'all things marine'.

We needed a place to stay and saw the place was close to Oceanworld. Very clean and convenient location. We have three young children, they loved the creek and the beach.

Lovely little 1 night spot on our way through town. Nice walking/bike path around the area. Cute little beach with sights, sounds, and smells of a typical ocean beach town. Seemed there was good access to all that downtown Crescent City has to offer.
Front desk person was very friendly and accommodating. We used the showers which were hot, free, clean, and had good water pressure. Full hookups - but our cable TV connector was so corroded you couldn’t thread the connection.
We had a nice peek-a-boo view of the bay through some large class-A’s that looked like they were parked there for the season.
Several reviews comment on the tooting of the navigational aids for boats (assuming this is a fog horn?); it sounds like a car horn honking from about 3 blocks away every 5 seconds. We didn’t find this to be annoying or a deal breaker but I could see how some less forgiving landlubber might be put off by it.

My husband and I decided to spend a month in Crescent City to check it out a bit. This is definitely one of the nicer parks in town. Right on the water and only about $18 a night if you stay a month. The spaces are nicely spaced apart. You never feel cramped even when you have campers on either side. There’s a nice little private beach area that was located right in front of our space. Although, when the tide is low, there’s a nice large beach in front that you can walk to easily get to the Harbor. There isn’t a ton of stuff going on here, or is a very small town, but there’s a lot of beauty and every store you could possibly need. The laundry facilities are clean and cheap. There are only 3 washers and dryers without a coin machine. But that wasn’t a problem for us. We loved our stay here and would definitely come back if we happened to be in the area. The only thing that might bother you is the constant horn going off from the lighthouse. That personally didn’t bother us, but it’s something to keep in mind.