Bird/Wildlife Watching

Sun Outdoors Coos Bay

62 RV Sites, 1 Cabin, 9 Tent Sites, 6 Cottages

At 90281 Cape Arago Highway in Coos Bay, Oregon—on the central Oregon Coast where the Cape Arago headland, the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and the most productive Dungeness crab fishery on the Pacific Coast converge in an environment of sea stacks, beach, dunes, and estuary that makes the Coos Bay area Oregon's most oceanographically diverse coastal destination—Sun Outdoors Coos Bay positions premium pull-through RV sites within three minutes' walk of the Pacific, offers complimentary crab pots with designated cooking and cleaning areas, and provides the cottages and seaside shanty rentals that give guests who came specifically for the crabbing, the tide pools, and the Cape Arago viewpoints the range of accommodation options that a multi-day Oregon Coast stay requires. The beach is three minutes by foot; the crab pots are loaned at no charge; and the tide pools at Shore Acres and Cape Arago State Park are 10 minutes by car. Premium pull-through RV sites with full hookup service—50-amp electric, water, and sewer—accommodate rigs up to 60 feet, the largest motorhome configurations in current production, with the site infrastructure that the Oregon Coast's year-round camping population requires for extended stays in the maritime climate. Each site includes a leveled gravel pad, cable and WiFi service, a picnic table, and a fire pit. Well-maintained bathhouses and laundry facilities handle the practical daily needs, and a dog wash station keeps the sand-covered beach dogs manageable for the next morning. Complimentary crab pots available for guest use, alongside designated crab-cooking areas and cleaning stations, give the campground its most functionally specific amenity—the gear and the infrastructure to bring Dungeness crab from the water to the table without driving to a seafood market. Cottages and seaside shanties provide the enclosed accommodation options, and tent sites with capacity for up to five tents serve the primitive camping population. The Coos Bay area's coastal environment organizes itself around three distinct natural features that most Oregon Coast destinations can offer only in pieces. Cape Arago State Park, at the end of the cape road, provides the viewpoints above Shell Island's Steller sea lion rookery and the gray and harbor seal haul-outs that give the cape its specific wildlife character. Shore Acres State Park, the ornamental gardens occupying the former estate of timber baron Louis J. Simpson on the cape's highest point, manages the botanical gardens that bloom in extraordinary color from spring through winter holiday season. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area—stretching 40 miles north of Coos Bay as the most extensive coastal dune system in North America—provides the off-highway vehicle terrain, the sand boarding, the dune hiking, and the freshwater lakes nestled within the dunes' interior that give the central Oregon Coast its most geomorphologically unusual landscape. The pet-friendly beach adjacent to the campground, with its tide pools exposed at low tide, provides the immediate naturalist experience that the central Oregon Coast's rocky intertidal system makes genuinely rewarding for guests who arrive with a tide chart. Sun Outdoors Coos Bay is open year-round in the central Oregon Coast's mild maritime climate. The Dungeness crab season, the winter storm-watching culture, and the summer beach season create three distinct demand peaks across the calendar. Reserve early for summer and crab season, pick up a tide chart at the camp store, and let Cape Arago Highway deliver what the Oregon Coast looks like when it's showing off its full ecological range.

from $29/night

Hart's Camp

Tucked directly behind Pacific City Beach on the Oregon Coast, Hart's Camp occupies a premium position in one of the Oregon Coast's most scenically distinctive communities—with Haystack Rock, Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area, and the Nestucca River estuary all accessible within a short walk from the camp's entrance gate. The property's identity as "a Noble House Experience" reflects a hospitality approach built on decades of RV travel traditions, combined with an expanded accommodation lineup that now spans 45-foot pull-through RV sites, Airstream trailers, rental cottages, cabins, and tent sites. The campground's lodging variety accommodates the full spectrum of coastal travelers—from longtime RV guests who return season after season to first-time visitors seeking an Airstream or cottage experience without towing a rig down the coast. The 45-foot pull-through sites were designed to welcome larger modern rigs, and the cottage and cabin options give groups flexibility in how they configure a multi-party coastal stay. The camp registration is located next to Doryland Pizza on the edge of the property, providing convenient access to one of Pacific City's most popular local restaurants. Pacific City Beach lies directly across the street, giving Hart's Camp guests the kind of immediate beach proximity that requires dedicated planning to replicate at most Oregon Coast campgrounds. Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area, accessible by foot from the campground, encompasses the dramatic sandstone headland above Pacific City's beach, the large dune that towers over the cape, and the coastal trail network that provides elevated views of the offshore rock and the open Pacific. Tide pools along the cape and beach are productive for exploration during low-tide windows throughout the year. The surrounding Oregon Coast offers exceptional variety for active guests extending their stay beyond Pacific City. Surfing the beach break at Pacific City, kayaking the Nestucca estuary, and hiking the headlands along the Three Capes Scenic Route are among the most popular active pursuits in the area. Birding on the estuary and along the cape during migration periods adds another dimension to the natural experience, and the town of Lincoln City is a short drive south for additional dining, shopping, and cultural options. Hart's Camp operates as a year-round coastal destination, though summer months bring the heaviest demand for beachfront-adjacent camping on this stretch of the Oregon Coast. Reservations are strongly recommended for summer weekends and holiday periods, and the Airstream and cottage inventory tends to book earliest in the season. The combination of beach immediacy, diverse lodging options, and Cape Kiwanda's natural character makes Hart's Camp one of the more compelling multi-night destinations on the central Oregon Coast. The broader Three Capes Scenic Route, accessible from Pacific City, links Cape Kiwanda to Cape Lookout and Cape Meares along an 18-mile stretch of Oregon Coast headlands, beaches, and estuaries that represents one of the most scenically varied short drives on the entire Pacific Coast. The estuary at the mouth of the Nestucca River, directly adjacent to Pacific City, is one of the more productive birding locations on the central coast during migration periods.

from $29/night

Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe

14 RV Sites, 8 Cottages, 1 Yurt

Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe in Junction City, California, occupies the banks of the Trinity River in Trinity County — a riverside resort in one of California's most remote and most scenically dramatic inland counties, where the Trinity River flows cold and clear from the Trinity Alps Wilderness through a forested canyon that supports world-class fly fishing, whitewater rafting, and the kind of genuine wilderness character that Highway 299's remote corridor delivers for travelers willing to make the drive between Redding and the Humboldt coast. The resort's combination of cottages, a 30-foot yurt, pet-friendly accommodations, and full-hookup RV sites gives guests a range of accommodation formats suited to the river canyon environment, and the on-site café — built into a 2,000-square-foot straw bale structure overlooking the Trinity — provides the culinary experience that makes staying at Strawhouse a more complete destination than simply a camping infrastructure. Cottages including the Creekside Cottage and Suncrest House, the distinctive 30-foot yurt, and RV sites positioned across from the café with private fishing and direct Trinity River access give guests multiple ways to inhabit the same riverside setting. The resort's family-friendly orientation and the pet-friendly policy across multiple accommodation types make it accessible to the full range of traveling household compositions, and the private river access at the RV site level gives campers the direct Trinity River contact that motivated their drive to Trinity County in the first place. The café's organic coffee, full meals, and river view make it a natural gathering point for both resort guests and Highway 299 travelers. The Trinity River through Junction City and the Trinity County corridor is one of California's premier wild and scenic rivers — a designated Wild and Scenic River with exceptional water quality, substantial populations of summer and winter steelhead, spring chinook salmon, and rainbow trout in a river setting of old-growth Douglas fir and ponderosa pine forest. The Trinity River fly fishing tradition draws anglers from across California and the Pacific Northwest specifically to this corridor, and the combination of drift boat float fishing and wade fishing through the green-water pools accessible from the resort's private access makes Strawhouse the natural base for fishing-focused Trinity County stays. Whitewater rafting on the Trinity River, accessible through outfitters operating from the Junction City area, provides Class II through IV whitewater through the canyon sections that the river's gradient and volume produce in the right-season conditions — typically from snowmelt through early summer. Trinity Lake, formed by Trinity Dam upstream near Weaverville, adds flatwater recreation, bass fishing, and lake camping options to the broader Trinity County recreation available from a Strawhouse base. The Trinity Alps Wilderness, rising to over 9,000 feet above the resort's valley floor, provides trail access into some of the most alpine and least-visited wilderness terrain in Northern California. Strawhouse Resorts and Cafe operates through Trinity County's outdoor season, with the steelhead and salmon fishing windows driving the most fishing-specific visitor traffic — fall chinook from September through November and winter steelhead from December through March. Summer whitewater and general resort season runs May through September when the café operates at full capacity and river access from the RV sites is most actively used. Reserve accommodations ahead for fall fishing season and summer rafting weekends, when Trinity County's limited lodging inventory fills from the Redding, Sacramento, and Bay Area markets.

from $62/night

Rock Creek Park & Campground

101 RV Sites, 33 Tent Sites

Rock Creek Park & Campground in Stevenson, Washington, offers 101 RV sites and 33 tent sites in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 40 feet. Full-hookup and dry RV categories serve a county-operated campground in Rock Creek's wooded corridor. One hundred one back-in sites run in 30/50-amp full hookup and dry RV categories, the serviced sites carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 40 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and BBQ pits. Dry sites suit self-contained rigs at a lower rate. Thirty-three tent sites make this notably tent-friendly. Restrooms and WiFi handle the practical side. Pets are welcome. The grounds include a covered picnic shelter, a play structure, and open multi-use fields — the sort of space a county park provides and a commercial campground rarely does. Picnicking and birding run from the wooded creek corridor. Stevenson is the Skamania County seat, on the Washington shore of the Columbia River at 710 SW Rock Creek Drive. The Columbia River Gorge is one of the Pacific Northwest's most spectacular and most accessible landscapes, and the campground sits inside it — waterfalls, hiking trails, wind sports, and the geological scenery of the Gorge are all immediately available. Summer is peak in the Gorge, with windsurfing and hiking season overlapping. Reserve ahead for July and August weekends, and note the 40-foot cap before booking a larger rig.

from $30/night

Lakeshore Resort - Lakehead

39 RV Sites, 10 Cabins, 1 Cottage

On the banks of Lake Shasta in Lakehead, California—five minutes off Interstate 5 in Shasta County where the Sacramento River, McCloud River, and Pit River meet behind Shasta Dam to create California's largest reservoir at 29,000 surface acres and 365 miles of shoreline in the Klamath Mountains' forested landscape—Lakeshore Resort provides a historic lakeside retreat with 39 RV sites and 11 cozy cabins under towering ponderosa pines, a seasonal swimming pool, a restaurant and bar, and the position as one of the few private resorts directly overlooking Lake Shasta's waters, with boat launches and swimming accessible within minutes of the resort property. For I-5 travelers making the run between Sacramento and Portland who want more than a truck stop, and for Shasta Lake anglers and houseboaters who want a comfortable land base, Lakeshore delivers the lake character the drive north is working toward. The 39 RV sites provide hookup service under the ponderosa pine canopy in the Lakehead community on the lake's northern arm, with the Lake Shasta views and the resort's direct water proximity creating the lakeside camping atmosphere that the inland California mountain reservoir delivers. Eleven cabins in the pine-forest setting alongside the seasonal pool, restaurant, and bar provide the complete resort infrastructure for guests without a rig in an environment the forested Shasta County lakeshore makes appealing beyond its I-5 convenience. The restaurant and bar serve the evening social function for both RV guests and cabin occupants, and the pool provides the warm-weather complement to the lake swimming that the property's close water access enables. Lakehead sits on the Sacramento River arm of Lake Shasta in the northern Sacramento Valley/southern Cascade Range transition zone, in the Shasta County landscape where the Interstate 5 corridor's passage through the Klamath Mountains creates the dramatic change in terrain from the valley floor to the mountain environment that marks the most visually significant transition on the entire I-5 corridor between Los Angeles and the Canadian border. The Pit River Bridge over Lake Shasta on I-5—at 500 feet above the lake surface, one of the highest interstate highway bridges in the United States—provides the introduction to the Shasta Lake landscape for northbound travelers that makes a stop in Lakehead feel like a logical response to the view. Shasta Dam, five miles south at the head of the Sacramento River arm, stands as one of the most impressive concrete structures in the American West—the second-tallest concrete dam in the United States at 602 feet, completed in 1945, whose visitor center and tours explain the Central Valley Project's water management infrastructure and the dam's construction history. The Shasta-Trinity National Forest's 2.2 million acres surround the lake in the mixed conifer and chaparral landscape that provides the hiking, fishing, and the dispersed camping that supplements the resort's infrastructure. Lake Shasta's bass, trout, salmon, and kokanee fishery makes it one of California's most productive multi-species lakes. Lakeshore Resort operates seasonally with the peak summer season from Memorial Day through Labor Day when the lake's houseboating fleet fills the 365-mile shoreline and the warm mountain summer temperatures make the pool and lake swimming the daily activity anchor for families and groups. The spring season from April through May offers the lake at its most full—the snowmelt from the Klamath Mountains and the Sierra feeds the reservoir to high-water levels that maximize the shoreline access and the scenic impact of the lake in the green, flower-season landscape. Reserve your RV site or cabin at Lakeshore Resort and let Lake Shasta's 365-mile shoreline, the ponderosa pines, and the northern California mountain landscape make the I-5 corridor's most impressive water body the destination rather than the backdrop.

from $53/night

Imperial River Co.

27 RV Sites

Imperial River Co. in Maupin, Oregon, offers 27 full-hookup RV sites directly on the banks of the Deschutes River, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 80 feet. Riverfront back-in and river view pull-through categories put guests on the water rather than near it, with a boat ramp, docks, a bar, and on-site dining. Twenty-seven sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp in riverfront back-in and river view pull-through configurations, sized to 80 feet, with picnic tables. Laundry, restrooms, showers, and site WiFi handle the practical side. When leaving the park, follow the directional signs slowly toward the exit without crowding, and proceed with caution to Bakeoven Road — depending on water level, you have two route options, one of which crosses the bridge. The river is the property's identity. A boat ramp and boat docks give direct access for whitewater rafting, fishing, and boating, with a community fire pit, walking trails, sports courts, volleyball, picnicking, and biking on the grounds. A bar, on-site dining, and a library round out the property, with planned activities through the season and strong birding along the canyon. Pets are welcome. Maupin sits on US-197 at the most active commercial whitewater and fishing section of the lower Deschutes — Oregon's most celebrated whitewater and fly fishing river, with 100 miles of canyon carrying Class III and IV rapids and a wild steelhead and rainbow trout fishery. Summer rafting season and the steelhead run drive demand. Reserve well ahead, and request a riverfront site early.

from $45/night