Sand Island Marine Park — Attraction in Saint Helens

Great concept but not very well executed. Went here for the camping experience. You get a few minutes of a shuttle boat to get to the island, and then you get assisted with all your stuff to your campground. I stayed with the family at the end of the island, there were only a couple of people staying so that was great or so we thought. Although the people who ran the campsite were nice, the place is poorly run. The bathroom was very dirty, and garbage had not been picked up for a while. We were warned beforehand that there was wildlife on the island, which is no problem, especially if you camped plenty of times before. The experience was completely ruined when we all went to bed. The campsite was completely overwhelmed with raccoons. They destroyed the entire camp. As much as we tried to secure things and even put extra things in the tents, they ate through pretty much everything we had outside, keeping in mind there was nowhere else to put anything since your vehicle is on the mainland. We woke up to the entire camp trashed out. It was a very difficult experience, especially since we had kids and the raccoon were fairly persistent and very loud. I personally will never go back, I recommend checking other campsites nearby beforehand. This place has a good score, but I don't understand how since it's very understaffed and dirty. Go at...

This park is wonderful to walk around, especially with dogs and kids (no cars! Soft sand! Big trees! logs and such to play on). It’s about a mile / 20 minutes to walk all the way around. I love to kayak there on hot days and jump in the Columbia for a swim, or kick back on the beach. I do have two complaints, though: it is considered to be a city park of St Helens, yet the city decided to allow a private company to occupy the island with a lot of camping sites. This means more people, fewer trees and less room to enjoy what used to be a pretty deserted place. The second thing is obvious: you can’t get there without a boat, so it is not accessible to the majority of St Helens residents or visitors. The marina does offer a shuttle during the summer months, but you have to call to arrange it. The rest of the year you’re on your own. Otherwise I absolutely love...

We had such a fabulous experience we booked back to back weekends and invited additional family friends to join us the second weekend!! Great campground, great entertaining boat rides back n forth, Andrew, Becca and Gabe were great ppl we dealt with from boat rides back n forth to the dock, camp gear hauling back n forth as well as the firewood delivery!! Overall best camping we have done in quite awhile! Bathrooms could use a little more tending to more often, but never ran out of TP lol! So much fun and water access for pups and us all day to play n stay cool! No skeeter, which was a huge plus when camping but lots of beautiful wildlife, deers, and Bald Eagles. Great night skies to watch big barges pass through! Looking forward to co.ing back!! Thank you all for making camping so...