Sand Lake Recreation Area — Attraction in Tillamook

I have been coming to Sand Lake for over 30 years. I will say it is still a fun place to go. Other than the fact that it is severely overcrowded at times, it is still a great place to go have fun with the family. I do not like the fact that you now have to make reservations for the east parking lot to camp. It used to be that you had to make reservations over at the campground, and the parking lot was first come, first serve. Now, people will reserve spots and not even show up and not care because it's only $25 a night. I was able to reserve a spot for 3 days a Thursday Friday Saturday and that's all that was available. The website said the place was booked, and there were no other availabilities. When I got there, the place was empty, and it stayed that way all weekend. Saturday, you could walk around and see at least 15 to 20 open campsites on the East parking lot and the same over in the campground. This isnt the only time this has happened. I come here at least 3 times a year and its like this every time. Maybe not 15 to 20 sites every time but there is always open sites that go to waste. I mean, how fair is that? A person could find their favorite spot and reserve it months in advance and just pay for it and reserve it from March to October and only show up and use it maybe one time but the rest of the months not show up but it is still reserved so it stays empty all weekend. What a waste. It needs to go back to first come, first serve. That way, it's fair for everyone and not just people who have the money to reserve spots for...

First time, very big camp ground's and beach for days! You can make reservations in some areas, some are 1st come 1st served. There are camp hosts at each area from what I could tell, helpful and convenient. Where we stayed everyone was pretty respectful. One or 2 areas people were enjoying music and having a few beverages, but nothing rowdy or obnoxious. Most lights were out by 10 -11 pm so they could get up early and hit the sand again. Lots and lots of people with plenty of room for everyone on the sand - with campers, trailers, RV's, tents and of course the sand machines! The area has hills of sand and lots of brush with tracks/trails to maneuver in and through, and the beach area you can drive on also. There are bluffs you can park at to take in the views of beach and ocean or just to people/machine watch. I do highly recommend bringing your phone to the bluffs, there is no service at the camp sites.

Also - going up the sandy hills beware of bottoming out. For you and your passengers sake. We were in the back of the ride and bam, hit the bottom as we were headed up - nice, not! Over 50 - and that was not something my doctor...

Sand lake dunes were pretty harsh with being over crowded lots of ruts and people filling the trash cans with poopy paper instead of flushing it.. pretty nasty.. then on top of it you have to deal with the wanna be sheriff and best butt buddy the park ranger as they go around waiting for people to leave their camp so they can comb through your personal belongings looking for something to bust you on.. I would not come back to here if some one paid me to it's a waste of time when you can go to Winchester bay dunes and not get harrassed by the wanna be over achieving sheriff and park ranger . I got kicked out with my 5 kids because I didnt show the wanna be my ID for the people next to me having a beer can in their trash.. they didnt find anything in my camp site as they ram sacked my camp illegally... so if you want to get stopped for just riding around and having your stuff looked through while your out riding sand lake is the...