Alder Dune — Hotel in Florence

Beautiful campground nestled in the forest.  The geo coorindinates at the entrance are: 44.069651,-124.100708

Assessment: This beautiful place is NOT big rig friendly for sites 1,2,3 if you are pulling anything.  The road leading into this 'cul-de-sac' for these sites looks more like a pedestrian pathway.  Large bushes and limbs will lay thick on your truck and camper.  With thick vegetation, the bushes against the truck made it impossible to see out of the side view mirrors. Backing into site 2 is nearly impossible. Thankfully the camp host, Robert (a retired truck driver), was able to help me into site 2. I was about ready to leave after making several unsuccessful attempts. I'll be forever grateful for his help.

If you do reserve sites 1,2, or 3, swing as far to the left as you can (like get off onto the shoulder) as soon as you pass through the yellow gate.  The first road on your right is for sites 1,2,3. It is not marked.  If you don't set yourself up for this turn and you are in a large rig you can't make that turn.

I did not see any low lying limbs anywhere in the park that might be a problem for high profile rigs.

After walking around the rest of the campground, I feel the rest of the sites are set up pretty well for backing in.  But,  be aware the roads are narrow.  Even meeting a car can be problematic in sections. Also,  many of the sites slope way down.  Leveling from front to back might not work for some rigs.

All of the water faucets in the campground are non-threaded except one.  Just across the street from site 9 is a threaded faucet.

With all that I've stated above, we do like this place.  It is secluded and you feel like you are in a wilderness area.  We like the family feel too of this place. Lots of families staying here.

We felt comfortable and safe. The proximity to the ocean almost guarantees cool days and nights in the summer months.  Perfect recipe for camping.

Lots of shade,  so be aware your solar system may not keep your house battery charged.  I had to crank up my inverter generator for the first time in years to recharge the house battery.

Vault toilets, but in the day use area that is within easy walking distance there are flush toilets and running sink water.

Lots of hiking trails to the dunes and the beach.  The beach hike is slightly over 2 miles (round trip) from the day use area.

The campground is close to Hwy 101, and you will hear traffic from time to time, especially those truck drivers that are using their loud engine (jake) brakes. This type of noise doesn't neither us,  but be aware that it's there.

All in all a very nice campground that I would come...

I don't really have many kind words for our stay at Alder Dune. -- Plan on the sites being small, as in, tiny. Don't bother with anything greater than a 6 person tent. There may be a few that are larger but it's the exception, not the rule. -- Because of the site sizes or otherwise, the noise levels are intense. The hosts are a kind, older couple (and report being hosts since 1988) but I felt dismissed when I brought concerns about the noise to the hosts both the nights we were there. -- Our neighboring site (aka about 10 feet away) were going at it until 3am. Nothing was done that night or the endless noise the night before. -- I attempted to address the concerns directly with the campers and the hosts, and... Nothing was done across the board except meet our concerns with complete disregard. -- Due to not getting sleep, we actually couldn't make the 4 hour drive home and had to stay in a hotel to get some rest before making...

Quite campground, hosts have a minimal presence, there aren’t very spacious sites, but they’re are all private. There are a set of vault toilets in each of the two loops, and a a set of larger flush toilet restrooms in the day use area that also has electric outlets for charging.

Not a lot of traffic through here, there were however a pair of tweakers in a pick up truck trying to fish the money out of the pay box with something sticky on the end of a rod they were shoving in to the pay box.

There’s a nice trail you can walk from Alder to Sutton lake campground that’s about 1.5 miles away.

The dunes and the trailhead protect this area from the coastal winds.

During my stay, I returned late one evening and some woman in a blue SUV with WA plates was parked in my campsite and when asked what she was doing there she just sort of looked at me strangely until I barked at her to get out because it wasn’t her...