South Jetty Sand Camping Access — Hotel in Florence

If I could give this place a negative star I would. There were masses upon masses of mosquitoes. We were told ALL campsites were booked but one (ours), but upon driving out to our campsite—which was #8–there was no one there……at any of them. The sites were marked on a post that was a few feet high and their number was too small to see from a distance and was set back against the dune—which had grass and flowers growing on it—so that it was hard to pick out where the campsite marker was located. There were no markers directing to where your particular campsite was and the sand was not easy to drive through as the park host said it was. We almost got stuck a couple times. There were no markers from your campsite to how to get to the beach. We finally gave up and left. We stopped by one of the beach access points and were only down at the beach were a few minutes because we saw Mexicans with huge guns and alcohol there. I was told they were waiting for “a drop”. We ended up not camping there and will...

I live only an hour away from Sandlake, and spent a lot of time out there until recently. Once I found South jetty and dune city, I only come here. It’s about 2 1/2 hours each way for me to drive here, but I’m good with that seeing as I feel like my kids are safe out here to explore and ride without all the worries of them getting banged up. The people out here are always willing to help out when things go wrong and the atmosphere is just so much more...

I don't know of a better place to go duning. The dunes are always changing from the wind too, so they're never quite the same. Great fun, and great community of fun-lovers who are always willing to lend a helping hand if you get stranded or stuck; assuming someone is around to find you. Pro tip, don't break down in the tide zone after everyone else...