Hidden Springs Campground — Hotel in Fortuna

We had a very satisfying and peaceful 5-night stay at Hidden Springs Campground in Humboldt Redwoods State park in August 2022. For us, the main draws are the quiet and the beauty that only a redwood forest can provide, and other issues with the park were not an issue for us. We were in Site #141H which apparently is popular and provided a lovely setting below the road level. See photo.||||The campground provides sites surrounded by redwoods and with privacy between sites. It's a nice place to have a campfire and sit and talk. It is a natural setting and not "manicured" for photo ops. A campfire ring and bear locker are provided and you should put all food and scented items in the locker. There aren't that many bears here as compared to the Sierra Nevada mountain areas, but there are critters and we don't want to encourage them. Clean restrooms and showers are provided along with a ranger program in season. You can hear some highway noise in the distance but it is not prominent.||||The campground is on the Avenue of the Giants, so it is along the Auto Tour route which has many short grove trails to walk and is only a couple of miles from the Visitor Center. The Williams Grove trail (moderate, not easy) has a start point inside the campground. We also drove to the Rockefeller Grove which gets you deep into the redwoods without being too far from the main Avenue. The Eel River is accessible at many points in the vicinity (but water is very low this summer). There is a small but useful market in the town of Myers Flat, very close by. You don't have to travel far to enjoy yourself and you are surrounded by redwoods throughout this area.||||We did take a 40-mile each way drive to the small town of Ferndale on the north coast, a Victorian era town that preserved some of that history.||||The rating for this campground would be 5-star for us, but realistically for an average camper, it is 4-star due to the steep terrain and limited spaces for larger vehicles.||||For most campsites, the road is either above or below the site, with a short dirt path up or down to the site. Very few with the road level with the campsite. Our site was 9 feet below street level and we carried our equipment down and up, had no issue with it, three short adults. The road around the camp loops has some tight turns, areas with damaged pavement and dips that must be navigated very slowly. Kids enjoyed riding bikes around the loops, and it is a slow-paced campground where there is room for kids to do that!||||The restroom was not too far, but was an additional 15 to 20 feet of elevation above the road in front of our site. We drove to the shower buildings because it was in the next loop and the elevation gain was even greater. Didn't want to work up a sweat after showering!||||Regarding camping vehicles, this is not the place for a large RV or a truck with trailer hitch. Only a few sites have driveways and they are generally short, for a car only, possibly a Class B RV. Read the info on dimensions of the specific campsite when you reserve your spot. We watched a man drive around the sites late at night with an older truck with a trailer on a hitch with squeaky suspension...he came around our loop twice and we did not see him again. Don't think there was a space for his setup, felt sorry for him.||||All-in-all, this campground met all our needs for beauty, peace and access to a number of...

We loved our campsite. We stayed at site #092H. We loved this campground and will keep it in mind for future trips!

Access: We drove a Honda Civic on this trip, and some of the roads in this campground have some intense road damage that caused us to scrape. To our site we were fine, but some of the surrounding loops had drops that most small cars wouldn't be able to make it down without bottoming out. Our site was easy to get to. There was a little (slightly steep) path from the car to the tent and picnic area, and then another similar path down from that to the fire ring and bear box. The steepness could cause accessiblity issues for some individuals. A lot of the upper campground is sloped and built on a hill, but the part closest to the entrance of the campground seemed pretty level.

Site: Some of the sites felt a little close together, but ours felt like it had space and privacy. Our bear box was down a level from our tent, which felt nice because we're always paranoid about bears. We were super close to the bathrooms and water but not too close to the point where we felt like everyone was walking past us.

Bathrooms: Pretty clean,but for some reason the door stays propped open so there were a ton of bugs and spiders. It was flushing toilets and running water sinks though, so that was nice. The stall walls were a little high with big gaps, so I felt like I didn't have total peace in the bathroom and like I was exposed to the world. Overall not too bad though.

Showers: The showers ran with quarters. I think they were $0.25/minute, but we didn't use the showers at this campground.

Firewood: $10/bundle, fires were allowed but always double-check restrictions because they can change fast, especially over the summer.

We definitely are planning on staying here again. It was an...

What a great campground! The surroundings are gorgeous, the sites secluded and the campers respectful and quiet. ||The facilities at your disposal are great too. The bathrooms and showers are well maintained and clean (remember they’re being used by many, many people). Each time we used the public facilities, they were available with no crowding.||Our specific site this trip we’re sites 71H and 72H. While we haven’t stayed in many other areas of the campground, I would recommend these sites immensely. They are on the top end of a loop so there are no campers across from you. The nearest side neighbors are at least 40-50’ away so you are secluded. There are water taps not far on either side of site 72H, but not in front of the site, so there aren’t people stopping by continuously. ||While the reserve site says that the large sites can fit 2 cars and 8 people we opted for the 2 sites near each other so we wouldn’t be crowded and that was a smart idea. It would be exceedingly tight to have 2 cars, eight people and most likely 2 tents on a large site here. So if you’re a larger group get 2 sites near each other. You’ll have more space and won’t be jammed together. That being said on site 72H we pitched 2 tents (an 8 person and a 2 person) had 6 camp chairs and a full kitchen set up and still had good space. ||Camp here! You won’t be...