Emerald Forest Cabins & RV — Hotel in McKinleyville

We’ve stayed at this campground several times. We’ve recommended this campground to friends and family. Brought all of our family for our sons birthday 2 years ago and try to make it back every year. We have always enjoyed the campground with the redwood trees and the close proximity to the beach. We are familiar with the campground and have noticed some sites are very small and some sites are right along the freeway. We had made a fairly last minute reservation recently but on the phone, asked about which sites were available and explained that we did not want an overly small site or a site next to the freeway so we picked a site that would work for us and felt pretty lucky there was a site available that we could still enjoy. We ended up leaving town late on the first night of our reservation and knew we would not make it all the way so I called and explained that we would be there the next day. We had paid in full in advance and did not expect a refund due to our leaving late and not making it that first night . They said no problem, they would leave and envelope on the door in case we ended up driving all the way. We did not make it that first night and they called the next morning and told us they had made a mistake and gave our reserved camp site to another visitor but that the site next to it was available. I asked what the difference in sites was and I was told it’s a “smidge” smaller. They also wanted to let me know the next site next to that was open as they don’t book it due to it being so small but that we could “spread” out into that site. We were frustrated but it didn’t sound too bad so we continued on and made our way there. We checked in, they had refunded us for that first night due to the mishap which was nice and all but then we pulled up to the “smidge” smaller site. It was tiny. Not enough room for our ten. The fire pit was along the road and not enough room to actually sit around and enjoy not to mention we brought our 2 large labs with us. I went back to the office and explained the issue. We were given one other option and it was a site right along the freeway. We went to look at it, the site itself was nice but the freeway noise was pretty obnoxious but we really had no other choice because at this point we weren’t making the trip back home and our son was excited to camp and go to the beach. Of course they offered to refund us and we could go somewhere else but clearly that wasn’t an option Because everywhere is booked. Well have you ever slept on the side of the freeway? At 4 am is sounds like semi trucks coming through your tent, not to mention the stress of worrying about there being an accident and a car comes flying through the tent. We got horrible rest. My husband and I were both woken up by the road noise at 3:30-4 am both mornings. It was awful. One employee was apologetic but the rest really just got attitudes with me. It would have been nice if they had offered something to try to make it right. Even if they offered to get the manager or owner but I had a feeling they wouldn’t care either. As the employees spouted we have the right to move you wherever we want. It’s really unfortunate because we are now worried to have this experience again. The worst part was being lied to about the original site they were moving us to being a “smidge” smaller. We made the best of it but we drove home exhausted after getting no sleep during our stay. I’m surprised there is not a fence along the freeway to offer some safety and sound barrier. On a good note, the bathrooms are decent and pretty well kept. There are only 2 showers in the womens (a third was not working) but the showers are decent for a campground. The campground in all is pretty and they have a grassy area for playing ball and a dog area. It’s close to a grocery store and close to the beach. 1st pic is the site we had reserved. 2nd and 3rd pic are the sites they said we could “stretch” into. Notice the bottom half of the pic...

You can't top the location if you're here to spend time in the Redwoods and the beautiful coast! We had stopped at two of their sister locations,and this was by far a happy accident that we ended up here. Trinidad is now one of our favorite small towns! We hit the beach just about daily (pics of that here as well) and every day was something new to discover on the beach. Beach is pup friendly,and was a highlight of her days as well. There is great hikes around Trinidad, we took them all! The lighthouse one was esp great! (Pics included) Waking within the magic of Redwoods every day is what you'll experience here. Staff, though we rarely interacted in the 20 days we stayed, were all kind and helpful. There is a small store at the front but the market a mile down the road also is easily accessible so you'll not lack for access to whatever you may need during your stay. There are two pup stations, one open area and one enclosed. Lots of paths/roads to walk Fido along too, and when it is empty and not any tent campers it's nice to walk them through that forest area.

Some down sides do exist... We stayed at site #16, the two adjacent sites are really small and tight! (though thankfully no one stayed on either one during our stay otherwise we'd all been rather squished) Wifi lags and power issues. We couldn't get any closer to the router unless we climbed the roof, yet the speeds lagged really bad most days. As for the power, our pedestal switched off four times, three of which we just flipped the pedestal breaker, but the last time (a weekend) the row was out and maintenance had to get on it. Just know this is an older park, with very old wiring and power grids hence when full, there's a high probability you'll lose power a few times (esp morning when everyone's running coffee makers, microwaves, toaster ovens, A/C, etc!). Paid showers. We did not use restrooms while there, popped in to check them out but had no need for them. Paid showers is never a fun addition to any campers experience. But maybe they have their reasons?

All in all, this is a place we would return to, even with those setbacks. And we would recommend it to anyone who's looking to...

My husband and I visited for the first time this past weekend (Aug 27-30). We arrived around 6:30 pm. Check in was very easy. We had a space along Patrick's Point road. The spaces are elevated some, so we weren't level with the road, so the lights from cars were never an issue. There was some road noise when we were sitting out by our fire pit (located at the back of our site) but we couldn't hear a thing inside our trailer. We had a very very large redwood stump in our site. It was a cool feature to look at, but did take up a large portion of the site. The fire pit was situated behind it, but very close to the neighboring site. There are posts/fences dividing the sites but they are very close together. Despite that, it did feel private and we had no complaints about our neighboring campers. We have a teardrop trailer with an attached side tent. The width of the space accommodated both just fine and we were able to set up to make the whole space feel more private. The cable came in clear, and we had no issues with our other hookups. Our trailer doesn't have a bathroom, so we used the on site facilities. They were very clean and well maintained. There was only a brief instance where they had to be closed, but the park has another set of bathrooms along the back, so we took that opportunity to walk the grounds as we made our way to them. We observed that the RV spaces on the other side (along 101) are much wider, are on gravel pads vs. dirt, but there is considerably more road noise on that side due to the freeway. The park has a store, playground, and arcade (we did not visit the arcade) so it would be a lot of fun for kids. You cannot set up tents and RVs in the same space (our side tent was allowed because no one was sleeping in it) so this is something to consider when making plans with larger groups. The cost was fair for what is offered, and the state parks nearby are breathtaking. We will be planning a return trip. If there was a little more privacy between the spaces, I believe this would have been a 5...