Barview Jetty County Campground — Hotel in Tillamook

I'm from the Metro area but I generally come here with the kids for the tide pools. We hang out on the little beach by the bay, its absolutely wonderful there. In my experience, usually people are more than friendly, very respectful of each other, and of the beautiful space we all have the privilege of sharing. This morning, I had been in such a rush to get to the beach to meet my friend and her girls, I admit, I neglected to pay the fee for the day pass when I pulled in. I wasn't till later in the afternoon when I did I attempt to pay. The way the woman at the window spoke to me at first, she seemed very sweet. But the minute I reached for a card to pay the $10 fee she said "We only take cash, but there's a machine at the end of the road". I replied that I would ask my friend to see if she had cash. The woman pulled out a map and gestured towards the little restaurant near the highway at first, then said "oops, I meant this way". She then turned the map around and pointed to a route that lead through to the other side of the campground. She also told me to go see the ocean while I was over there. She kept insisting I get the cash from the machine and emphatically insisted upon "seeing the ocean". When I told her, again, I was going back to my friend to ask her first, she dropped her smile, and gave a very short "well, the sheriff is ticketing". She almost seemed disappointed I didn't turn around she head down the road for the atm. I got really bad vibes from that interaction...partly because my friend had paid that morning with her card and she told me they took that method of payment before I even went up to the window, and partly because of the strange behavior from that member of staff. To be very honest, I wasn't about to try and remember her vague directions to an ATM at an undisclosed through a jam packed campground full of people that were staring me down like I didn't belong there. In fact, while I waited in line to pay, I noticed most of the people coming through in their trucks and trailers almost glaring at me on their way into the camp. It was all super unnerving. Thank goodness my friend did have cash! Maybe, in this blatantly precedented climate, and as an African American townie, I just happened to be at the coast at the wrong time..Those tide pools are pure magic to my son so I really hope I can continue bringing him there in...

The Good and the Bad: The Good: Right along a beautiful ocean beach, a fun sand hill for the kids, trees beside most campsites, beautiful scenery, fairly clean restrooms and decent showers, generally courteous staff and camp hosts. The Bad: I have been going to this park for many years, but not often any more. Most campers are honest, but security is a real problem in spite of staff denial. Long ago they used to have a security guard come through during the night, but now the county cops are it and they could care less and take forever to arrive when called. I have had things stolen on several occasions, and staff could care less. Not an overwhelming number of drunks and partiers, but enough so that you are likely to be in ear shot of one or more of them. With bad camp ground security it is a good place to go if you want to get blasted and loud. Plenty of employees, but not after their day shift ends. Bad roads and steadily increasing rates. I paid $32 in 2016 for a gravely site that only had a few feet on either end of my van, no utilities, and it was not level. Mostly small RV and tent sites laid out in a time gone by when camping people took less space. As the season advances, in some wooded sites there is a smell of urine and one can find beer bottles and other junk thrown back into the brush. The staff pick up the easy-to-see litter. The park is at sea level, in the 60-seconds-to-heaven Tsunami zone. Their RV section is badly outdated and cramped. Garbage is stacked high in the open dumpsters during busy periods. At peak season a neighbors' campfire smoke may well be in your eyes and open windows, plenty of folks staying up real late and getting loud and wasted when you're trying to sleep. The problems with this park start with the fact that it is managed by the public sector, Tillamook County, and these folks don't camp at this park and don't suffer...

We had tent camp site W14! It is the closest you can get to the beach without having to worry about high tide! It is a large campsite that can accommodate two 10’x10’ tents. It has a picnic table and a large fire pit with a grill on one half for cooking.

So we have a funny story to go along with this camp site. When they say, “tent camp site” they mean it! You can’t back your vehicle up to the camp. There is a short trail into the camp site so you have to pack all your camp gear into it. This is great in the fact that there is so much privacy with the surrounding trees and brush. What was NOT expected was that if you had planned to camp in the back of your truck you were not close to the camp!

And… we didn’t bring a tent! Lol

Fortunately we had our 8’’x10’ pop up canopy and a beach mat we could lay our bedding out on. We set up the canopy and decided that we would brave the “Stray Dog” walking all over us in the middle of the night!

We lowered the canopy down to its lowest setting and it kept the dew and the pine needles off of us. It worked out great and “Stray Dog” only visited once first thing in the morning! (some people don’t know to keep their dog from wandering I guess)

There are clean porta potties, garbage bins, and fresh water spigots close to all the campsites. If you are not a porta potty fan, I don’t recommend but again, they are clean and there are a lot of them. I believe there is a regular restroom up by the entrance of the camp but this place is huge and you’d want to drive there if you’re out by the beach.

A five star experience for me and a little...