Fort Stevens State Park Campground — Hotel in Warrenton

It is slowly becoming a family tradition to camp, at least for a few days, at Fort Stevens. This was our second year, our first with a full hookup site, and we keep learning things about Fort Stevens which will guide our future bookings and camping.

Last year we were in the E loop, partial hookups, so water and electric, we stayed during the first week of August. We experienced no mosquitos at all, and had no bug issues. The site was E160, a nice enough pull thru with a large campsite. We were never able to fully pull out our awning because there was a large tree right next to the RV pad. Our site was also right next to the pathway to the central restrooms and showers, so it was pretty busy all the time. Campsites are pretty tightly packed at Fort Stevens, so don't expect much privacy, but the back side of our campsite and our fire ring were on the back side of E164, so they could see from their back window everything going on in our site, and probably hear everything, too. Since we had no sewer, I had to unhook about halfway through our stay there and go to the dump station. The good news is that the dump station has 3 rows, probably the largest dump station I've ever seen, so waiting in line was not a reality. But it was inconvenient. Oregon should really work to get full hookups everyplace. If you are going to give me a water hookup, I should at least have a place to send all the used water. Sewer does run through the loops as there are dishwater dump "cones" located about ever 3 campsites and the central restrooms all have running water.

This year we were in M28, which is the M loop on the south side of the park. We had full hookups, however the hookups are quite dated and well worn, although functional. The vegetation growth around the utilities made the water service initially difficult to find, and the sewer port was partially obscured. Plus there was this odd mesh covered pipe right next to the sewer port which had debris in it and I had no clue what its purpose was; dish water dump for tent campers? We had plenty of natural vegetation on our curb side separating us from the neighbors in M30, but our camp site was fully open with no barrier to the neighbor in M26. Our site was mostly level, however our neighbor in M26 had a number of serious wahoos in the asphalt RV pad which made his leveling much more challenging. The rest of the campsite was supposed to be grass, however heavy use and I think a lack of precipitation left the site to be mostly covered in sandy dirt/mud, especially around the fire ring and the picnic table.

Mosquitos were our bane this year. We burnt 2 huge citronella candles continuously, along with some smaller citronella candles on our picnic table and made little difference. We were dousing our selves in bug spray almost continually with minimal relief. Supposedly staying at Fort Stevens after July leads to fewer mosquitos, however that didn't seem to be the case this year. I was also told that the south loops have more mosquitos due to the proximity to the lake, as compared to the north loops. Something learned for next year. I hear that Fort Stevens has minimal bug issues in May and some of June, and returns to a habitable state in late August and September. Your mileage may vary.

Bring your bikes. The campground is huge, the biking trails are paved and very long. Distances from the campground to the beach are quite long, so you'll want your bike. Kids tend to congregate together and biking around is a major pastime. There was no burn ban in effect when we were there and there is plenty of wood for sale in each loop. Be sure to visit the fortifications. They are fun to explore... at least once.

You have to book well in advance. Oregon allows bookings six month in advance of your stay. If you want a particular site, you'll need to be on the web site exactly 6 months ahead of your trip to get...

Yurt Experience.

(First, Ft Stevens State Park and Campground is fantastic. It gets 5 stars. Go see it. This review is for people who will or are considering staying in a yurt)

We stayed at yurt 19 in November '22. If you've ever stayed at a state park yurt, you're probably familiar with the furnishings: a futon, a bunk bed, a mirror, a desk w/lamp, a wall heater, and two desk chairs. Please have a look at the pictures I've attached. The yurt was clean and comfortable, and the electric wall heater got the indoor temp comfortable enough in a fair amount of time.

The yurt did have a musty odor, and once it had started raining I realized where it came from - the door. Because the front porch area is not covered, rainwater was able to slide in on the interior of the door, which had led to mold. It was gross, and the door will need to be replaced soon. But water didn't flood the floor or anywhere else in the yurt, so the moldy door wasn't that a big of an issue (for us).

If you have kids or are with someone who may have to frequently relieve themselves, you may want to reserve a yurt closer to the bathroom. This is especially true in the rainy season. The bathroom/shower facility is only about a 2-3 minute walk away, but if it's pouring rain out with high winds (which is common out here), you'll find yourself driving to the toilet more than walking.

As for the restrooms themselves, they were clean and decent enough for the slow season. Besides a men and women's bathroom, there's also one family restroom, and four(or five) shower rooms. Keep in mind that the shower rooms were unlocked only from 9am to 4pm. I don't know if those hours are the same year round.

For those curious about cell service, my partner and i were both able to get two bars of service 85 percent of the time. I have T-Mobile, and she has Verizon. We would sometimes lose connectivity sitting on the couch.

Neighbors and noise- The nice thing about all the rain we had is that it drowned much of the noise from our neighboring yurts. But if you get clear weather and loud neighbors, there's a fair chance you could be annoyed. I'd recommend bringing earplugs just in case.

My advice for fall and winter yurters: prepare for foul weather. Bring books, ample bedding, games, snacks, coffee drinks for the morning, a Bluetooth speaker, rain pants and jacket. If you have a dog, pack a few towels just for them.

---- other info: most if not all the yurts had a fire pit with grill outside, as well as a picnic table. There's also a total of 4 outlets inside the yurt, and they're all next to each other under the desk.

---- one more note: don't leave the heater on at full blast, either when you leave or go to bed. It may seem like it doesn't do much at first, but you'd be surprised at how hot and uncomfortable it can make the yurt after a couple of hours with the...

We rented O19 and fit our Class A into it okay. The water pressure was good and the electric stable. The site is paved and reasonably level with decent spacing. The park although crowded and full of activity was relatively clean. In fact, people drove around offering firewood so you didn’t have to chase it down yourself. I thought that was a great example of entrepreneurship. Signage was good, the grass well kept and the rangers very friendly.

I’d give this campground 5 stars but there were two detractors that are tough to dismiss:

1. The mosquitoes. Not the park’s fault that you’ll lose a pint of blood plugging in your coach but putting sites in an a marsh that has year round standing water and not spraying seems silly. The park represents a significant (and admirable) investment that is degraded into being the breeding capital of the world for mosquitoes. Sitting outside at our campsite was a pipe dream. No dear, those are not bald eagles, they’re mosquitoes with shiny heads…..

2. The RV dump uses flip lids. Not earth shattering but anyone who has bought a slinky elbow since 1984 has one with threads to prevent back pressure burp leaks. The connections here are the infamous drop in holes which explains why the dump pad was soaked from people doing post dump rinsing. Go ahead and stand on your elbow to keep it in the hole. The back pressure will squirt a geyser of juice up your leg around the unsealed circumference. This is painfully easy to resolve, just put on threaded dump receivers. Or put a live cam at the dump and sell the videos...