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    Nehalem Bay State Park

    4.1 (78 reviews)
    Open 6:30 am - 7:00 pm

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    East ride to manzanita from camp
    Jessy M.

    It's a state park! I loved that we could ride our bikes into Manzanita. I was not stoked that our campsite was used like a walkway for other campers to get to the playground and bathrooms when there were walkways to the left and right of our campsite, people are just rude and lazy! Even laid down our paddle boards to deter people and they would walk over them or around them and still go through our site! Not the campground fault, but people really suck! Don't be a jerk and walk through peoples sites! Other than that it's a decent campsite. Just beware A08 you prob will have lazy people walking right through your site instead of using the paved walkway on the side of the site. It's nice bathrooms and showers are included. $5 for a bundle of firewood.

    Nehalem Bay Beach
    Abby A.

    Nehalem Bay State Park is beautiful! When you are driving in from the cliffside you can see the coastline from above, and realize the park sits in the middle of a sandy peninsula. So, the beach is very windy, and sand blows in your face constantly. But the campground sits behind the dunes to spare you from the wind, although it is a hike to the beach from your site. The sites: There are MANY to choose from. We chose a car/tent site as we knew our 5th wheel would not fit in 90% of the sites. The sites are clean and level, but VERY close to your neighbors on both sides. You would have difficulties even putting out your slides in many spots. We camp a lot, but I have never seen a campground with this many people packed into one place at a time. Even the tent sites were overcrowded with people setting up multiple tents/canopies/cooking areas/social areas into every square inch of grass they could. Our neighbors had six tents set up, with a loud social area that had them drinking and talking all night long, well after curfew. And, no the rangers did not patrol the campground. The restrooms: They were dirty, crowded, no hot water, and half of them were closed completely. When you have three sinks/toilets for hundreds of people it does not end well. Pets: We take our dogs with us, and we are mindful that they behave, and are leashed at all times, even on the beach. There were many dogs here due to the number of people camping, and many were not well behaved nor on a leash. Then there are the ones staked out on "leads" that allow them to charge right up to the sidewalk-then our dogs got spooked. It was not an enjoyable weekend. And definitely not relaxing, which is the whole reason we go camping, to get away and relax.

    Jennifer S.

    If you want a beautiful camping experience, this is it. The campground sits below the dunes to the ocean...so you don't have wind. The outer loop spaces are big, great fire pits and a lot of them have trails off the back. Most impressive are the hot free showers. The restroom facilities are updated and very clean. Rangers patrol the area and keep the noise low after 10. Great place for bikes or horses. If you bring your horses they have a nice corral assigned to your reservable camp site.

    This is where I went for the clams.  Short walk past horse stables.  Small path down to beach.
    John C.

    Love this park. Sites a pretty close, so not much hiding between trees and bushes. Very kid friendly and definitely lots to do. We were here for the 4th of July weekend. Lots of groups, and all polite. Restrooms are fine, showers closed because of Covid. Couple beach access points to get over the sand dunes. Very nice beach. Flat, sandy, very few rocks, and wide. I did a little surf fishing, just did ok. There was a very low tide so I went out clamming. There are so many out there. I attached a pic of where I went. To get the purple varnish clams, dig a hole and then get down on all fours. Just keep digging with your hands. Maybe a foot down and then keep expanding outwards. You can't miss. I got 36 in about 45 minutes. I didn't need any more or I would have kept going. Limit on purple varnish is 72. There were also people digging just south of the boat dock. I was maybe 1/4 mile down. Crabbing is always fun in Nehalem. I brought a small boat this time, but we have gone to Kelly's marina and rented a boat with three crab rings. It's less than $100 and they will cook and clean what you catch. There was a yelp checking offer if you go. Try it. If you have bikes, ride on over to Manzanita. Cool little town. We found a good coffee shop there. My only negative was the firewood they sold. It was still pretty wet and did not burn well. We ended up buying from somewhere else and it was fine. So check the wood before you stock up for the week. Have fun.

    James D. H.

    This is another great Campground on the OR. Coast. It's like a small city. From a Gas Station at the Turn off from the Highway, to Bags of Ice from the little Store inside the campground. You can also get A Newspaper, A Soda, Coffee or some snacks from the little store. Oh wait. The Ice and Firewood Bundles are NOT at the Store. You get that over by the Recycling Area. Firewood is $5.00 a bundle. The Campgrounds has all the camping setups you need. They have sites for: Campers / RV's. Yurts. Tiny Portable Cabins. Primitive Tent Sites and Tent Sites with Electricity and A Water Hookup for Tent and R.V. setups. We just had a couple tents on our site. The bathrooms are all fairly decent. The showers are free and there is Beach Access. Warning The walk to the beach is a bit of a walk and then a not too big sandy hill and then (in this area, the beach is massive.) add a little bit more walking to the actual point of being able to touch the ocean. This old man did it a couple times. I took a breather at the top of the hill both ways each time. We saw the beach at low tide. The beach seemed to stretch out into the ocean for a mile. The surf is mellow here. My niece loves the ocean. We've literally had to carry her freezing little body out of the cold water. She would rather freeze than stop playing in the ocean. I totally get it. My Wife and I also love the ocean. I proposed to her at the ocean and we were married on the beach. Nehalem Bay State Park is awesome. The only part that was bad was the psychotic old man that followed my sister into the Campgrounds all the way to her campsite to swear vulgarities at her while her daughter is in the car. He felt it was ok to swear at her because she didn't use turn signals in the Campgrounds. She being my new Hero said, I'm sorry your having a bad day. And rolled up her window. What kind of crazy does that to a mother with a small child? Cray Cray. That's what kind! Despite some crazy old fart. We had a great time talking and watching the firepit. We will be back.

    Walking through the dunes to the beach
    Naomi S.

    My family absolutely loves camping here. We've stayed in an RV and most recently, a Yurt. This is one of my favorite campgrounds to visit in the entire Northwest. I love how close the beach is to the campground. The restrooms are clean and spaced out pretty well throughout the campground. We really enjoyed our stay in a Yurt on this last trip. It is surprisingly spacious inside with a bunk bed, fold out bed/couch and table with 2 chairs. It did smell a little musty at first but was fine after letting the door stay open for a little bit. There aren't any windows so the only way to let fresh air in is through the door. There is a heater which kept us warm at night. Our first night there, we experienced a pretty significant rain storm but we stayed dry and my husband lived the sound of the rain. I enjoyed the next night more when I could hear the sound from the ocean all night. We definitely plan to make staying in a yurt here a yearly occurrence and am already planning on booking another visit soon.

    I can't take it!
    Leah S.

    If you want to be woken up by a crapload of screaming kids, this is the place for you! Literally 6:45 am. And it never ends. The campground feels more like a trailer park, squished in like sardines. NO privacy, or relaxation. They just keep screaming and biking through our site! Pluses.....clean bathrooms and nice showers, and easy beach access.

    Lucinda B.

    To find this park follow the signs off Hwy 101 for about 3 miles. First you will come to the RV Dump Station. Use this first if you need to for the spots do not have sewer connections. Next you will come to the garbage and recycle center. There is a centrally located pay booth. No rangers here at the entrance either. If you have reservations you can go right to your spot. They did have a couple loops to first come first serve. It was very wet here off and on and the spot we were in for 2 nights really flooded. Beautiful campground! Tons of hiking, biking, beachcombing! They also have amazing horse camping here and if you have a plane there is a campground you can fly into. I could have easily stayed a week and explored. No view of the ocean here. The hike to the dunes was pretty steep. I did not see any paved trails. The beach was amazing here. You could walk forever!

    Francesco L.

    By far the nicest camp ground I have ever been to ! :) bathrooms are clean, the area is well run and the staff are great! Nice atmosphere would highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a place to camp anywhere on the west Coast of Washington and Oregon that this is the best spot hopefully will be back soon !

    Richie D.

    This is a nice beachside park with a great coastline. However, the level of privacy is virtually zero and there are basically no hikes in regards to this park. If your looking for a night stay with a day at the ocean this is great, and if you want to stay longer than a day I would suggest to keep looking. Would I come back? Maybe Would I recommend? Maybe

    Tents in camp
    Angelique L.

    So much to love about this campground but a few things I didn't love. The best features are that it's behind a big sand dune so campsites are sheltered from the weather of the beach and are nestled in wooded areas, so you get the best of the coast. The weather was very nice when we were there. Cloudy in the morning but it burned off by noon and was pretty hot but there was plenty of shade. At night it was chilly but not windy because of that big sand dune protecting the park. It's walking and easy driving distance to a boat ramp at the bay and a beach along the bay. So you can walk on the beach at the ocean or the bay. Both are very nice! Lots of people crabbing and fishing here from boats. We stayed at the horse camp so if you have horses and want to ride on the beach, this is a great place to stay! There's also a two-mile long bike/pedestrian loop through the woods that's really nice and not very crowded. The town of Manzanita is super quaint and also has a number of walking trails so this is a great place for a relaxed trip with lots of walking opportunities. What I didn't love: The horse camp doesn't have real bathrooms, only port-a-potties. You can walk to restrooms with showers in 5-10 minutes or to the restrooms at the boat put-in. The non-horse campground is very crowded in the summertime (though the weekdays were considerably less) and you have to drive all the way through it to get out of the park. There are kids running around everywhere across the road and on bikes. I would not want to camp in that crowded chaos but if you have kids and want company, this would be a lot of fun. But my biggest complaint is that the park is full of invasive plants! Himalayan blackberries, Scotch broom, and tansy wort are crowding out huckleberry, red huckleberry, Douglas spirea and other native plants. I've not seen a State Park so badly overrun though they may not have the funding to take care of it. If I lived closer, I'd organize a volunteer cleanup. Despite that, however, the park is well-staffed and the showers were always cleaned, the garbage emptied, etc. There's good signage, on-site camp residents to sell ice and wood and other things. Pretty good wildlife viewing too. I saw deer, squirrel, weasel and seal.

    Ronnie H.

    Beautiful park, the beach was amazing, I couldn't say enough, bring a kite and picnic, spend the day!

    Yurts are great!
    A. N.

    I couldn't have asked for a better escape from the city. It was my first time staying in a yurt and it was really cozy on a windy and rainy coastal night. The bathrooms were spotless and beach access was really close. One of my favorite beaches on the Oregon coast!

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    3 years ago

    Nice park-- we had fantastic weather. Very quiet when we were there and fun to see the elk. Beach is perfect.

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    7 years ago

    Well kept campground with hookups. Short walk to beautiful beach. And cute Manzanita town close by with a nice bike path.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Nehalem Bay State Park

    How easy will it be for a 34' 5th wheel to get in and park?

    I believe you can do so although I do not know how easy it will be. We saw a large RV back into the space across from us. Do not know if there are any pull through spots but the website usually indicates if there are.

    Can you see the beach from the campground?

    No, it is over the dune. Mountain lions haven't been a problem for a couple of weeks

    View All 3 Questions

    Review Highlights - Nehalem Bay State Park

    I only stayed one night, but what's not to love about camping (well, yurt-ing) so close to the beach.

    Mentioned in 8 reviews

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    Kelly Brighton Marina - Summer spread ;)

    Kelly Brighton Marina

    4.6(252 reviews)
    1.3 mi
    $$

    I was worried that the vibe would change after the new owners took over. I love you Kelly, but have…read moreto admit, the new owners (not so new anymore) are doing a GREAT job! They really are! They updated a few things, moved the office towards the front, and it just seems to be running really well (do I dare say better?). Everything else is great! We rented a boat and went crabbing. Only got 3 crabs this time, but it was still fun. It's just the idea of being out there that makes it so fun! We went on a rainy day so could not enjoy the view from our site since we had to stay inside the trailer. It's okay, it was still a great visit. I look forward to going again! Ha! I have to laugh, you know when you are tying reviews, you can see others to the right. I see that one of my friends wrote a review and pretty much wrote the same as I did in the 1st paragraph. That's funny. July 2025

    We came here with friends for lunch, and we couldn't have asked for a better afternoon! Between the…read moregorgeous weather, the great seafood, and the amazing view, it was a total highlight of our trip. One of the best parts of the experience is that you get to pick out the exact crab you'd like; they are then cooked and cleaned for you right on the spot! They also offer clams to steam and oysters that you can shuck yourself if you're looking for a variety. After selecting your crab, you head inside the shop to pick out chips, canned sodas, or something from their variety of beers and sauces to pair with your meal; just don't forget to grab your butter, garlic, and lemons before paying! They also offer oyster shooters in a souvenir shot glass, though be warned that they are served frozen; you may find yourself finishing your meal with them instead of starting with them by the time they finally thaw. The crab was obviously super fresh; truly, nothing beats eating it fresh out of the pot! We also noticed they have a number of back-in RV sites overlooking the water; that is definitely something we'd consider for a future stay. If you're looking for an authentic, hands-on coastal experience, this is the place to be!

    Photos
    Kelly Brighton Marina
    Kelly Brighton Marina - 2x Dungeness Crab cooked & 1 lb. Clams

    2x Dungeness Crab cooked & 1 lb. Clams

    Kelly Brighton Marina - Oyster Shooter

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    Oyster Shooter

    Wright's For Camping - Our spot (site 7) at Wright's - more than big enough for our tiny camper.

    Wright's For Camping

    4.5(20 reviews)
    14.0 mi

    Stayed two nights here and really enjoyed it. It's really close to the beach which is amazing…read more Parking in cannon beach is horrible to deal with so being able to to walk is a game changer. Arlene, the camp host, was really friendly and we were able to buy firewood and a s'mores kit from her office. The bathroom was clean and the showers were hot. There were also some fun amenities like a badminton court and a basketball hoop. The campground itself was really well kept and beautiful. I will say that campsites are not super private, but that's the price to pay for camping so close to town.

    We booked a last minute site at this campsite when we realized we would have trouble boondocking in…read morecannon beach. Luckily, we got a spot because they were booked up when we arrived and Gladys was ready to tell us that they were full. This is definitely a more rustic campsite. it has been family owned for decades and I have a feeling that it wasn't worth adding hookups or newer facilities to the site. However, everything was adequate and the staff could not have been nicer. Everyone at the site was very friendly and we talked with a few couples before we departed. If there is downer about this site, it's that the beach and center of town are about a 30 min walk from the site and you need to walk down a small stretch of highway onramp. It seems to be closer than any other alternatives but I do wish it had been a but closer. All in all, I would stay here again and recommend it to anyone camping in cannon beach for a night or two.

    Photos
    Wright's For Camping - Family run campground since 1959. We are 4 blocks from the beach.  10 blocks from downtown.

    Family run campground since 1959. We are 4 blocks from the beach. 10 blocks from downtown.

    Wright's For Camping
    Wright's For Camping

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    Ecola State Park - Photo session with this feisty Hairy Woodpecker on the trail!! He was very cooperative!!

    Ecola State Park

    4.8(197 reviews)
    15.7 mi

    Home is where the heart is. This area was my stomping…read more grounds for many moons! I use to go to Ecola state park, regularly growing up. Go on hikes,look for rocks shells,surf, get lost in nature, just sit in the grass and watch the ocean. Here is what you can do at Ecola State Park: Hiking & Walking: Explore trails ranging from easy strolls to challenging hikes through Sitka spruce forests. The Clatsop Loop Trail follows the path of1806 explorers, while the Oregon Coast Trail offers longer, scenic treks. Indian Beach: A popular, secluded cove for surfing, sunbathing, and tide-pooling to see sea stars and anemones. Viewpoints: Take in spectacular vistas from Ecola Point, including views of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse ("Terrible Tilly") and distant Haystack Rock. Wildlife Viewing: The park is known for herds of elk grazing in the meadows, as well as sightings of bald eagles and migrating gray whales. Picnicking: Enjoy lunch at the picnic areas located on the grassy bluffs with ocean views. Photography: The dramatic, moody coastline provides excellent opportunities for photography. Oregon State

    Forgive me for this late review. I should have written it long ago, but perhaps the trees and the…read moreocean were patient enough to wait. The drive through the forest is a passage into another world. Sitka spruce and hemlock lean over the road as if they are curious about you. At the end of the road the land opens and the Pacific announces itself in vast gray blues and greens, broken by sea stacks that rise like stubborn monuments. The trails are generous. Some wander to secret beaches, others climb to high points where the ocean and horizon meet like two old friends. Indian Beach is a gathering of tide pools, surfers, and quiet sand. Crescent Beach feels private, almost hidden, with the company of seals if you are lucky. Wildlife belongs here as much as people. Elk graze, eagles soar, and sometimes whales turn the water into theater. The park offers all of this without asking much in return, except that you take your time. Bring layers because the wind and mist move through the park like they own the place. Take your time. Sit, watch, breathe. This park gives you a rare combination of accessibility, natural beauty, and serenity. I regret not praising this place sooner. Ecola State Park holds the kind of beauty that makes you feel both small and fortunate. Five stars, without hesitation.

    Photos
    Ecola State Park - Wilson's Warbler ready for takeoff!

    Wilson's Warbler ready for takeoff!

    Ecola State Park - This is either an immature Pine Siskin or immature female House Finch. Based on the beak, I'm leaning towards Siskin

    This is either an immature Pine Siskin or immature female House Finch. Based on the beak, I'm leaning towards Siskin

    Ecola State Park - Adorable Wilson's Warbler - they were everywhere here!! One of my absolute faves!

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    Adorable Wilson's Warbler - they were everywhere here!! One of my absolute faves!

    Nehalem Bay State Park - campgrounds - Updated June 2026

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