We had seen our friends previously post about beach camping on Facebook and decided to look into it a couple of years ago. But with these types of places, they only list their availability at certain times at the beginning of the year and then they immediately get booked up. We were lucky enough to snag a site at Cape Disappointment in January before the chaos ensued and thankfully our reservations didn’t get canceled.
My husband was able to get Sunday through Tuesday since most weekends were already claimed. We could have done it through Wednesday, but we didn’t know how well we’d sleep or how well Delilah would do so we went with 2 nights to be safe. Next time we will do 3 nights.
When we left town Sunday, it was 90 degrees and when we arrived at the beach around 4 pm, it was 60 with no blue sky in sight and fog rolling in with a wind chill that made it feel like winter. BRRR. If you’ve never been to PNW beaches, they’re oftentimes cold regardless of the season.
Little did we know, we would have one of the most perfect yurt spots at spot Y91 in section B. I am glad we decided on that one since it was close to the bathroom/shower with quick access to the beach. The space was ample with only one tent/RV hook up site next to us. We visited long beach last year in June, and long beach literally means it takes forever to walk through trails and sand to get to the ocean. Not in the campground though, which was so nice because kids don’t really deal well with the long walks when they want to instantly play in the sand and have little patience.
The yurt features a twin over a double bunk bed, a futon, and a small table with 2 chairs. I had already planned for the bed being horrible to sleep on, and I was right. My husband didn’t grab the hiking pads so I had to endure sleeping on what felt like a rock for 2 nights. I am not used to beds that hard, so I will remember to grab an air topper for next time. Yurts also have power and a heater, which we ended up using that first night since it was chilly. We were told that they were ramping up cleaning for COVID19 standards, but when we got there, it was spiders galore. My daughter was freaked out and spotted every single one. We tallied up about 22 spiders killed inside of the yurt with plenty more out of reach by the time our stay was over. I know we’re outdoors and all, but we didn’t pay to sleep with a forest of spiders, some with giant butts that my husband said didn’t look good.
Cape Disappointment is huge! So huge that the campground sits on 2,023 acres with has 137 standard campsites, 50 full-hookup sites, 18 partial-hookup sites with water and electricity, five primitive hiker/biker campsites that are first come first served, 14 yurts, three cabins, one dump station, eight restrooms, and 14 showers.
We drove around all of the areas in the campground and loved the one we had chosen just by looking online. We decided against any fishing since the lakes and pond didn’t seem like great spots for us and the kids to try and fish from, but that’s okay, they were more enthralled with playing on the beach.
The Cape Disappointment lighthouse was closed by the Coast Guard because of unsafe trails, but we did head up to the North Head Lighthouse that we were able to view from the beach. Couldn’t go inside, but that was okay. We got to see it all fixed up since last year, they were still working on restoring it and had it blocked off for up-close visits.
We were hoping to find some tidepools, but I hear there is some at the Beards Hollow Trail which is 2 miles in. I knew Arya wouldn’t be down to walk 4 miles roundtrip as we only brought the jogging stroller for Delilah.
Maybe on our next adventure!
