We were very impressed with this as a state park. The sites were very large and level. As the other reviews say, the trees on the park are new and just growing. But the whole park is located in heavy forest with many hiking trails. It was very quiet and there was a playground for the grand kids. We will definitely visit again. The only disappointment was the wifi did not work at all. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Sites are barren and lack privacy of any kind. Sites are not set up correctly to use the electrical and sewer hookups at the same time. Internet service was non-existent and neither hosts nor ranger could tell us anything about the service. Bathrooms were not clean and 3 out of 4 showers did not work properly. Fire pits were too high to sit around. There is absolutely no place to put a tent on any of the RV sites as well as the tent sites except a patch of gravel, no exceptions. No recreation of any kind except hiking, which was done by the second day. Not worth the money or time unless looking for a place to spend the night and move on. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We chose this park thinking it would be a good base camp from which to explore the Portland and Columbia River Gorge area. In practice it was just a bit too far away (31 miles) to be convenient. The trade off, however, is the splendid isolation of the park, it's brand new facilities, the big sites spread out over a large area and a great trail system. As a new park, the trees are still small and the campsite areas are exposed. Over time, this will become a gorgeous campground. For now it's already a good choice to explore the Vernonia area and the northwest sector of Oregon including Tillamook. As a base to visit Portland or the Gorge, the 62 mile round trip can be trying. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This was a very clean and newer State Park. The hook ups were very modern with clean, level, large gravel pads to park and still have plenty of room for tents, canopies, etc. Every site had a large picnic table and fire ring. There was not a playground that I could find, but there were biking and hiking trails for the kids. They do sell firewood and there are a few soda machines but other than that it is come as you are as far as supplies. I tried to connect to wireless, as a previous poster stated there was, but I did not receive any signal. I received two or three channels of TV from my antenna but was glad I had brought movies. Satellite reception should be no problem as most of the trees around the sites themselves have not yet grown to heights to interfere. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is a wonderful new state park, very convenient to get to from the Portland area. The sites are spacious and all have a fire pit and picnic table (the picnic tables are extra long and have an area with no seats so you could put a high chair there). There IS wireless available - it is very slow and only available near the Welcome Center, but in a pinch you can get online. I used it for work briefly and it worked fine. There is a nice recycling area, they sell wood until 9 PM nightly, and there is an extensive trail system surrounding the park (for hikers, horses, and bicycles). The 144 sites includes all sites (hike in camp, horse camp, cabins). There are currently only 43 full hookup sites available for RVers without a horse. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This is a brand new Oregon State Park. It opened July 2007. There is a total of 82 RV sites with only 1 pull through site. There are 34 tent sites with 22 being hike in only. There are 15 cabins available for reservation along with 16 horse camp sites. Most of the sites in the Dairy Creek West loop are sunny with a few that have large tree shade coverage. Loop roads and sites are gravel with main roads being paved. Cell phone / Air card coverage is adequate. This park is located on the “Banks-Vernonia State Trail” for those who enjoy hiking. Being this park is new and still has a few items that need to be completed we only gave this park a (8), once it is fully completed and the plants etc. get a chance to mature it will definitely be a 10. We camped here in a Motorhome.