We stayed at Thousand Trails Whalers Rest in South Beach, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Some Thousand Trails campgrounds turn out to be great places to stay. This was not one of them.
Though it actually wasn’t too bad, but not very big rig friendly, with tight roads and we struggled to find a suitable site.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-05-22
- Check out: 2023-05-28
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 56-61°F, lows around 49-52°F
- A little wind, but sheltered by trees
Noise:
- A little highway noise
- No train noise
- A little neighbor noise
- Can hear the ocean
Site:
- #79, pull through, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Fairly level (many sites here are not)
- Very small site: about 45 feet long by about 15 feet wide
- No picnic table etc
- Tall trees
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, inconveniently located
- 65 PSI water, inconveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- AT&T: 55 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
- Starlink: 70-110 Mbps down, 7-20 Mbps up, 30 ms ping, unusably spotty service (too many trees)
- T-Mobile: no service
- Verizon: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage bins only by entrance
- Indoor pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Tight roads, tight sites
The thing about Thousand Trails is that your overall experience of the park is very much colored by what site you manage to snag. When we rolled into this park on a Sunday right around check-in time, there were very few sites available that would fit our 40′ motorhome. We were told not to even bother checking the north section of the park across the road but that there were “plenty” of sites available on the south side, which was not entirely true. There were several sites, but the only one available that would fit us was a pull-through in the middle of two others, which was so tight between our neighbors that our slides were nearly touching. There was no room for a picnic table or any outdoor living. It was, however, surprisingly level. We did try backing into a site that might have been long enough, but again, was so narrow there was no outdoor living space, and the trees were so low our roof would have dragged on the branches. If you have a small trailer or a Class B, this might be a great campground. For a larger motorhome or 5th wheel, I can’t recommend it. It is also close to the beach if you enjoy playing Frogger in real life. We camped at Thousand Trails Whalers Rest in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: When in Newport, eat Dungeness crab. Clearwater Restaurant on the historic bayfront was a nice option for fine dining. Take a day trip up to Yaquina Head lighthouse and Devil’s Punchbowl.
Interactive map:
Campground map:
A helpful page of site lengths and other info. Lots of the sites were too short for our 40 foot motorhome, not to mention our truck:
We disconnected our truck and drove around (a couple of times) to find a suitable site. A few candidates are marked; we initially chose site #48, though it was rather narrow, so we then chose #64. But when we drove our couch around, we couldn’t back into that site due to trees and vehicles. Fortunately, we had noticed one of the few pull-through sites available, #79, so we proceeded on to that one. Rather narrow, but we fit (barely):
More spacious after the motorhome on our passenger side left:
Later, both sides were vacant for a few days:
And still later, when a trailer arrived next to us; you can see how narrow these sites are:
Once several sites cleared out during the week, we considered moving to another site, e.g. we liked this #74, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle for a few more nights:
Other sites:
A very tight corner:
Dump station:
Apparently they gathered all of the garbage bins by the entrance, due to bears in the park:
Activity center:
Game court:
Entrance sign:
This campground is split into north and south sides; we were on the south side. The north side seems to be mostly seasonal (long-term) sites. Here’s its entrance:
Cabins:
Clubhouse:
Mini golf:
Other sites:
On the south side is a path to the beach:
Have to cross Highway 101:
Lost Creek State Park:
The ocean:
