Nehalem Bay State Park – Nehalem, OR

This is a beautiful state park with lots of trees and great access directly to the beach.

Apparently, reservations are required for the “A” loop (which is the closest to the beach) year round, even if it doesn’t look busy. If you don’t have reservations, the signs specify that you are to proceed to the other loops (even though at this time of year it is “self-registration”). When I was there, half the spots in the “A” loop were empty. I obeyed the signs and picked a site in the “C” loop. Later, I asked the camp host if the “reservations required for A loop” is enforced when it’s not busy, I was told that the requirement is enforced. (There is a valid reason for it.)

The sites, which are all paved blacktop, are water and electric only, 30 and 20 amp. However, if you are towing a car, not all spaces have room to park the car. All vehicles must be parked on the blacktop, and that is where you won’t have much room for a tow car.

Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. If you are planning to stay more than a couple of nights, you might want to consider using a plastic tub for washing your dishes. The park provides “sink water pit drains” for throwing your sink water out. Some of the sites (too many to list) are near the walkways to the showers. Try to avoid those sites, although not a big issue in the off season. Showers are free! They were adequate, about what you would expect in a state park. My only complaint about the showers is that the showers themselves didn’t have a curtain. My dry clothing got splattered in the small changing area outside the shower.

The park has a pay phone in case your cell phone doesn’t work in this area. If you aren’t carrying a satellite, you still get great reception from six “over the air” channels in this area. Lastly, this park has a great recylcing station to help cut down the garbage for those that like to contribute to this ecological effort.