 |
| Camp site was large enough that we had a friend join us. |
HOH OXBOW
RUN BY: Washington State Parks
LOCATION: US-101 south
of Forks, WA
UTILITIES: none
COST: none
(with Washington State Discovery Pass, $30 – well worth the money) DISCOUNTS: N /A
OUR RATING (1-5): Category II, Rating 4+
NOTES: Right on the
Hoh River and in the rain forest, this is a beautiful campground. Forget
getting any direct sun. You are under a fabulous canopy of cedars and right on
the river. You might be forced to pull out your generator, if you stay for any
time. If you do, please be thoughtful to
those around you. It is a quiet, peaceful place. This place is so quiet that
even a quiet Honda is going to be like standing next to a jack-hammer. Large rigs might find getting in and out a
bit tight but I’m guessing that rigs as big as 30 ft might fit in one or two of
the campsites. It is a great spot for
just sitting, meditating or relaxing and enjoying marvelous nature. It is also
a good base camp for exploring the west side of Olympic National Park. You need
to go walk on the beach accessed via Kalaloch Campground about 19 miles south.
It has the Tree Root Cave which is rather awesome. You can’t stay at Hoh Oxbow without visiting
the Hoh Rain Forest. It is a part of Olympic Nat’l Park and the road to the Hoh
Rain Forest Visitor’s Ctr and trails is only 1.5 miles north of the Hoh Oxbow
campground.
Environment: deep forest with giant cedars
Amenities: none
Dump: No (We dumped for $5 at a state facility
called Fairholm, 44 miles toward Port Angeles. That’s because we were coming
from Port Angeles and wanted to dump before we got to Hoh Oxbow. There is also
a dump station at Kalaloch Campground 19 miles south. It cost $10 ($5 with
Senior Access))
Public Water: No
Toilets: No
Showers: No
Laundry: No
Phone Service:
Verizon 4G-2bars
Location: The turn to the campground is 18 miles south
of Fork, WA on US-101. The campground is
on the east side of the road and right on a curve, which makes it difficult to
spot, especially coming from Fork. I did
not get coordinates at the turn, and my maps do not show the actual road, but
the coordinates of the campground are 47.80871
-124.24991.
Proximity to shopping: Forks, about 14 miles north.
Camping Population:
It is a very small campground, and it was early October, so there were
just a couple of us there and we did not get to meet the others. Considering
the location, I would imagine that it is very popular among all types of
campers during season. Because of its
remote location and popularity among visitors, I have doubts that you will find
many residential campers*, if any.
Sites: roomy
and private. We shared our site with a
friend in a van.
======================================================================
RATING KEY:
category - score
Categories: I -
established campgrounds where one might spend a vacation or several days
II
- boondocking, dry camping where there
are no designated sites and no amenities but
one might choose to stay for more than a night.
III
- over-night areas
You must remember that we are scoring 1 thru 5 according to
things which are important to us: the environment, cost, amenities,
location, safety, camping population, site, phone service
* There are people who are not full-timers and van-dwellers
by choice. We try hard not to be demeaning or assume that they are bad people
but sadly, as you find in the poorer parts of a city, there seems to be more
crime. Many call these people van-dwellers. That isn’t really accurate even
though they do often live in vans. We know quite a few van-dwellers who have
good incomes, are full-timers by choice and prefer a van to other types of
vehicles. To try to show some respect for people who have a difficult lot in
life, I’m calling them ‘residential
campers’. It is only when you get a
high proportion of residential campers in an area that you find an increase in
petty theft, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment