By:
Submission
The beach is located approximately 2 ½ miles east of Highway 1 on Willow Creek Road
No campsites are ever available, I finally got one and they are so crowded in there with no privacy. Crazy amount of bugs being so close to the river. Sketchy bumpy gravel road to get there. If you are driving this far you may as well get a better campsite.
I was here in 1997 with some friends and I still talk about the trip to this day. We hiked all the way to the ocean. It was an amazing hike(beware of stinging nettles) lots of fruit along the way during season. Mussels all over the rocks and at low tide it was easy to pick 5lbs worth to carry back for dinner. I will be back again.
You have to walk between 25 and 250 meters from the parking lot to get to the campsites. There is one spot that is wheelchair accessible. There are trails you can follow a few kilometers to the coast. The campsite is on the inland side of a hill, and heavily forested, so even on a windy day, it's peaceful at the campground.
Perhaps because you have to trudge a bit to get your gear to the campground, I've never had obnoxiously loud neighbors.
Most of the campsites are pretty isolated. Most of the campsites are along a trail wide enough to accommodate a gardening wagon. A few are up a steepish hill that would make using a wagon very difficult.
The hike includes redwood forest and has a magical view along the Russian River where it meets the ocean. The trail ends at a beautiful beach, although when I was there in early April the stairs down to the beach had been washed out making it tough to get down to the beach.
