West Coast RV Camping

The Complete Guide to More Than 2,300 RV Parks and Campgrounds in Washington, Oregon, and California

Fifth Edition
By: Tom Stienstra
Series: Moon Outdoors
ISBN: 9781640498884
Pages: 1056
Published: July 2018

Know every spot. Turn the Western U.S. into your own private land of treasures.

Organized by maps and areas, not a laundry list like other RV guides: Award-winning author Tom Stienstra covers over 2,300 RV parks and campgrounds in Moon West Coast RV Camping. Stienstra provides a range of outdoor options that appeal to campers with kids, pets, or recreational equipment, as well as those looking for a beachfront, natural springs, or island retreat. Stienstra also includes his top picks for the Prettiest Lakes, Best Spots for Wildlife-Viewing, and Best Locations for Fishing. With a variety of RV locations, helpful hints, and suggestions, Moon West Coast RV Camping gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable camping experience.

• 2,300 campgrounds and parks for RV camping. These include: privately owned RV parks; local, county, state and national parks; national forests; and in some rare cases, land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Washington Department of Natural Resources.
• It does not include sites that are extremely remote, very difficult to reach, or where the access road is extremely narrow, twisty, or sites adjacent to wilderness, or sites requiring 4-wheel-drives, a hike or a boat to reach them. There are hundreds of such hidden camps available across the West, including many gems. To find them, instead get the books California Camping and Pacific Northwest Camping.
• More than 150 extremely detailed maps.
• Directions that are written as if the person in the right seat is reading them aloud to the person driving. That makes them the easiest to use of any outdoor book.
• Detailed information about each camp’s facilities, fees, reservation policies, setting and nearby recreation.
• Icons that quickly identify activities at each site.
• Individually confirmed telephone numbers.
• Every listing fact-checked.
• It does not include sites that are extremely remote, very difficult to reach, or where the access road is extremely narrow, twisty, or sites adjacent to wilderness, or sites requiring 4-wheel-drives, a hike or a boat to reach them. There are hundreds of such hidden camps available across the West, including many gems. To find them, instead get the books California Camping and Pacific Northwest Camping.

“Moving is the closest thing to being free,” wrote Billy Joe Shaver, an old Texas cowboy songwriter.

He got it.

When I was asked to review cover photo ideas for this book, there were plenty of shots of pretty lakes, streams, forests, valleys, coast and desert, that is, the gorgeous landscape destinations in the west, photos typically with an RV parked somewhere.

None of the shots really got it.

It’s not just the getaway destinations, adventures and array of sights that makes roaming the West the greatest RV adventure in America. It’s the way it makes you feel inside when you’re on the road: The closest thing to being free. That’s why I asked for a shot of an RV in motion, heading out, on the move, where anybody can envision the anticipation of the trip ahead, all the hopes and dreams that inspire road trips across the West.

I can empathize with people who feel this way. To put this book together, I’ve traveled more than a million miles across Washington, Oregon and California in the past 25 years. While I love hiking, boating and fishing, the real underlying force is stay on the move, roaming around, free, always curious to see what is around the next bend in the road.

There’s one catch. To make a road trip work, you have to be able to find a spot every night. That’s why this book is a must-have for every RV owner. You’ll never get stuck again. One of the worst feelings imaginable is cruising down the road in the early evening without a clue where you will park for the night, the array of spots available. I call that being a prisoner of hope. My advice is to never hope your way through a vacation.

This book details 1,800 campgrounds and parks with RV sites. The listings, directions, facilities and highlights are far more detailed than any RV guide ever published. To win that trust, we have done everything possible to make this book the most accurate ever published in this field. After I completed the first draft, every page of the galleys was cross-checked with rangers and the owners of RV parks by three research editors, Stephani Cruickshank, Jeff Lupo and Pamela Padula.

Regardless, things are always changing at RV parks and camps, and getting it right in a book requires year-round vigilance. Most commonly, prices go up. While the prices in this book are the most up-to-date possible, if price is the bottom-line concern, always verify prior to your visit.

Over the years, I have received many comments from campers, rangers and park owners of what they want in an RV guidebook. That is exactly what we are delivering. After all, this is my full-time job. We understand how seriously people take their trips, what you need to know to make your trips work, every time.

Adventures are good for the soul. They can bond people for life.

Adventures also make you feel good inside. Billy Joe Shaver was right. Moving really is the closest thing to being free.

–Tom Stienstra

Feel great in the next 24 hours: Hike. Bike. Camp. Fish. Boat. Wildlife watch. Explore.