This RV park is right across the street from the wonderful Deception Pass State Park, with its…read morecrazy-scenic bridge, beaches, hiking trails, and lakes. At the State Park's West Beach area, you can be strolling on a sandy/rocky saltwater beach and then literally 1 minute later, you can be swimming (or fishing) in a freshwater lake. It's the weirdest, coolest thing! We saw seals, Bald Eagles, Merganzers, and an 800-year-old Douglas Fir tree on a single short hike here. We're hoping to see the beavers they say like to live in Cranberry Lake one of these days, but they've been elusive so far.
The State Park has campsites, but it's more for rustic camping, not a great RV park. There are two small towns (Anacortes and Oak Harbor) 10 miles away that offer shopping (Safeway, Walmart, Home Depot, fast food, etc.), but it still feels rural. There's a marina down the road a little way, and there are whale-watching boat tours nearby.
This RV park is well-kept and tidy. I saw someone on some review or other complaining (and that and a couple other petty complaints are what inspired me to write ~this~ review, as I don't write many of them, and this is my first on Yelp) about the park's brown grass, and I had to laugh. Did they not know grass doesn't stay green in the height of summer--especially during a drought? If that's all they had to complain about with this place, I'd say they're doing pretty well. LOL
The bathrooms are clean, there's a fenced dog park, and they sell propane, firewood, and ice at the office. The office staff are very friendly and welcoming, too. They meet visitors outside with clipboards in hand when it's busy, so that drivers don't even need to step outside their rigs.
Most of the spaces aren't huge, but from what I could see, there's only one very small area where they're a little squished, in this area that's at the center of a wheel shape, where the spaces are the wheel's spokes, but it's not like you're on top of each other, and it's not a big deal IMHO. There aren't that many trees, but I'd rather not have any around my rig, actually, and it stays blessedly cool here even in summer, so lack of shade really isn't an issue anyway.
The park has a large gazebo and a small club house space that groups can reserve. And it's right across the street from where the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail crosses through. A 15 minute hike into the forest along that trail made me feel like I was in Middle Earth. So beautiful!
We haven't fished in years, but we saw people fishing in the fresh-water lakes. One's a 5 minute walk away. And there are tide pools in the State Park, too, though that's a couple miles from the RV park, and not a place I want to walk to, as the main road that runs up and down Whidbey Island, State Road 20, can be pretty busy and narrow in that section. But in 5 minutes you can also walk out of the park, cross that road (there's a light with a crosswalk signal) and be in the State Park on a beautiful trail beside a lake with huge trees towering overhead and with the noise of the road forgotten. The Cranberry Lake trail leads you parallel to the lake and through the forest down to West Beach and a dune nature trail with interpretive signage. It's about a 3.8 mile walk round trip, and at the half-way point, there's a State Park camp store where you can get a drink and snack in summer and take a rest.
I must say, though, that my favorite time to visit this place is in winter (We love it there so much that we've been there in all four seasons!). There's something so atmospheric about the gray cloud cover and the fog and the wildness of the sea. The hikes are just gorgeous then. There's just something about it, and I love it.
If you run out of things to do nearby (HA!), you can take a short drive to visit the truly-charming towns of Langley, Coupeville (where "Practical Magic" was filmed), Mt. Vernon, or LaConner. There's a GREAT food co-op in Mt. Vernon that has amazing produce and gifts and a hot-food deli. It's like a mini Whole Foods. In any of these little towns, you can get an ice cream cone and stroll down old-fashioned downtown areas and window shop and people-watch. And in Langley, you may even spot a whale!
The one bad thing I can say about this park is that there's sometimes noise from the navy jets that fly out of NAS Whidbey, which is maybe 5 miles away. That can get pretty loud during some weekdays, but the weekends are almost always no-fly times, and they have free earplugs in the office, if you need them to sleep. I just wore my noise canceling earphones and I was fine. There's also some noise from the two-lane road nearby, especially at rush hours or on busy summer weekends. But when visiting a beautiful place like this, who hangs out in their RV all the time anyway?
Anyway...If you can't tell, I really love this place. It's definitely a well-deserved 5-star rating from us.