Description

The Emerald Forest of Trinidad is a lovely private campground nestled in a forest of giant redwoods. The campground offers RV and tent camp sites, as well as rental cabins. The Emerald Forest is just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean and within easy driving distance of many area attractions.

Location

 Emerald Forest of Trinidad – RV Camping

753 Patricks Point Dr
Trinidad, CA 95570
(707) 677-3554

Details

We stayed at the Emerald Forest of Trinidad for 8 nights in early June, 2016. We have also visited this campground several times in past for shorter stays. The campground provides a peaceful setting nestled among majestic trees and emerald-green ferns and foliage. The campground staff has been professional and friendly for each of our visits. Booking early, we had no problem securing a large pull-thru site with full hookups and 50 Amp electrical.

Cost

Our stay here averaged about $42/night, including a 5$/night extra vehicle fee, tax and our Good Sam Club discount.

Amenities On Site or Nearby

The campground provides a small general store with basic groceries and a selection of local micro-brew beers and wines, household goods, camping supplies, souvenirs and tourist info for the local area. A gas station, post office, restaurants and grocery store are available about one mile away in Trinidad. A wide variety of services, restaurants, and shopping, including Costco, Walmart and Walgreens, are available nearby in Eureka.

Ratings (1-5)

Accessibility – 4/5

The campground is easily accessible from Highway CA-101, via Patrick’s Point Drive. The lanes within the park are wide enough to easily accommodate the largest RV rigs. Some of the campground facilities have handicapped access.

Facilities/Amenities – 3/5

The campground offers basic amenities, including tent sites, full hookups RV sites, rental cabins, laundry room, playground, picnic area, restrooms and showers, free WiFi, video game arcade and a fish cleaning station. The camp store was small, providing basic food staples, RV and camping supplies, souvenirs, and a choice of local micro-brews and wines. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Satellite TV reception is problematic, given the heavy forest, but the campground does provide cable TV with 70 channels.

Site quality – 4/5

Sites are spacious and well shaded, with good separation between sites. Sites are mostly level and surfaced with packed dirt and/or gravel. RV sites have full hookups. Sites have picnic table and fire ring. Our site during this stay had full hookups with 50 Amp electrical.

Scenic Value – 4/5

The campground has high scenic value as it is nestled in a stand of giant redwoods and is about a mile from the lovely port town of Trinidad and the Pacific Ocean.

Location/Isolation – 4/5

The campground is set among majestic trees along scenic Patrick’s Point Drive and feels very isolated. The campground is generally quiet, although Highway CA-101 runs behind the property and some of the back sites can have road noise, at times.

Paws Friendliness – 3/5

The campground is pet friendly and provides cleanup-bag stations throughout the campground, but does not have any enclosed pet run. The campground property is large enough to take a good walk with your pet. There are several dog-friendly beaches, nearby.

Overall Rating – 4/5

We enjoy our stays camping in the redwoods at the Emerald Forest of Trinidad and can recommend this campground.

Additional info

Internet access

We  could receive a moderate Verizon signal at this campground and did not require our antenna or booster for good MiFi hot spot internet access.

We also utilized the free WiFi provided by the campground. We switched to the campground WiFi after several large updates (including a Windows 10 upgrade) pushed us close to our Verizon data usage limit. Unfortunately, the campground WiFi was slow, about 2-3 Mbps, and was prone to sporadic outages during our stay.

Water Quality

The water at this campground tested reasonably soft – we did not add our water softener to the water filtration stack.

Nearby attractions

There are so many sights and attractions within easy driving distance from the campground that it’s hard to choose what to do first. We found the visitor guide, 101 Things to Do – Humboldt County, an invaluable resource for planning our day trips. Here are some suggestions:

• Sight-see in historic Trinidad – visit the lighthouse and working pier
• Redwoods National and State Parks
• Humboldt Lagoons State Park
• Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
• Historic Victorian houses and cemetery in Ferndale
• Drive the Avenue of the Giants
• Visit the Lost Coast
• Sample local wines and micro-brews – the Lost Coast Brewery is one of our favs!