Salt Creek Recreation Area

Beautiful area to explore with plenty of tide pools with fish and sea life. Be careful where you step – there are creatures all over.
You are able to climb atop the island by a steep, craggy trail on the left side that you have to scramble up.
A definite must stop on your visit to Port Angeles.

Awesome rv park. Best price around, very helpful camp host, very clean sites, great views, great beach. We had a lot of fun and will definitly return again soon! Our only bad experiance was accidentaly crossing over the creek onto crescent beach and got harrassed and chased off by the crescent beach rv park staff.

The campground facilities looked great! We, however, went to experience the tidepools and were just a bit disappointed. We went as the tide was going out (10am when the low tide of –1.9 was 11:30am) and did not find Tongue point as full of marine life as other tidepool areas we have explored.
That said, it’s fun to walk through the rocks and sand, and especially fun for kids. That it’s free to get in and explore makes it a worthwhile morning trip from Port Angeles.

This is a review just for the hiking trails, not the camping. It was gorgeously deserted last weekend spare a few RVs, some of which looked like they’d settled in for the winter with Christmas decorations still hanging. No brave campers, as far as we could tell.
I’d recommend starting by walking straight towards the strait and going down the little set of stairs to the rocky outcropping (see the photo of our dog standing on one of the rocks). The view from there is gorgeous, if a little bit wet. Definitely wear shoes with good grip!
We then took the Striped Peak trail all the way to the top. It’s an easy climb with a few switchbacks at the end. The trail was a little washed out at parts, but nothing we couldn’t jump over or walk around. There are trails that go on in two directions once you reach the peak, but without a map/​good idea of where we were I didn’t want to chance it.
The best part of the Striped Peak trail is the little offshoot that goes to a cove about .7 miles in. My now-​fiancé proposed at the waterfall that you pass on the way down to the cove. So I’m thinking this will always be a pretty special place for us.

After thought can sure kick you in the butt!!! I waited a bit to write this review as I know emotions right after a disheartening event can jade your overall thoughts and well as I start to write this review, they are unfortunately coming back.
Let me start with the fact that this is a State Park and the rules and regulations are listed on the website and other places I’m sure but when you are confronted in person at the time, you are not always thinking straight! Mind you we were in a non-​cellular service area, so looking at the website on the way home after we packed everything back up wasn’t going to do any good.
Here’s the story… My cousins arrived around 11am on Friday and scoured the spots for any opening. There were a few in the same area and nice lady offered her spot as this allowed us to have 2 side by side and she took the smaller lot across the road. They set up shop, portable kitchen, 3 tents and built a fire and of course went to pay. All that was on the 1 of the picnic tables was a plastic tablecloth folded and a water bottle. We arrived around 5:30pm completing the group of us to camp. We set up our 2 tents, unloaded the truck, coolers, cooking unit, chairs etc and started to settle down and eat dinner… here’s where it gets pretty sketchy and just plain bad– around 7:30pm a lady in a golf cart pulls up and tells us that the 2 spots that we are currently occupying are already reserved and paid for… So ehere the hecl are they, its almost dusk at this point! She states that they came the night before and paid for them and that when she did her last run around noon, (lie) she saw the tablecloth and water bottle on the picnic table. We ask her to call her manager and she tells us that they say there is nothing they can do and we have to leave. The other party just arrived and must have called on them once they saw the lot occupied? We had 4 littles under the age of 5 that we were just about to put down as it’s now close to 8pm and a additional 10 adults in the group that must now pack up close to dusk because of the lack of knowledge this so called park ranger had.
As we drove into town I looked up the Reservation Policy and also the Cancellation/​No show rules and it states, «an individual campsite reservation will be held until 12:00 noon the day after the reserved date and that you must have a tent and/​or vehicle left at the site to hold your spot. No vehicle, nor tent was set-​up and it was 7:30pm when we were asked to pack up! COMPLETE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE BY THE EMPLOYEES HERE!!!

We chose a bad spot. #68. It was awful! There was road that practically surrounded the whole camp site and with a dumpster right IN our spot! the surroundings are beautiful but the campground is poorly designed! camp sites are too close together and only 4 or 5 sites have shred of privacy. we’re used to camping at
sites which are much nicer!

This secluded gem of a place is tucked away from the main road through a forest of trees. I was expecting to drive up to a large beach area.
You don’t have to pay if you’re only a Day Tripper ;-)
We visited in Mid July at 715 PM and it was still light outside. Drive slowly past the RVs and campgrounds as kids tend to dart out from everywhere on foot and on their bikes.
The campgrounds are pretty nice as each site is tucked away in its own nook and cranny like cul-​de-​sacs in shady tree areas. I would imagine it would feel pretty secluded despite having another family of campers nearby. There is a bathroom with coin-​op shower and clean toilets.
There are a few stairs that will lead you to the shoreline to poke about the tidepools. We got there when it obviously wasn’t high tide so we didn’t get to see the critters but it was so worth it to explore the beautiful coast line. Step a few feet away from some rocks and your cell phone says you now have roaming charges; step back and you’re back in the land of 4G.
The beauty here is what I could only describe as «wild» and «rugged» — it was breath taking to see the Pacific Northwest. The ocean and shorelines are so different from the kinds you see in Hawaii. I am mountain-​lover who lives in Hawaii and this place marries the sea with the mountains so it was especially amazing.
It was cold and windy in the middle of Summer so take a jacket and pay attention or you’ll twist your ankle or fall on the uneven rocks.

So unfortunately we didnt reserve ahead of time and opted to take a chance of their «1^st come 1^st serve» open campsites, so I went up to the campgrounds a couple hours ahead of my group to scout for lots. I found 2 perfect ones next to each other. All that was there were a jug of water and some piece of cloth on 1 picnic table and the other was a chunk of firewood and the same cloth. So I didnt think anything of it, maybe campers just left them from the last stay. There werent any «Reserved» signs on the # posts so we paid (left money in the drop box as instructed) and set up camp.
Around 7:45pm a park representative showed up claiming someone had already reserved the 2 lots the night before (Thursday) for 3 nights. Seriously?! Were were they to begin with? Why werent there ANY common sensical signs they were being occupied? The rep was so «adamant» that people left items. Which by the Salt Creek’s park laws were not in any definition as proof. She didnt even have a copy of the policy with her. We tried to reason with her but she says, «its out of my hands.». I call B.S.
She claimed that she rolled by in her little cart around 11am (which I was there at that time) and saw there were items (as mentioned earlier) to «show occupancy» and that the other people drove by us at 5pm to tattle. WHY did the park wait so long to tell us to leave if that was the case? We found out when we got home that according to:
«6. To show occupancy, a vehicle or tent must remain in the site at all times. If you plan to leave the campsite during your reservation period, make certain the campsite appears occupied. If the campsite looks empty, you may lose it.»
*Which there was NEITHER.
RESERVATION NO-​SHOW:
1. An individual campsite reservation will be held until 12:00 noon the day after the reserved arrival date.”
*As I said, I was there at 11am and there was NOBODY else there claiming they already paid for the lots.
We were being kicked out… at 7:45pm…with 4 little kids about to be down for the night & a fully set up camp of 4 families. I’m not going to get into details but we intend to write a strongly worded complaint with information from their own website that THEY were in the wrong. We never intend to come back to a campsite that arent knowledgable and don’t follow in their own rules & regulations.
The «1^st come 1^st serve» policy is fine, but make sure that there’s no doubt the lots been paid for. Salt Creek can place red «Reserve» signs on the lots paid ahead but is it considered too much work for a «paid» sign at the time of arrival?

I love this place! The tide pools make this the best place ever, hands down. It’s a fairly short walk to get down onto Crescent Beach, which provides a ton of tide pool entertainment.
I’ve been here several times now and I’ll absolutely be coming back!

Fantastic spot to connect and watch the sunset in peace and quiet. Not crowded at all, just incredibly serene. Enjoyed walking down to the water line and exploring the tide pools.
The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars, is because We didn’t camp here, so I can’t speak to all the park has to offer but would consider staying in the future.

This will always be one of my favorite campgrounds. I have been many times and will be back again. The place is spotless, the views unrivaled and the beach and tidepools are really close for fun with the kiddos. Recently, I paid $ 23 for a site. Firewood is $ 5 a bundle and the camp hosts were very nice. Love it here!

The camps location is beautiful, the amenities are great, and the rangers are friendly.
I am writing this review to warn others of a person who decided to steal our stuff while we were away at the bathroom. We caught up to him in his car and he admitted to going through all the campsites after each weekend. And then proceeds to sell all of his finds at a yard sale in the summer. We caught him and asked about our stuff and he returned it. Just keep an eye out for a silver Subaru forester hatchback if you decide to go camping here and find some stuff missing.

Stumbled on this place in October after driving through an RV park named Golf and something. It was terrible, I didn’t even roll down the windows.
When you first arrive hook up sites are in view and have a great view of the Strait. I initially thought I would stay there but ventured on to the forested sites. Some are very private with great views and some would not be private at all if someone was camped next to you. This area had many choices at least this time of year but there are no hook ups in the forest sites. The pay showers were fine and clean restrooms. Staff was friendly and helpful.
There are wonderful short trails to amazing views, and tide pools when the tide is low. Hello people… the tide has to be low to see tide pools, look at a tide chart. No, the tides are not always low in the mornings as some people seem to think. It seems to be a favorite place for kayakers. You can see Vancouver Island, cruise ships, and the night lights of Victoria.
I stayed there 4 nights and only left when the weather got somewhat ugly.

Being around nature always puts a pep to my step!
After the three hour drive, my feet just had to hop out of the car and make a big splash onto the crystal blue creek. This creek is more than just BEAUTIFUL, and the view of the Straight of Juan de Fuca is worth more than every precious metal on earth!
The cost for a night in a tent site is $ 18 and — yes, you heard me! Tent site! Although I have that natural environment streak, I am still very high maintenance of when it comes to where I bunk in every night. Sleeping in a tent is out of my comfort zone, (as well as giving up technology for a couple of days — which i compromised to do) however it is worthy of all the risks! I had a surprisingly peaceful night as I fell asleep to the sounds of the waves which relaxation music cannot even mimic. No mosquitoes, people from other camping sites, and monsters from my late night spooky stories even bothered me when the lights went off.
I was selfish and reserved the best camping spot 15 days prior to the visit. If you are planning to do so as well, you won’t regret it! The best sights were captured from the top of the hill of my hike. I was surrounded by an unexplainable euphoria from the glimpse of the vast water, the scent of fresh tree bark and a view of a red heaven when the sun suddenly went down. The call of nature flourished as we walked through the woods; leaves tickling against my arm, the stalking of curious deer, and crickets humming the song of a waxing gibbous. Hiking at dusk was a scene from Twilight and the Hunger Games. However without the violence and running for my life, — and instead running toward the s’mores that awaited for me when we got to the bottom!
My experience in the early morning was like nature on steroids. I was greeted from the sun peeking through the clouds and the star fish that were washed upon the shore. the dew of the dawn embellished the field perfectly; and the cold temperature was an instrumental part while doing my morning meditation and yoga. I felt fresh, I felt calm, I felt so immersed in the divine atmosphere as if we were «omming» together.
I caught my heart doing the tango a few times during my trip, as well as sobbing as I was finally leaving the area. My experience at Salt Creek was like the vacation that I’ve always needed during the summer. Didn’t need a hotel, didn’t need technology, and didn’t even need cute baby animals to have an amazing time! Honestly I’m leaving out way too many details from minuscule creatures to WW2 bunkers; so if you’re ever deciding to come to the creek, expect every waking moment to be full of surprises as well as a supernatural awakening of a glorious natural world!

My wife and I were told there were sea otters and tidepools here. The old people in the RV reading books said «what is tide pool. Over there a rock.» What?!? Apparently, the tidepools disappear and come back randomly, only going away when we arrived! We were promised an octopus and jellyfishes.
No jellyfishes. No octopus. Some guy in a tight body suit that the octopuses were under water. What!?! Nobody told us that! We thought they’d be up on a rock during the day like the turtles we saw in the lake. Also: no. Sea. Otters. Anywhere! None! The old people said, «what is otter? Like small sea bear?» I said NO. OTTER. Like… Like…“Weasel Fish.“
This elicited some thoughtful nodding. «Oh. Yes. I see it, this Weasel Fish. He have black hand… little mask… stripe on tail. He make the garbage pail open up. Eat feces in camp dump.» No, elder! That’s a raccoon. We were told the SEA WEASEL lives here, and FROLICS AND GAMBOLS about in the SEA KELP!!!
«Nyet. He have small hands and a fin like… who you say it…‘Freedom Willy’? On this dolphin show that my grand daughter see it in New York. He have small black hand and a fin, skin like smooth belly of obese man that take to drinking. He have furry be-​hind but flippers in the back. Some time he spit juice through a hole in his back, make a chit-​chit-​chit sound through buck teeth. He have tail like a flat sausage, for to carry mud to his block home in the stream-​pond. He have a wife. He have child out of egg but yet… he is mammal and take milk from his mother’s armpit. This… this is the one.» Oh, I said. Just… oh.

Great park to explore and play at. Good place for a game of horseshoes or to throw the Frisbee. The beaches are rocky, so beware, but offer great sea creature exploring in the tide pools. Popular family spot when the sun is out. Lots of RV parking. Has never been crowded.

Salt Creek Area= AMAZING!!! Absolutely GORGEOUS area… will defnitely be coming back.

Awesome, but read on cause there are some major drawbacks. We stayed here in the RV park area in a camping trailer. Be careful because there is a RV park with the words Salt Creek in the name also in Port Angeles that is not like this place. This is the county park and you will not want to get the two mixed up.
This place is beautiful. For RVers, they have 30amp hookups with water. There is no sewer, cable tv or wifi. There is a dump station in the park. All of the RV sites have a view of the water, it is incredible. Off in the distance, you can see Canada. There is a separate area for tent camping or dry camping with an RV. It appears that many of these other sites have limited or no views of the water.
There is so much to explore here. There are hiking trails galore. There are huge grassy fields where deer seemed to be ²⁴⁄₇. On a hill in the park is an old WWII gun site that was part of the coastal defense. Then there are the tide pools which were awesome.
It was so peaceful sitting under the stars with a campfire going and watching the big ships go by in the ocean. I really regret that we did not spend more time here. This is a truly spectacular place to camp. At $ 25 per night, this is a steal of a deal too!
There are some drawbacks, but ultimately they do not do enough damage to take away from this place.
First, it is way out of town. There is little else nearby and it will take you about 25 mins to get into the city. The reservation process is odd. You have to mail a check with a form and IF the site you request is available, the reservation is yours. This process can take a few weeks.
Customer service is nil. Getting someone on the phone to ask a question was hit and miss. I called twice and first time the lady was nice, second time she was short and borderline rude, «no we don’t have wifi, we are a campground.» Well, I’m sorry for asking because I have been to plenty of campgrounds with wifi. Excuse me for asking.
They have a gate that closes at 10pm. May not seem like it would be a problem but I had a major issue and had to run to town knowing the gate would be shut when I returned. So I had to park outside the gate and hoof it in.
There is no alcohol allowed. If you were planning on enjoying a nice bottle of wine with dinner while taking in the sunset, think again. Be discreet and keep in mind there is a «park host» that stays in one of the RV’s next to the restroom and I got the feeling that there is not a lot of room for leniency from them. There is also another park host in the camping area.
There is no sewer at the sites either but the dump station is close by. But it was worth the hassles and really this is in the top 5 places I have camped or RV’d ever. I really would love to come back here.

One of my favorite camping spots as a child and as an «adult».
You can’t beat the view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the amazing tide pools at low tide. The scenery is amazing and falling asleep listening to the waves crashing against the rocks (if you are close to the bluff) is calming.
Reasonable prices, bare bones bathrooms.
Convenient location if you are planning on hiking in the Olympic National Park or traveling on to visit the Hoh Rain Forest. When at the campground you can stay occupied by hiking up to the bunkers in the woods or a walking on the beach. There’s a playground for kids.
Reservation system is old school– you must print off the form on the website and mail it in and get a confirmation mailed back to you. It’s okay though, it works.
I’ll continue to come back to Salt Creek again and again. Truly one of the Peninsula’s treasures!

A girl friend of mine, my dog, Hercules, and I decided to go camping for the Labor Day weekend. We lasted 17 hours.
My friend and I hadn’t gone camping together since we were in eighth grade and each of us had gone a handful of times since, but only in large groups. Apparently, not much has changed since we were braving the wilds at 13. When we weren’t laughing at our latest shenanigans or talking about boys, we were getting grossed out by bugs, fearing wildlife and daydreaming about showering and sleeping on something that wasn’t the ground.
We (my friend) found an amazing camp spot at the Salt Creek campground on the Olympic Peninsula (less than $ 20 a night). I think the weatherman’s promise of rain all weekend scared many people away from the outdoors, since for a holiday weekend, the campground wasn’t all that full. Our view from our tent was amazing. Beaches, ocean, mountains. A short walk on the trail near our campsite lead us down to tide pools that were full of colorful sea anemones, mussels, crabs and… green, slimy stuff.
One would expect that in a location that beautiful and serene, the wildlife would be peaceful, well-​behaved creatures who you could observe from afar. Afar being the keyword. Oh, one doesn’t assume that while camping in the wilderness? Well, I did. Instead of being afar, on night one, raccoons made themselves right at home at our campsite, while my friend, Hercules and I listened with baited breath from inside the tent. The raccoons knocked our pots off the table with a clang. They ate through a plastic bag to feast upon our styrofoam bowls. And they cooed. Who knew raccoons cooed? I suppose I’m thankful they weren’t growling, because I’ve googled raccoons and they have sharp teeth and that probably would have done me in right then and there. But regardless, they were loud.
After surveying the damage, we were thankful that we had put the food in the car before we had gone to bed. Our food had survived the raccoon invasion! We unpacked the food and were getting ready to eat breakfast when we decided that if we wanted to make it to the tide pools while the tide was still out we would need to leave our campsite right away. So, we stopped breakfast preparations and hit the trail. We spent a good amount of time moseying around the slippery rocks, combing the beach and photographing our discoveries. I have never seen Hercules as excited as he was when he was running laps on the beach with an 8 ft long piece of seaweed flying from his mouth like a flag. After we got our fill of the tide pools, we took the outer path back to our campsite, which was a bit longer than the trail we had used to get to the beach, but there were less slippery boulders for us to bite it on.
As we were nearing our campsite, we could hear them. Squawking and clicking and flapping. Crows. Lots of them. They flew into a nearby tree when we approached. The first sign of damage that I spotted was an empty bag of naan, which just an hour earlier held four pieces of the bread. We got closer to the table which we had put our boxes of food out on and surveyed the damage. Hercules’ dog food was littered about the site. Besides the naan being devoured, the crows had eaten through two plastic bags and gnawed on half a loaf of bread. The bag containing some grahmcrackers had been pecked away at. And crow poop covered the exposed parts of the table. Damn birds. They go from feasting on dead carcasses to chewing on our breakfast. I do not approve.
Even with half of our food eaten or pooped on, we thought we may be able to make it for another night in the woods. Our minds changed quickly once we tried at least 20 times to start a campfire. The wind picked up and our neighbor’s tent blew up in the air. I caught sight of my dirty face and greasy hair and couldn’t shake the idea of a warm shower (fyi.there are showers at the campsite and they appeared clean, but they’re not home). I knew my friend was thinking along the same lines as I was when she said, «I need espresso. Drip won’t cut it.» And with that, we started loading the car.