McKinley’s Marina & RV Park

Terrible! Extra rules, extra fees for EVERYTHING, excessive b! tchy attitude! Seriously save your sanity and money and find a different place. Other campers came over to commiserate about how terrible the atmosphere was.
Run.

Rules, rules and more rules! When we arrived, we received a brochure with a long list of rules. It didn’t take long to realize that this is not the park where our family could have much fun. It is a decent park, clean bathrooms and nice showers… although they charge .25 a minute for use. They charge extra for children and they clearly don’t like them around. I first got that impression on the phone when confirming our reservation for 2 adults, 4 children and the lady seemed annoyed that we would have the max number of people allowed in our site. There is a play area in the middle of the full hook up sites but it’s closely monitored by the ever unpleasant office lady. If a child throws a frisbee incorrectly, she will be sure to let them know they are not allowed to play there… and she will send them to the dry camp area. The dry camp area is for playing and riding bikes. No fun to be had in the concrete zone. Bottom line… if you are looking for a nice family camping spot this is not it. It is clearly setup to mimic a retirement community. Children and fun frowned upon.

Do not rent crab pots from these people!
While camping on the coast, two friends and I decided to do a Crab Boat Rental (includes gas, 3 crab rings & 3 baits at $ ⁷⁵⁄₃ Hours). We were told at the dock that we could safely crab anywhere in the river delta short of the ocean. Being inexperienced crabbers, we motored out and pitched our crab pots in a line about 50 yds apart near where we saw most of the others on the water that day crabbing. When we went back to where we believed we’d pitched our pots, we could only find two of the marker buoys. We searched and searched and searched and then searched some more and after about 30 unproductive minutes, went back to crabbing with just two pots and a sinking feeling that we might be $ 50 lighter in the wallets. After about 1.5hrs of pulling up undersized and female crabs, we decided to make another buoy search. We finally spotted the missing buoy! Where was it? Well, it was underwater! McKinley’s marina rigged the pots with lines that were too short for the channel!
It was quite a chore trying to hold position in the tidal surge and reach 2 – 5 ft underwater with the gaff to grab the submerged buoy, but after 20 or so tries we managed to snag it. That wasted a good hour of our crabbing adventure.
We moved away from this spot an pitched a pot. Low and behold, we managed to find another spot that was deeper than the buoy rope! 20 more minutes were wasted retrieving this one.
With our empty crab bucket, we motored back to the marina. Upon arrival, we told the dock hand of our trouble with the pot and the fact we only got to crab for about half of our rental time. He just laughed and said, «yeah, there’s some deep spots out there.» Flummoxed by his glibness, we went to the office and complained to the grumpy old lady that made the rental, and she immediately got very defensive. We let her know that the ropes were too short causing us to waste half of our rental, but got nothing but a blank glare. I suggested that they should discount our rental and/​or at least augment the ropes so others wouldn’t have the same problem in the future. She flat out refused to acknowledge the ropes were too short and said they couldn’t be expected to know how deep the channel is at any particular time, and that it would be too much trouble to change out all the ropes. I suggested that it must be in their business model to rely on the $ 50 lost pot fees. We were then ordered to get off the property.

Nice campground right on the river. All concrete and no privacy between the narrow sites. The cable for tv is coming in nice and crisp. Good reception on WIFI.
The lady at office did not have the frendliest attitude that one is accustomed with in Oregon.

Great place! Very clean and quiet. Low fees, laundry facility, store, excellent cell reception, wi-​fi and cable.
Heads up… You do have to pay for showers (less than $ 2.00, depending on timing).
Hopefully we’ll be back :)

We stayed four nights in June 2013 with our 42 ft. motor home. As the reviewer above stated, we looked straight at the bay. I loved watching the kayaks, canoes, fishing, and the birds. The park is spotlessly clean. The people in the office were friendly. We do t have a boat but as mentioned they rent them and also have a launch ramp. One of the nicest and most pleasant places we have stayed. Dog friendly. Didn’t use the bath or laundry facilities but gift shop has some cute things and also a supply of paperbacks (used) for $ 1.50. Definitely would return! Only one downside was I couldn’t get wifi well on my iPad, my husband was fine with his laptop though.

While the view is ok, the park is practically nazi Germany. The lady behind the counter has a foul attitude, the «free» wifi advertised on their site is for full hookup campers. Don’t expect to dry camp and check your email or the Gestapo will kick you out of the park.
They give you a rule list right off the bat and the 25% of the rules are common sense. The rest of the rules are designed so no fun can be had here. You have to use their boat launch (at 5 bucks a pop), any playing or launching of boats from your site will result in you being kicked out of the park. No loud voices, no generator after ten pm, no fun or they kick you out.
They may be the cheapest place to dry camp in waldport, but the rules and attitudes of the people that work here are a joke.
And don’t joke with them. They will kick you out of the park

We parked here with our windshield hanging directly over the Alsea Bay. By providing hook-​ups on BOTH sides of the sites, they allow not only back-​in parking, but nose-​in as well. This allows both RVs and 5^th wheels to park with the fantastic view filling the windshield.
In nearly 7 years of full-​time RVing, we have never seen an RV park quite like this… and we mean that in the very best way. Instead of just providing paved streets, or paved patios, or paved parking pads, this park has all three… in brand new solid concrete.
That may sound cold at first, but the effect of having everything being concrete (with nice plantings between and around the sites) it that everything is immaculately clean.
The bay here supposedly has some of the best Dungeness crabbing in Oregon, and judging by the number of people hauling in large catches, it must be the case. The park rents out motorboats, and also has a launch ramp for people who bring their own boats with them.
There’s also a large gift shop and convenience store, brand new bathrooms (with granite showers) and the newest, cleanest, most beautiful laundry room we’ve ever seen anywhere.
This is a top-​notch stop on the Oregon coast.