Friday, August 22, 2014

Campground Review: John Wayne's Waterfront Resort, Sequim, WA

We chose to spend our month in Sequim, WA at John Wayne's Waterfront Resort because it was a reasonable distance off highway 101 and on the edge of town, so more likely to be a peaceful place to stay. Sequim Bay and the lovely John Wayne Marina and Park are right across the street and the Olympic Discovery Trail is less than a quarter mile away.

There are 43 full hookup RV sites, about half a dozen dry camping sites, plus about half a dozen nice but expensive tent sites and a few cabins. Roads and sites are gravel, with picnic tables at the hookup and tent sites. Amenities include restrooms with showers, small laundry room, wifi, three communal fire pits near the tent area, badminton, volley ball, horseshoes, bike rentals. A guy rents watercraft (SUP, kayaks, canoes) on the property. The park wifi was intermittent fast/slow, so we mostly stuck to our own decent Verizon signal (4G with the booster).

There is a small meadow on the hillside above the RV park (great for dogs, Rosie liked exploring there too) and a short trail (maybe a third of a mile) looping around the back of the park through pretty forest, a nice way to stretch your legs in an evening stroll. The marina park across the street has plenty of benches and tables with excellent views of Sequim Bay, a really lovely place to hang out.

Since we were staying a month we requested a site along the back row, up against the trees. We got site 42, which gave us a nice private area for sitting and for Rosie to explore in the trees, much better than the pull through rows in the center of the park. Sites are a little tight, we had maybe 15 feet between us and our neighbors, but having the grass behind us and the trees creating the cozy sitting area made this a very acceptable site.

The park gets a lot of families on summer weekends but our site was further from the tent area and the short stay sites so we weren't really impacted by the influx of families. We were happy with this park (and our particular site) for a month and would stay here again. The park is very quiet at night.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Mark and Glenda, through RVillage, who were camp hosting at nearby Gilgal Oasis RV Park. They showed us around their park, which looked like another pleasant place to stay in Sequim, with pretty landscaping and a location a bit closer to downtown.

The back row backs up to a hillside covered with trees. We are the second site in from the left end.
Our neighbor on the left is a permanent resident whom we hardly ever saw, very quiet.

Our very private feeling sitting area is backed by trees on a hillside.
Rosie LOVED hunting in the bushes behind our site and caught several shrews and a snake!

The middle rows are not as pleasant as the front and back rows.

A small portion of the tent area. Tent sites are way back in the trees.
Restroom/shower facility plus fire pits surrounded by chairs.

The path up to the meadow...

This is about half of the meadow that sits on the hill above our site.
A trail takes off into the forest beyond the picnic table.

A view of the front row of the RV park from the water.
The front row sites are the most spacious and have water views, but also have some traffic.

John Wayne Marina Park is a wonderful place to hang out and observe Sequim Bay.



5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review Lisa. The meadow is great for the pups...they love to play fetch.
    Safe travels...can't wait to see what is next!

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  2. I was really looking forward to this review, and appreciate all the great information about this location! Good to know it's quieter on the back row, and the grass and trees do make the sites feel larger and more private - thanks for that pic! We will likely find ourselves there for a few weeks next year :-).

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    1. This site in particular was very private. Further North on the back row you end up with the dry camping sites behind you...but they are used infrequently and are a fair distance from the back of the hookup sites.

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  3. This looks like a campground we will have to check out next summer. Thanks!

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  4. Another great review, thanks. We travel with two four year old high energy herding dogs so always looking for places where we can let them run. The meadow looks like a good place. Have stayed many times at Fort Worden so familiar with Sequim.

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