Looking for the best campgrounds near Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA? Aside from great camping spots, you'll find hiking and many more outdoor experiences. Thinking of traveling with kids? You're in luck—Gifford Pinchot National Forest is surrounded by family-friendly activities. Ready to plan your adventure? Check out our campgrounds near Gifford Pinchot National Forest and user-submitted reviews.
"Large spaces, easy to drive through, 30 and 50 amp, most sites had full hookups with fire pits and picnic tables."
"Elk Meadows is far up a well paved road just before the entrance into national forest land. "
"Not sure why some reviews are so negative, as we found this park to be really peaceful. The owner was truly helpful telling us how best to get to see Mt Rainier and what routes."
"I always pay for showers and laundry yr. Round and anyone else in the office sets me up with what ever I need and with smiles and awesome attitudes but not Corine.I want to know why."
"Packwood which is a small little town next to White Pass is a great place to visit if you want to get away in Washington and be outdoors."
"Great quiet place. There’s a lot of things around walking distance (all within a couple min walk). Also has great showers bathrooms and laundry ($1.75 per load)."
$25 - $125 / night
"This is a great spot to drop your RV and head up to the mountain! Full hookup spots did seem close together and it was a tad busy being summer and all!"
"We are a professional late 50s / early 60s couple new to the van life, and not RV-oriented, so we are a little careful about choosing sites with adequate peacefulness, space and privacy. "
$30 - $60 / night
"The tracks are below the level of the park, and we quite like the train rumble. The highway is at a higher elevation than the park, so that noise didn't particularly bother us either. "
"This camp ground is fantastic, sites are very well maintained and level. Full service hook ups including sewer. Great segregated tent camp area with available water."
"RV spots were mostly level with gravel pads and grass surrounding."
$45 - $800 / night
"Then you drive out and around the corner and you get to where the RVs and cabins are. It's mostly a long driveway/road with cabins and spots for RVs on each side."
"Nice quiet campground, some long term campers. Close to the Columbia River. Beautiful view nice established old timber. It is close to the train track. Enjoyed our stay here"
"This was a very nice Thousand Trails. We stay two nights from September 13th through September 16, 2019, in campsite 187, the stay was free due to our Thousand Trails membership."
"We stayed here in our RV in August of 2019 and really enjoyed the peace and quiet. The sites have full hook ups."
"Full hook ups and very friendly hosts/owners. It’s off the beaten path so no WiFi or cell service. Very quiet at night which we really appreciated."
LegendGreat campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Smallish campground with about half the spots right on the river. Nice day use area slightly separated from the camping. Picnic tables and fire rings. Mostly tents when we were there, but there's also pull-through driveway type spots that could fit a trailer. At just $12 per night, price can't be beat.
Plenty of trees and grass. Most spots are slightly exposed to the turn-around road, but still feels private since there's space and trees between the spots.
Not too far from Mouton Falls, which are amazing, plus other hiking and swimming areas nearby.
RangerWhat a beautiful RV park! Large spaces, easy to drive through, 30 and 50 amp, most sites had full hookups with fire pits and picnic tables. There is a park right on the lake, wonderful wildlife viewing, an adult size set of swings just made my day. Took me back to small kid times! Wifi available at the pavilion near the park. Very clean bathrooms. Large dumpsters. and a dump station. We also saw a propane fill station as well. We will definitely be back.
LegendThis is the kind of campground that we love, small, quiet and lovely. Tucked right on the banks of the East Fork of the Lewis River and on the edge of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, this is a great get away for anyone in the Vancouver / Portland area. The campsites are small with pull-through parking that could accommodate rigs up to 35’ or up to three vehicles. It’s short enough to walk it before pulling in to see if you’ve got enough room to turn around.
The sites all have fire rings, and picnic tables and a small tent pad. The vault toilet buildings have taken the brunt of 3 decades of the Washington moss and lichen so were further along the way toward decomposition than I normally like in a bathroom building and smelly, but they were clean enough to use. The water was clean and good tasting and the campground hosts were friendly and efficient.
The campground was pretty forested, but we were able to still charge up our solar powered system even on cloudy days in one of the less wooded sites. We didn’t even need to pull out our portable solar panel, which we often do when camping in forested areas, allowing the camper to be in the shade, keeping it cool, and being able to put the panel out in the sun.
Nearby recreation opportunities are endless, from the world-class paddling on the Lewis River to many nearby creeks and streams. The area is a waterfall chaser’s dream, with many parks and hiking trails within 20 miles, just follow the road back downstream and stop at the many parks along the way. The road is pretty narrow and I wouldn’t recommend riding road bikes along the busy paved roads, but further into the forest the dirt road offers some great access and is perfect for gravel bikes.
In this area you’re about 20-30 minutes from suburban Vancouver WA, where pretty much everything is available, including some pretty fabulous wineries. Check 'em out!
GuideThis is a great base camp for exploring the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
The campground and facilities is very clean and well maintained. Most sites are in a wooded area with good shade.
The day use area is along the river with boat ramp and dock. However, THERE ARE NO FALLS. The other reviewer's photos are not from here. There is a damn downstream which creates a slow moving river good for boating. The river is very cloudy murky green a result of ash and sediment runoff from the Mt St Helens eruption.
Loops:
A-Loop: water & electric. A mix of shaded and open grassy sites. Outer are pull through, inner are back in. You will find the most private sites in this loop.
B-Loop: no utilities, possibly tents only. These are the only sites which are not paved. Many are right next each other. It's like they had it laid out well but then jammed in a few more as an afterthought.
C-Loop: Group RV water & electric. This loop is interesting. It’s a paved circle with a treed center with group tables and firepit. Circle your RVs like a wagon train.
D-Loop: water & electric. This is an RV neighborhood where everyone has a "Welcome to our campsite" sign and there's a common covered area with tables. Sites have the table to rear of site.
TravelerWe stayed in Site 11 for 2 nights at the end of June 2025.
The campground is located on the side of HWY 12 on a small rocky peninsula, this surprising spot on Rimrock Lake (reservoir created by the dams built about 100 years ago) is run by a retired couple for the last 5 years (as of summer 2025).
It offers a boat launch, 25 or so sites of mixed services (ranging from full hookup [elect/water/sewer] to basic site with picnic table and firepit), and a couple of cabins, and a bath-house on the east side (2 separate restrooms with shower stalls).
The sites are mostly back in, with a few (like site 11) that are pull-through.
The western side sites (1 - 17?) have beautiful views, but the typical afternoon/evening wind can be quite, well, windy, while the eastern side is sheltered from the wind. We hiked around the small peninsula and the wind disappeared.
The small office has a few snacks and camping items but isn't open all the time - only when the owner couple is around.
If you are going to go hiking, you only need to drive a few miles west on Hwy 12 to find several other public campgrounds and some nice scenery, while continuing west up towards the pass and ski resort area on Hwy 12 has several scenic viewpoints that you should plan to stop at for a few minutes each (Lava Falls, etc).
The lake itself is rather sparsely used (one or two boats or a jet ski way off in the distance). We had three very friendly chipmunks who visited our site often and were happy to sit on the old stump and join our camp.
GuideThis campground is on Mayfield Lake where the Cowlitz River flows into the lake. We were in loop D, which was the only open loop along with the cabins (cabins are loop C and attached to loop D). This is a partial hook-up loop. Full hook-ups are in loop A. The campground is heavily wooded which is really nice for shade, though it can make it tricky to get into a spot if you have slide outs. As we were on the outer part of the loop in a pull-through site, we had a view of the woods and quite a bit of space between neighboring sites. We could not see either of the neighboring sites while sitting by our campfire. There was a trail to the trash compactor next to our site, but it did not seem to be heavily used. The trash compactor is probably a good 1/4 mile down this trail by the dump station. It was very quiet at night, which was fantastic! Very good Verizon cell service. The day use area is out of the campground and across the main road. There is a playground and beach area. It would have been nice if there was a playground on the campground side of the park.
LegendNice campground on the SW corner of Mt Rainier NP. We were here in the off season, meaning that reservations are not taken and everything is FCFS. You stop at the ranger office at the campground entrance and you’re given a campsite. $20/night. Zero cell service in this whole area (but there was good cell reception and wifi at Paradise, and free wifi at the museum 2 miles down at Longmire).
There are water spigots at this campground, flush toilets, no showers, trash dumpsters, and glass, plastic, and aluminum recycling. Each site has a picnic table, bear box, and fire pit. The dump station has been non operational for several years and the ranger said she doesn’t think it’ll ever be fixed.
The length limit here is 35 ft for a motorhome, and us at 28 ft head to toe felt very big here. The Wonderland Trail hike can be accessed from this campground, just across the road. Lots of trees in this campground, and we struggled to keep our batteries charged via solar, though there looked to be enough open sky for starlink (we don’t have starlink so I can’t say). All the loops here in this campground are pretty similar in layout and landscape.
LegendCampground Review
This campground is at the base of Mt Rainier National Park in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. To get to the campsite, you have to drive down into the ravine of where the Cowlitz River cuts through the campsite. There are many sites on the river, with the rest in the trees covering the expanse of the grounds. Large RV/ trailers can only be in the upper Loop H.
The road is a one way and for the most part, campers respect the speed limit, though there are some idiots who drive fast through.
There are no hookups, so you will be dry camping if you bring an RV. This is very close to Packwood and a great place to stay during Memorial Weekend for their annual Flea Market. There is no cell service at this site. Site claims to have flushing toilets, but those were removed a few years ago, there are only vault toilets and no showers. Depending on how the snow melt is during the spring, will dictate fishing and camping opening.
Product Review
I had the opportunity to review a GCI Outdoor Backpack Event Chair. This product is amazing for lugging around from campground to fishing and back. The chair has four different positions for reclining and hard arm supports for getting up and down. There is a large pocket on the back allowing for easy toting of items from car to wherever. The backpack straps make toting a breeze and the clip to close keeps the chair in place. It is very light and easy to transport and has a weight limit of 250, but my very large cousin (300+) was able to sit with no problem.
https://www.gcioutdoor.com/camping-chairs/backpack-event-chair/
GuideThis is my go-to campground when visiting the Gorge area. Located in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just north of the town of Carson. Its about a 20 minute drive to the Columbia river, and 10 minutes to the small town of Carson. Its tucked away down a beautiful Forest road. You are nestled amongst towering old growth trees, wild ferns and thimbleberries, with Panther Creek running alongside the camp. The 2018 season had excellent campground hosts, I hope they return next year! They were very friendly and had helpful tips for trails in the area.
The pit toilets were clean, though heavy smell of ammonia which is not unusual at campgrounds like this. Each site has a fire pit and picnic table. There are potable water pumps, as well as garbage and recycling. Frequented mainly by families, and some PCT hikers, as it is located just of the PCT trail. They have first come first serve as well as reservable sites. It fills up quickly on the weekends, so if you dont have a site reserved I highly recommend getting there early. Each regular site is $18 a night. Enjoy!
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Frequently Asked Questions
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According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular RV campground near Gifford Pinchot National Forest is Elk Meadows RV Park with a 4.5-star rating from 10 reviews.
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