Best Cabin Camping near Hood River, OR

My wife, son, and I stayed at The Klickitat Treehouse for two nights in early March 2022 and had an amazing experience! The treehouse is furnished with 3 queen-sized beds + a couch. It also contains most modern amenities that you would find in a hotel suite, including A/C, 2 heaters (bedroom & bathroom), a wood stove for heating the main area, an indoor shower, a stove, refrigerator, glasses + mugs, board games, plenty of firewood, and much more. In addition, there is an outdoor shower and fire pit available to guests during specific seasons (no outdoor shower in the winter and no fires during fire bans a.k.a. late summer in the PNW). Note, however, that there is no wifi or cell service (this was a plus for me, as I was looking for an "unplugged" experience).

The Treehouse is on private property off of a dirt/gravel road about 15 minutes from downtown White Salmon (AWD not required, but could be useful for rain/snow). We received specific directions ahead of our stay via email that took us directly to the house.

Some other miscellaneous things to note:

• There is a tiny home that shares the property and accommodates overnight guests. It's not close to the treehouse, but expect to share some of the common amenities (e.g. deck, firewood, Mt. Adams bench, etc.) if somebody is staying there.

• If you're coming from Oregon or want to spend some time in Hood River, there is a $4 toll to cross the bridge. So a round trip across the river will cost you $8 as of 2022.

• Everything you need to make meals is in the treehouse, but we explored White Salmon and Hood River for some food. Highlights included White Salmon Baking Co., Everybody's Brewing, Pfriem, Ferment (though there are many more that we would still like to explore!)

The only thing I wish had been provided in advance was fire starters for the wood stove. There were matches, a hatchet, and an instruction manual, but I had to spent quite a bit of time chopping wood to make kindling and meet the wood size specifications of the stove itself.

While the cabin is certainly pricey, it is such a truly unique experience that I would highly recommend for any season. Looking forward to staying here again in the future!

We picked this campsite as our last stop on a week long camping trip round Rainer and St. Helens area. Nice flat camping area, picnic bench fire pit, a bit of a mosquito challenge but not too bad. Lots of families, and maybe even groups. Has showers, which is what we mainly booked for. Small general store, basketball hoop, pizza shop, and some cabin rentals. Luckily the dance party ended just after dark, so we got plenty of sleep. Stayed only 1 night. Plus is ranger station 5 minutes from site, with maps, stickers, fridge magnets, etc. Ranger gave us detail on ape caves, and other are hikes for kids, AND ranger was cool enough to tell us all about his Bigfoot experience in the area, complete with mobile phone picture of footprint! Lots of kids and teens, but some fisherman too, who didn’t seem to mind the dance music and footballs flying around!

The park just added two nature playgrounds that are pretty fantastic. One of the new playgrounds, right before the boat launch, features a trail with a mud kitchen, two a-frame tents and a big area where you can use fallen logs and branches to build shelters.

The other nature playground is right across from the old playground (still in use) and has a wooden water course with a hand pump and an elevated wooden plank course.

Camping can be a little loud since it's a popular spot and there are no pets allowed, but it's barely 30 minutes away from Portland and right on the Sandy River.

Lucked out with a last minute Father's Day weekend reservation at this great little campground located just at the junction of Mt St Helens and Gifford Pinchot. The campground is bookable online for only $15 a night which felt like a bargain for a private campground in the area. 

There are only 10 camping sites - some are suitable for RVs. There are also very small cabins that can be rented. There is a well stocked camp store on the property which is staffed from 7am to 7pm. There is also a pizza place on the property which is visited by a lot of area day hikers, so if you want an all day quiet woodsy feel you might want a different location, but if you've been camping or hiking for days on end without any amenities, this place will feel like an oasis.

The campground was busy over the weekend, but was nearly empty and quiet by the time Sunday night rolled around. We were at campsite #9 which was right next to a basketball hoop which got plenty of use while people were waiting for pizza (and was a bit noisy). The Pizza Place is not open everyday.

Each site had a firepit with grill and a picnic table. The toilet in the camping area had cold running water and a flush toilet. The toilets closer to the camp store had hot water and an outlet. Showers are available for an additional $3 charge, and laundry facilities are available for $5 a load on certain days.

The Camp Store had lots of knowledge about local hikes and what roads were open around MSH.  We used this campground as a base to hike Ape Caves, June Lake and Ape Canyon. It was about 30 minutes of forest road driving to the trail heads.

This campground is big, with a lot of trees and a good number of sites have shade for the majority of the day (at least where we were), they have full hook ups and partial, cable with a great variety of channels, their WiFi is not good, not even by the “lounge”, tiny house and cabins available for rent (pet friendly options available) which is cool, laundry facility, cafe/bakery on site, nice store with good variety of food and drink options, DVD rental. The bakery is independently owned and opens daily, they bake cinnamon roles daily and the cream cheese is home made...OMG, worth having one or two with coffee! Gas station (72) and great grocery store (thrift away) nearby )1.5 mi away). We had a great corner site and we were not surrounded by a lot of people, there was one family at the site behind us and luckily no one to our right. The fact the campground was packed for Father’s Day and lack of cleanliness at their bathrooms and laundry facility makes me wonder how serious they are taking Covid-19. We’ve been to three campgrounds so far and two of them were taking it very seriously and keeping it clean and limiting the number of people using the laundry. Some didn’t open the bathrooms and the ones who did, kept is very clean. Not so much the case here, which was disappointing as this is a “resort”. If you are looking to spend a few days exploring MT Hood area, this is a good location, not too far out from MT. Hood, fun scenic drive to up to the lodge. We saw people skiing there! If you feel like driving an hour, make your way to Hood River, which is an adorable town, with a few clothing stores, pet store, bookstore, coffee shops, brewers and an amazing river...the Columbia River Gorge. You can take windsurfing lessons (which we did and it was super fun). Hood River is the windsurfing capital of the world. You can also take kite surfing lessons or just sit and watch all of them fly around! Across the Columbia river it is the state of Washington, and you can cross the Hood River toll bridge and explore WA. Riverside is a great Restaurant located at the Best Western Hood River Inn-they have a beet salad that is to die for. Calamari app is yummy as well as the mushroom fondue burger. Next day we had the beet salad again and two pasta dishes which were amazing (chicken Alfredo and Fregula & Sausage), they have a pressed lemonade that’s sooo yummy! Hood River is worth visiting! If it is sunny, pack up some beach towels, swimming suit and head there for a day in the water.

Not my normal camping scene, but decided to for an early summer ski session with the kids, we didn't want to completely rough it, but also didn't want to pay hotel prices. So, one of the standard cabins here was the perfect compromise. Roof over our heads, actual beds, room for three of us to be able to gear up for the day. But still had a fire pit outside, and picnic table for outdoor cooking. (Also the standard cabins don't have bathrooms, so you still need to go to the shared restrooms.)

The property overall was really nice, lots of amenities. We also took a walk through the RV/Tent camp sites. Its very similar to a KOA style of resort. We enjoyed it for what it was.

BGLSP is a really lovely park not too far from Portland with camping and rustin cabins. Most of the campsites are large enough for 2 tents, and there were many RVs and popups - good size driveways/parking areas. Cabins C17 and C21 were the most private, though C13 and C15 had a partial view of the lake. Campsites 19 and 20 were really tucked back and adjoined such that two groups could spread out. There is only one bathroom for the entire camping/cabin area, and it got pretty dirty/crowded at times, so that wasn't ideal. I would also recommend checking out the water quality information before going if you plan to do water sports or swimming. There was a high bacteria advisory when we went, so swimming was discouraged. We ended up going to nearby Klineline Pond to swim instead. There is a nice little concession stand, though, and they offer SUP and kayak rentals that looked nice.