Alder Lake Park

We stayed in Site # 77 it is a pull through with Full hook up, big &amp; semi private. The lake is across t he street which the parking area can fill up quick. The boat launch is a zoo on the weekends there's is a long line to launch &amp; take you boat out. During the week not so bad.  We had cell service yet some WIFI (which is in the truck) so when the truck was running we had Wifi.  We had a few baby deer in the campground always a pleasure. 

  

The camp hosts sell firewood

  

The lake is big &amp; beautiful with great views of Mt Rainier. Good fishing and we found a lot of Lures on old tree stumps and along the shore while kayaking. There are a lot of motorboats with them pulling tubes and some that don't care if they swamp you or not. We saw several folks launch their boat &amp; primitive camp. 

  

Mt. Rainier is amazing we enjoyed going into the park many times checking it all out. On the way to Mt. Rainier you pass a places called Ex-Nihilo Metal Sculpture Park which the guy dose a great job on big sculptures.  Donations welcome keeps him building more. 

  

We went to the grove of the Patriarchs with trees over 1000 years old. Big Pines, cedars &amp; Dougless firs. 

  

Beautiful area, nice campground.

Nice well maintained Campground

I've stayed at this place twice, once as a base camp for a Rainier trip, and another as a weekend getaway. It's about an hours drive from Paradise, which makes it less ideal than Cougar Rock if that's your destination, but the reservations do not fill up nearly as quickly.

The facilities here are great, water taps throughout the grounds, and clean bathrooms with showers nearby. Many campsites are not adjacent to the parking but there are wagons to use to ferry your gear. Make sure you check the reservation website because there are extensive descriptions of every campsite and drone photos. In particular, on my last trip I didn't think much of where it said that the tent pad had an extreme slope, which turned out to be pretty uncomfortable to sleep through...

There are tons of families here, depending on whether you have kids, the family-friendliness may be a feature or a bug. The campsite is pretty loud until around 10 when the kids go to sleep. The campsites are also pretty close together which doesn't help, but this is again something you can look for when choosing a site. We chose a site further from the parking lot, and the nearby sites had less kids than the ones right on it.

Family-friendly campground near Rainier

We took our youth group on their first camping trip a few weeks ago. I rained a tad, but the kids loved it! I was very impressed with the upkeep of the camp ground. Very clean. The trash got  picked up by the Rangers at least once a day, even more on the Saturday. The bath rooms were clean and had warm shower s. They were also very dog friendly, they had a pet post outside the bathrooms and poop bags available. Even though the water level of the lake is extremely low, it did not stop us from boating swimming and kayaking!

Well kept grounds.

My family and I have been going to this campground for 14 years. It is close to home (great for a quick get away), the Rangers are just awesome, the grounds are clean, and are patrolled intermittently adding to nighttime safety.  The facilities are clean and we'll kept. All in all,  we might travel around a bit year to year,  but we will always return to this park to stay at least once a year. 

Alder Lake

We stayed here because we wanted to be close to Northwest Trek and Mt. Rainer. Excellent location to do both! However there's enough scenery and wildlife to enjoy yourself just at Alder lake. The park is large with a play ground and beach area. My kids enjoyed playing in the sand and watching deer from our campsite. I esp ially liked how the sites were layed out in the trees on the side of a hill. Lots of privacy even when crowded.

Great campground close to it all! 

Went with the parents for an over night getaway

Short escape

When we visited Mount Rainier in the early season, we quickly discovered that not too many trails and activities throughout the park would be accessible. That included the developed campgrounds.

We found Rocky Point out of necessity, but we stayed because we loved it. The sites were adequate; not too scenic, but we had almost the entire campground to ourselves. There were even cheap coin-operated showers for our use, and after eight months on the road, this was amazing.

Because the Longmire and Paradise areas were the only areas open at that time of the season, Rocky Point gave us great access to what we could explore. Our favorite hikes of our time there included Rampart Ridge Trail and a long hike to a suspension bridge along the Wonderland Trail. We also spent some time playing in the snow and walking up as far as we could at Paradise.

You can read much more about our five days in the park on our blog: [Switchback Kids (Mount Rainier)](http://switchbackkids.com/mount-rainier/)

Great alternative to Mount Rainier camping in the Spring

We stayed 2 nights here and have 2 boys, ages, 11 &amp; 8\. Our site was site #38 and was perfect for our 24 foot RV. It was flat and easy to get into. Our boys had the best time here, exploring on their bikes and roller blades and made some friends. We went down to the public area to swim every day and had a blast. Beautiful clean and clear water and the lake wasn't too low. This place is on the top of my list for returning next year.

Beautiful campground


Came here as a last minute decision heading south to Mount St. Helens. Although there was plenty of spaces here, the campground seems very popular and only a few last minute spots available. Got a tent spot (#205) next to the restrooms, facilities were clean and there is a camp sink at each restroom. With that being said there isn’t much for privacy and we had pretty noisy neighbors who had a cat!!! that wandered into our campsite and tent. The lake was beautiful for being a reservoir but if your looking for solitude look further south into the woods for it.

lots of space, not much for privacy

This campground is amazing. It has a great swimming area, dock for boats, trails to walk on, and amazing views around every corner. This is one of our favorite campgrounds. Alder lake is also very clean and the water color is gorgeous.

Beautiful retreat 

Alder Lake is an easy getaway from the city, about an hour twenty south on the 7\. Alder Lake is surrounded by 4 year round campgrounds and many day use facilities. There are multiple camp sites for tents and RV hook ups.

Each site has a fire grate and picnic tables. There are water spickets throughout the park making water collection easy. The bathrooms are flushing and very clean and there are coin operated showers. Sites are maintained, a little close so privacy might be an issue.

The campsite was very clean and maintained, the hosts do a great job and you can tell they take pride in their duties. There is fire wood for sale at $5 a bundle. This is a must campground for an easy getaway.

Nice spot on Alder Lake

Place is great for family and group camping.

Weve been coming back again and only damper to this year was the dam in Tacoma was partially drained causing a “low tide” which exposed the dirt and poor beach area... usually when water is at normal level the beach is all sand and water is clean and clear. Some camping sites have a steep walkway to them but each year we come we find a better spot and take it next year. Overall a great place to go!

Awesome with 1 exception

Huge campground. Alder Dam is great to visit, camp sites are close but everyone including employees &amp; campers were very friendly. Full hook ups. 

Gem in the woods

The campground is well maintained. There are lots of RV sites. The group sites are amazing, they have individual and large group fire pits. The bathrooms have been remodeled and are very clean. There is a nice park with a dedicated swim area, ticks for boats. The lake is crystal clear.

Beautiful Clear lake

Nice lake to swim in or boat. Fishing off docks lots of hiking and biking. Great park. Awesome group sites but haven’t used them yet  

Up in the mountains on a lake!

Loved it here. The campground was well maintained and sites were super nice. Lake was amazing as well. 

Beautiful and clean

Didn’t stay too long but it was nice.  Very close to highway, sooo it was kind of loud, depending on the time of day.  View of the lake was pretty.  The campground and bathrooms were very tidy.  Not too bad for a last minute decision to stay.

Nice

The campground in general was very nice: playgrounds and a lake nearby, and suitably close to a number of small towns and the Alder Lake Dam to have stuff to check out.

Unfortunately, our campsite (53) wasn't trimmed back sufficiently, so the grassy area where you'd normally put a tent was about 3-5 feet smaller than shown in the picture on Tacoma Power Parks' site, and we ended up having to place our tent half on gravel and half on grass for it to not be too close to the firepit.

The campsites in the main loop are much too close together and lack sufficient isolation via greenery, and the drunken revelry from four campsites away was close enough that it kept the four of us awake until just after midnight.

We'll definitely come here again, especially now that we have a list of good sites in our notes.

Sites to avoid: 53, 59, 60, 68.

Pretty and clean, but a bit cramped

We stayed at Alder Lake campground in a water and electric hookup site. The campsites are partly shaded with grass. The pad is paved but ours was not at all level. The bathrooms are very nice. They charge a nominal fee for the showers but they have great water pressure and hot water. A lovely lake is within a short walk and has a playground, a designated swim area and a large dock. I was impressed with how well everything was maintained.


Beautiful lake and nice facilities 

Part of the “camping sites” are just a parking lot with the hang out spots being grass on the outside. There definitely are some cool spots but way too expensive for what it is. The lakes really pretty though! We had something chomping in the woods very loudly by our site so we headed in early lol. It was a cool spot to stay if you need somewhere within distance of rainier but I think anyone could find something better. 

Only con is road noise from Hwy7.  Main through fare to Mt Rainier south entrance and services.  Sites may be too close together if park was full.  We were one a few campers! We tent camped and had view of Lake Alder.  Nice campground host.  We'll cared for, clean, organized sites.  No sewer or showers, pit toilets.  