Cougar RV Park and Campground

We booked a site here as a last resort, because everything else in the area was full.  It's an interesting mix of campground and kind of a trailer park, with the permanent RV residents. They tend to junk up the place a little bit.  The campground is next to the busy road, so you get some loud traffic from time to time. The bathrooms are ok. There are 2 large rooms with showers, and they had just installed 2 new rooms, with toilets and sinks only. We ended up with a great site towards the back and on the side. It was quiet and peaceful.  Although we enjoyed our stay, if the place was full, I can see it being a very different experience. We couldn't get wifi at our site, but we didn't care. The cabins looked fun.   The owners are very nice.

The tent sites are very large however they have minimal grass or shade. RV sites are very close to each other. There are two bathrooms of one toilet, shower area combined. The shower is coin operated so unless you plan ahead with quarters you are out of luck. It has a card option but does not work. The bathrooms are also not clean. There are 2 portable toilets that were very clean. They advertise quiet hours after 10 pm but it is not in-forced. There was a group partying until 1am next to us. Neighboring property was also blasting music into the morning. There are many other options in the area I would look into one of those.

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.  Cougar is a relaxed campground worthwhile as a base camp for the south side of Mt St Helens and its great lava tubes and forest hikes, so we ended up staying a second night as it had good hot showers, potable water, shade and friendly hosts.  Although our rented Cabana van of 19'8" had a toilet and shower onboard, we didn't need to use them.  This campground has available wood and sufficient space, and it's a 5-minute walk to a general store, gas station and restaurant, so well positioned.

We stayed here at the end of August with plans to do lots of hiking in the mount st helen area. 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 happened to be tucked away in a corner closer to the road (which didnt bother us at all). No real bathrooms close to us, just portables which were very clean so again no problem for us! Will come back next summer for sure, two mini marts/gas stations close by too. Camp hosts were super nice people!

This campground is under very new ownership and the owners are some of the friendliest we’ve met to date. They are also in the process of renovating the property to make improvements. So as I review this it is with the anticipation of all the great changes to come.

Most of the tent sites had a decent amount of space, and the perimeter ones were a little more private too. We did see some campers set up on the roadside—not sure if they knew what they were getting at the time (I wouldn’t want to be right on the road).

There were some decently sized RV spots, but the pull through spaces looked a little crowded.

There are only two bathrooms, each having a toilet and shower in a self contained unit. Naturally, if two people are showering this means that all flush toilets are also occupied. There are two porta-potties to accommodate for this. The owners did keep the bathrooms as clean as possible—but the bathrooms could use some renovating themselves and have a musty smell. There is laundry on site. It’s not the quietest campground we’ve stayed at (not the noisiest either) and it might benefits from clearly defined quiet hours.

Two blocks away there are two gas stations with mini-markets.

Only a few minutes away are the Cougar and Beaver recreation areas in the Lewis River. It only takes 10 minutes to get to Mt St Helens Ape Cave, Trail of Two Forests and Lava Canyon area.