Mount St. Helens Dispersed Camping

A friend and I drove around for a campsite for hours because our original one was under 2 feet of snow (late April 2023). I was able to get a bar of service and found this area off 83. There’s a bunch of pull offs, we found one that was covered in twigs and brambles. It was easy to get back to the site once we moved the blockage. Great, quiet area. Clean and not much left behind. Bet it’s busy in the summer but we didn’t see anyone for miles in late April.

Primitive location, nothing there, but maybe a fire ring and a spot to park your vehicle. The road coming in the last 10 miles is rough in many spots. It’s hard to see the bumps and dips in the road in the early evening. There are many spots to choose from for cars, trucks, and vans. It doesn’t seem like it’s designed for RV’s and trailers. The spot I took was within the last 5 miles of the marked location, on the left hand side, up a rugged dirt road. My truck made it up in 2WD. During daylight hours, I could hear gunfire above my site. As the evening approached, peaceful. I would stay here again.

There are a lot of places for dispersed camping along FS-83, but they do get pretty full on nice weekends. Overall enjoyable camping, just expect neighbors and some trash from previous occupants.

I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived to see only one other person camping nearby. I was able to find a spot next to a couple others. One was kind of hidden back behind the main spot. The area has so much to explore. Traffic wasn’t too bad for a Mon/Tues night. Don’t be afraid to ask if there is an open site near someone. That one site I don’t think was visible from the road so people kept driving by. I definitely plan on heading back for my next getaway! Wish I had taken more pictures!

A bit of a drive up, but easy to find sites all along the road with already made campfire pits.

Loved it

This dispersed camping is free, huge bonus in my book. While searching for our perfect spot we did come across a few large parties, making us apprehensive that we would experience our ideal peaceful experience, but we were wrong to be. There were dozens of open sites that we had our pick of. A handful of cars drove by throughout the evening and night, but not an outrageous amount. Pretty dang good for very accessible NF camping spots. There are a good deal of trailheads near by, meaning you're never too far from a pit toilet or a bulletin board with information.

We visited in early September and found the weather to be very pleasant. Our view of Mt. St Helen's was obscured by the tall trees that offered our site seclusion and privacy, but we relished the view of the active volcano while driving to and from our site.

This is a dispersed campsite near the south side of Mount St. Helens. It's free, which is always great. The drive in is just off the highway and up a little hill, but my car had no problems with it. There's a lot of space here. From our spot, we saw at least a half a dozen fire pits, but we were the only ones there. It has some nice trees and a trail. Up the road is Lava Canyon, where there are toilets if you need. There are some decently flat spots for a tent and I felt was all around a good site.

Found this campsite when driving up to the south side of Mount St. Helens Hikes - it is situated between Ape Caves (farther away) and pretty close to Lava Canyon and Ape Canyon.

It is pretty close to the road, so we could hear road noise. However, there's nothing past the campsite really besides a couple more campsite spots and the hikes, so there really wasn't any road traffic at night.

It's easy enough for a car to pull in to - my honda fit had no problem. This spot on a circle pull-out that has a couple more sites, but this is the only one you drive right up to. The circle pull out looks like a spot for RVs. My hiking buddy said the middle of the pull-out had a fire ring, but I didn't go investigate.

Our spot had a fire ring, a nice flat spot for the tent and trees close enough together that we set up the hammock.

There is a little trail that I didn't use too much, except to find a place to use the bathroom. If you do this method, remember to bring a trowel and dig. Please practice this method and keep it nice for the next people. I did see a fair bit of TP on the trail :( There is also a toilet up the road at Lava Canyon, but despite a sign in the bathroom proclaiming it a smell-free toilet, it was frankly the worst smelling toilet I have ever experienced, so I preferred the outdoors.

The site is sheltered by large trees which gave it a nice feel of privacy.