Best RV Parks & Resorts near Ariel, WA

I'll be honest. I wasn't expecting much from this RV Park. It's not in the most exciting area of Portland (the closet thing is a Walmart down the road). But it's actually quite lovely. Nice and clean. Plenty of green space, trees. Most spots were pull-though with decently wide streets to drive in. Even though it's just off a semi-major street, it's set back enough and surrounded by trees to be more quiet.

The park is set up in two areas, with the one closer to the entrance a bit higher up than the spots toward the back. Pool, clubhouse, etc. are toward the front. The front office was clean and the manager nice.

While there's definitely some long-term and month-to-month spots, most RVs aren't spilling over with "extras" (extensive decorations/sheds etc.) like some places.

To me, the price is a bit much: $57.67 for full hook-ups, and that's after a AAA discount. Otherwise, a decent place to stay with your RV on the edge of Portland.

We visited Mt. Hood Village RV Resort this past weekend for a two day snow outing adventure and it was the perfect stay for our family in our RV.  We started with night skiing at Mt. Hood Skibowl, and after finishing up about 10:30pm we headed a bit back down the mountain to Mt Hood Village.  Despite the snowpack on the mountain, Mt Hood Village is just 20 min away, but several thousand feet lower in elevation, so there was no snow to fight with when we arrived.  

It was late at 11pm, so what a great surprise to find a very helpful welcome with a gate attendant who had our information from our reservation printed and ready to go with a smile and good directions find our RV site.  We pulled in and plugged in within 10 minutes and got the crew ready for sleeping.  The site was level, had all the amenities for a full service hook up (although we had a full fresh water tank and relatively empty waste tanks so we didn't hook them up as I was too tired!).  

In the morning I walked through the Resort to see all of the many amenities.  We had stayed here once before in the summer when we visited the summer activities at Mt Hood Skibowl.  The kids rode their bikes then and we enjoyed an active RV resort with many overnight visitors and a lot of regular long stay neighbors.  Sites can be close together but the abundance of large trees and multiple sections of the park spreads out the large number of sites it offers for RV sites, and tiny home rentals.

Amenities are many (not all are open due to COVID) and we didn't have time to enjoy all of them, but they are here for your use.  I would call ahead to see what is open if particular amenities are important to you (fitness gym, pool, etc. to see if they are currently available or not).  There is a senior center for gathering, there is a mountain ski shuttle pick up for a ride to the slopes, also a fitness center, pool, playground, onsite convenience store, restaurant, clubhouse, etc.  

We particularly appreciated how close it was located Mt Hood.  After a solid night's rest we headed 30 min back up to the backside of the mountain to Bennett Pass.  We worked on a snow fort a friend had started and had a great experience finishing out our 24 hour mountain adventure.

Mt Hood Village resort has hundreds of RV sites, tons of amenities, and is part of the Encore RV Resort/Thousand Trails network of properties.  If you are headed to winter or summer activities at Mt Hood it is a great option for a stay that is close to the mountain, has access to all the amenities you could want, with personal service, all at a fair price.  I highly recommend this property.

Large, well maintained RV park. Very friendly, efficient staff. Bathrooms with showers--modern and well maintained. Good security. This looks like a full time location with good long-term rates.

On maps this is sometimes called Paradise Resort & RV Park, but if it's an RV Park with "paradise" in the name and you're in Castle Rock, Washington, you're in the right place.

Just off the freeway. Mostly full-timers. There's a store there with the basics, plus laundry machines, showers etc. No frills. Friendly enough staff and people who live there. Full hook-ups. Sites are nothing to write home about. They take overnight bookings for about $32 a night.

If you have kids and/or want more facilities, head across the freeway to Toutle River RV Park. Otherwise this place is fine.

There are several RV parks in this general area, just off the Columbia River parkway. The other two we visited were the kind where the sheriff/police cars slowly drive through to make sure things aren't getting too crazy. This is not that kind of place.

Smaller (25 spots?) and about half the spots are long-term residents. Lots of grass and trees. Laundromat and showers. Nothing too fancy but also nothing too sketchy.

Good location as far as a jumping off point for the Columbia River Gorge while being not too far from Portland proper.

The campground at Ainsworth State park feels more like an RV parking lot than an exotic Columbia Gorge camping experience. The majority of the camground it rv hookups with just a few walk in tent sites. Yet, while the campground isn't impressive in itself, it is in an amazing location for exploring neighboring Eagle Creek and the rest of the gorge just steps away!

The parking for the tent sites is close to the walk in trail. There are only 6 tent sites and they can be reserved online so it is not easy to roll up to a free spot in hiking season.

The sites themselves are basic and offer much more privacy than your neighbors in the RV section of the park are getting. There is water near the tent site entrance. Toilets are a bit of a walk from the tent sites.

This site does take credit cards for campground registration.

Ashley here with The Dyrt. We're so happy to have this gorgeous RV Resort on our platform. This new campground offers 40 level sites, only 30 miles to Astoria! (If you haven't been, it's an adorable town with lots to explore) Cannon Beach is only 30 miles from Astoria too, for you Goonie lovers. Come check this property out and leave them some love!

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. Our site had electricity and water hook up. 

The site was level and backed up to a creek that was down below the site. The stay site was quiet, no one camping on our driver side did have a neighbor on the passenger side. The campground is at an elevation of 125 ft. Access to the campground was right off hwy 12, our 28 ft travel trailer easily fit with room to spare in our site. Once we entering the campground, the pavement turns to hard-packed gravel as we circled around a couple of times to find our campsite. 

The weather was high overcast in the mid 60's, the nights low 50s. It did rain hard on Sunday morning from 2am to 10am. This is a very quiet campground, activities we found at the campground to keep busy was shuffleboard which we enjoyed for the first time. The Billards table was in really good shape too. A musician name Dr A played music Saturday night in the lodge. The campground has clean free showers, plenty of hot water and not more than a 5 minute walk from our campsite. Since we arrived on a Friday school day, the campgrounds were not full, there was no waiting for showers. 

My wife and I enjoyed the campground, we will be back the next time we want to hike at Mt. St. Helens.

I have been here several times and always have a good experience. During the main season when the whole place is open you can usually find a spot last min. This year with covid it's been harder to find a spot last min and they would only let you reserve 30 days in advance so planning something in advance was impossible. I bring my R-Pod trailer and every RV spot has full hook-ups. Lots to do with the Banks / Vernonia trail running through the camp that has over 15 miles of paved walking / biking trails. Weekends get busy on the trail during the summer, but still plenty of distance to use the trail safely during Covid. Camp host have always been nice.

We decided to make this RV park our maiden voyage in our new Travel Trailer. It was pretty pricey for an RV park at the time we booked (+80/night) but then again there isn't much competition that is actually up on the mountain. It's actually a pretty large park, but doesn't feel like it until you get out and explore a bit as the loops are pretty well disconnected. The sites are typically close together, but some have more separation than others. Most sites are pull through. Full hookups worked well for us. There was a group of tent campers across from us, so it seems they do allow tents in RV spots as well. The Lodge has wifi, the rest of the park does not. The Lodge area has a small store with plenty of RV parts and snacks if you happened to forget something. If you need actual supplies, head up the road a bit to the local Thriftway, a local grocery store.

The main attraction of this place is the nearby recreation. There is a path that leads to the Wildwood recreation area and within the RV park itself there is access to the Salmon River for fishing/swimming. There is easy bike riding in the RV park, and right across Hwy 26 is some of the best Mountain Biking in the country at the Sandy Ridge Trail System. Using this RV park as a jumping off point, there are endless hiking trails and lakes to paddle and explore in the Mt Hood wilderness. You will never get bored in the Mt Hood area.

Some great places to eat in the area are Koya Kitchen, that serves sushi and ramen with plenty of outdoor seating and a full bar. Also nearby and not to miss is the Skyway Bar and Grill with amazing BBQ, full bar and live music on the weekends. Of course there's always Timberline Lodge if you're looking for a bit fancier, you definitely can't go wrong there with the food or the views, or year round skiing/snowboarding.

All in all the Mt Hood RV park is in a good location, which is what you're really paying for, but not somewhere we'd stay longer term due to the cost, noise and size of the place.

First off, this is a Thousand Trails campground (like a camping time-share), so we were able to go for free, which is of course great. Good sized pads, wasn't very crowded since they'd just re-opened after having some water issues. Swimming pool, mini golf course, and trails to explore. The campground facilities have seen better days and feel like they're stuck in the 1980s. But the kids didn't mind that half the mini golf course was falling down….in fact they kind of liked it that way, so overall we had a good time despite the lack of updates.