Best RV Parks & Resorts near Carnation, WA

This is very much an RV park and not really a campground. Seems like a clean little park, but right in the middle of Lynnwood, so if you are looking for a rural setting this isn't for you. 

They offer weekly and monthly rentals, so this is more of a long-term sort of place. 

Website: Northsound RV Park

​Requirements from their site: 

• Your travel trailer must be year 2005 or newer 
• Pet friendly(limit 2) not to exceed 25 lbs. Aggressive breed restrictions apply. 
• No conversion vehicles - sorry van and bus life people 
• No trailers larger than 35' long, ideally.

There are several long term campers here. The grounds are kept immaculate and they regularly update the sites.  They hang wreaths for the winter holidays. Lawns mowed weekly. 

All are level gravel. All have grass area, some with patio pad. There is a dog walk area and they are currently creating a dog fenced area at the end orf the two rows. 

A caretaker is on site and will often help guide rigs into the sites (all are back-in). 

Close to Poulsbo (a cute, Norwegian heritage town), Seattle ferry via Bainbridge Island and just over an hour to the Olympic National Park via the Hood Canal Bridge.

It had been 15 years at least since I'd been to Jim Creek. Since then, they've done some nice upgrades. The rv pads are double wide concrete pads about 50 feet long with full hook-ups. All sites include a fire pit, picnic table, and grill with ash bucket and grill cleaning brush. The rv park is close to the recreation office that has a little gift shop with snacks and drinks. This is also where you can rent equipment such as bikes, fishing poles, boats, etc. They also have a movie theater upstairs that operates on Saturday. This building has a 24 hour lounge with free wifi, TV, dvds, books, markers, coloring books, games, and other things for visitors to use. The wifi was only supposed to work inside the building, but I could pick it up in my campsite once or twice during our stay. Verizon cell service is very spotty. When I did pick it up, I only had one bar. There are several hiking trails and you can drive about 5 miles back to Twin Lakes to fish or just take a rented boat out or just enjoy the view. Jim Creek is a Naval Radio station and is for active duty military, retired, DoD, and reserves. There is a gate and you must show id to get in. Because of this and the base police roll through once or twice a day, I felt very safe compared to a state park or even a private campground. We camped Tuesday-Friday and even when it started filling up in Thursday, it was still super quiet at night. Quiet like not even bug sounds. That was wonderful.

Wonderful RV park for long term Escapee-ers or members just passing through. We stopped here for a night, arriving on the weekend with no prior reservations or contact with them. They make it easy for you to self register when they're closed on weekends, just go up to the office and take one of their welcome packets. 

We stayed in a dry camp site for only $7.50, and paid $5 for the dump (dump is only for members as well). FHU sites are around $33 depending on in-season/off-season, but I don't know how we would have figured out which sites were available. There are so many activities and amenities here for the long termers (I believe it's a 55+ park), I couldn't even list them all. 

Showers and laundry were clean and efficient. There's a dog park and a dog walking path (there are signs everywhere about not letting your dog pee or poo on their nice plants). Cell service was good and they have good wifi as well. This would definitely be a spot we'd stop at again when we're in the area next.

Since the reservation system does not allow same day reservations, we showed up hoping to grab one of the few available sights as first come, first served. There were 3 or 4 sites listed as available in the lower campground and we found one that was perfect for us. We had the choice between a full hook up site and a dry site and chose the latter as it was perfectly level and offered more privacy.

It’s interesting to note the different pricing levels from ‘popular’ to basic. Some sites were tightly packed and others were absolutely enormous with great views. Our site, 105, had a very tight neighboring spot on just one side (a no show which gave us a much roomier feeling) and an ample area with picnic table, fire pit, and enough room for two tents behind the pad. A short trail, albeit somewhat overgrown, at the back of our site lead right to the beach.

The campground, while quite full, was incredibly quiet. I’m sure things are different in the summer time with more families camping. The hosts and maintenance folks were all very friendly.

Perhaps my favorite part of this campground is the location with miles of beach to walk. I was surprised that with our frequent strolls on the beach with the pups, we only passed a small number of people.

The dump station worked as expected and had potable water available.

We stayed 1 night here for the maiden voyage of our recently purchased travel trailer, which was nice since it's only about an hour away from our place near Seattle. Arrived Friday early evening and it wasn't busy at all.

The check-in process was easy, even though their reservation system was down at the time. Filled up w/ some fresh water at the dump station, which was clean and well maintained.

Campsites in the RV loop were spaced out enough with vegetation between them so as to provide some privacy. Our site had a pull-through driveway, 30amp hookup, a fire ring and picnic table. Bathrooms in that loop were pretty nice... heated and very clean.

Took a walk down to the day use area by the river, which was easy for us, but some portions of the trails closer to the river were slightly overgrown w/ a few obstacles, which could be problematic for some. Didn't see any kids play structures down there, which would be nice to have for families.

We heard a couple trains while there, but the noise wasn't too loud. Never heard the fire siren that they warned us about. Overall, it was a good camping experience for a quick trip and would return!

Staying two nights in the "preferred" #17 campsite. Parking was wide enough to fit my RV and my son's big Panel Truck. Pay showers ($1 for 3 minutes) and clean restroom with air dryer, pet friendly, lots of trails to hike and a beautiful beach area with a playground, seasonal/weekend snack shop, outdoor shower by the beach and full-time host. We paid $37 (+10 for extra vehicle) for one of the few "camper preferred" sites, but the normal rate is $25 (least preferred site) and $32 (average preference)and the only difference in the sites appears to be where in the campground they are located. We were at the end of the campground next to the camp host and a disabled access site, directly across from the showers. Great cell coverage for my T-Mobile plan. ***Commercial jets landing at Sea-Tac fly directly above us at a low altitude and are VERY loud and VERY frequent (every 3-5 minutes), so if you don't mind the noise, or LOVE airplanes (like we do), this is an Awesome campground!!!