Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Chelan, WA

Great option to camp at Lake Chelan about 15 min from Chelan on the quiet south shore. The campground has great water access, boat launching, some waterfront sites (on the west loop) and a quiet family-oriented atmosphere. Clean bathrooms, shower and great cell reception (AT&T).

I love to camp at steamboat! It’s great for tent or RVs. There’s some awesome hikes near by. Right on the lake and a great play ground. Great for bike riding. Great for pets!

This ia a beautiful camping location, but we have encountered fires, rattlesnakes, and torrential rains - including flooded camp gear. Fun spot, but have woken up to snakes sleeping under tents - probably not the best spot for kids or curious pets

Not the greatest campground, but ok overflow if you can't get into Lake Chelan State Park. Sites are very close together, it's nuts on the weekend, and the swimming area is a bit sad. Upsides include clean bathrooms and showers, nice dock, a small store, and it's right on Lake Chelan. Not a good value for the price though. Cost=$25-$35. Discovery Pass required, too. Reservable through Washington State Parks.

Washington Rolling down the road on the Cascade Loop I took in all the scenery and enjoyed every moment. But something I noticed along the way was that cell signal was minimal and with that it made it a bit harder to find locations to stop for the night. Typically I enjoy a more remote site or a good forest camp, however along the loop, though there are many forest service roads, most certainly with camping available, being so remote without cell signal and roads looking more questionable in some areas, I feared going to far off the beaten path into the unknown in my small car. 

This brought me to the Riverbend RV Park, a Good Sam park along the loop which actually allocates some of their spaces to tent campers. Privately owned the features were a bit more expansive than many of the sites I had visited along the way including running water and full hook ups for those in RVs. Additionally they had a propane refill station which was quite nice for a small charge without having to wander into town to find supplies. 

The layout of the location was nice as it formed a large loop easy to access even by the largest of rigs. The office welcomed you as your drove in and made it easy to stop, pay for your site and find out all the information you needed to know not only about the campsite but also the surrounding area. A few brochures inside noted area attractions and information about the loop itself. This office also housed a small general store which had a few items you might need while at camp and some general items which could be nice in way of snack and food. Nothing large, but certainly helpful for those who were weary from the road and all the traveling excitement. 

This park welcomes families but also their pets, with a large pet area for them to run free and enjoy stretching their legs. Otherwise throughout camp they do ask you keep your pets on a leash, which seemed more than fair considering the large space they were given to enjoy free of burden. 

The kiddos were also welcome with their own play area that was well maintained and away from the other campers just enough to not disrupt the silence of the camp. This area had its own water fountain to assure hours of safe and hydrated play. 

The sites themselves were typical of an RV park, a standard picnic table and enough room to move around a little but still somewhat closer to your neighbors than you would be at many forest campsites. I found that the camping area I checked out for myself had a little more distance between the sites which was nice but there was no tree coverage so it is a bit of a trade off for space or shade. 

On premise is an activity room and also a restroom area. Restrooms offer showers and warmth on the cold days and night and the activity room is a large room with plenty of space to enjoy a game night or some time watching television in a more social setting. There is also a laundry facility at this building which was super helpful for catching up along the loop after several weeks of travel. 

All in all though this was privately run and thus a bit more expensive, around $30 a night, the benefits of the stay at this location were vast. Though it wasn’t my style of camping for every night a stop here was a nice way to check out some of the many amenities which contrast some of the other camps along the way. Definitely worth a stop if you are in an RV or if you want to have a place with a lot of benefits.

TIPS: 

• If you are a larger unit this is a great place to stay for amenities and size of spaces you will easily be able to pull in and get comfortable with your slides at this location.

• Location of this campsite is key as it is close to town but also along the loop within driving distance of the North Cascades Park and also some of the Washington State Parks.   If you can detach and use this as a home base it will work well with your travels.

This campsite is along the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route between the Cashmere and Chelan sections along NF-8410. Obviously, this is a 4X4 road but if you approach from the Chelan side you could maybe get away with a high clearance AWD vehicle. Incredible sunset views of the valley overlooking Lake Chelan to one side and a vast forested mountain range to the other. This particular spot photographed is on the south side of the road to the north of the Baldy Mountain crest. This area seemed to have a good number of sites in the immediate vicinity, not that we saw anything in them. This particular site was clearly well used as it was flat, had log stump seats, and a stone fire pit (even if you aren't supposed to have fires most of the year in this forest). Someone even built a rustic camp toilet in the woods just away from the campsite.

a short 3 hours from seattle on beautiful lake chelan is the Lake chelan state park at First Creek. This park is about 10 miles from town and has tent sites that are right on the lake, its amazing. There is a boat launch and large swimming area. because chelan is such a lake tourist town in the summer, do not expect that this is a quiet serene camping experience. But if you are looking to come to chelan book your site early. Also the fourth of july fireworks show is directly across the lake from the state park.

Beautiful state park on lake chelan with clean bathrooms/showers, beach swim access, awesome playground, and great spots for rvs and tents. About 20mins from downtown Chelan.

Park staff super friendly and helpful.

We came to this little gem of a campground from 6/22-25/2107. Based off our research, Black Pine CG had more use than we expected but we found a nice site (#23) away from the cluster of activity with a beautiful view of the mountains and lake. Even though the CG was almost full on the weekend, it was quiet (no loud or hooligan activity). There are two sections to the CG, upper and lower. We would have liked site #3 in the upper section if it had been available. There was quite a bit of day use activity at the lake with cars going in and of the campground beginning around 12:00 noon (weekdays and weekends).

The CG hosts were lovey. Lynn and Sherry keep the place spotless. Cleanest bathrooms ever! The camp supplied drinking water and there is plenty of firewood to be found. The pets on leash rule is strictly enforced.

Of course there were mosquitos but were only really bothersome at the usual morning and dusk time. It was not windy and overall was a beautiful and quiet CG.

We ventured down to the lake on day 2 and walked the short interpretive trail that goes about 1/2 way around the lake. Nice little trail and handicapped accessible. We only saw a couple of other folks on our walk.

There is active use for fishing from docks, kayaks, canoes, and rowboats. No motors allowed except for trolling motors but we never saw one. Discouraging site was the large brown trout in the garbage. Want and waste. Unfortunate.

In summary, Black Pine is a beautiful, peaceful, gem to enjoy and relax with easy access to trail heads in the area. We probably won't return because it was busier than we prefer. We're typically dispersed site campers but wanted to try out Black Pine Lake CG with our pop-up camper on this trip. It was an enjoyable location as we explore our new home state of Washington (transplants from Oregon).

This lake is very well known all around Washington state! It’s perfect for families and people with boats to have endless fun in the sun! And if you don’t have a boat, you can easily rent one near by or even a jet ski or go parasailing. Lake Chelan is really known for having in the water. This campsite is very clean and have dozens of great campsites to pick from. But since it’s so popular, you may need to compete with reservations as this place gets booked fast!

Go here when Seattle is cold! We liked camping here and had a lot of fun at Lake Chelan even though it’s a bit “spring break-y”

Within the almost 4 million acres of the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, lie countless locations for dispersed camping. This area of the southeast corner of the NF has very little traffic compared to others, we saw only one ATV for the whole time we were there. This area lies along the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route between the Cashmere and Chelan sections along NF-7400. Obviously, this is a 4X4 road and I wouldn't suggest it in anything less. Incredible sunset views of the valley in front of Chumstick Mountain, it gets pretty windy at night but there are treelines you can position against. This particular spot photographed is just up the hill off the roadside in a nice grassy clearing. More spots were just up the hill around the bend as well.

This is a great park and a premium camping location on the popular Lake Chelan. A favorite location for west siders to escape the rain for some guaranteed sunshine in Central Washington.

This little town fills up in the summer time. The lake is filled with boats and all of the hotels and rentals sell out. This campground is a wonderful place to enjoy the area and set up camp. The campground is fantastic and still goes for dirt cheap rates of $12 for a tent site, they also offer full hook ups for RVs and everything in between if you want an outlet at your camp site.

Good news.. you can reserve your spot in advance. Bad news... the summer months fill up a year in advance so book early. I also recommend going in Spring or Fall when the weather is still warm and dry but there are slightly less crowds.

We stayed in site 65 on the marina and beach loop. I definitely recommend this area over the west loop.

On the water and next to all of the activities that Chelan has to offer... we love to come out her and instead of staying in the over priced and packed hotels we camped. But don't kid yourself the campgrounds fill out but find your space in the golf courses or out on the water.

Bring your clubs and a floating device of some sort. Even if you only have a floatie you will have a great time!

One of the many awesome boat up National Forest Service campgrounds along Lake Chelan. Gorgeous lake front spots, with firepits, picnic tables, and pit toilets. Creek is near the campground. Bring a water purifying device. Huge dock for many power boats, but also easy access beach for kayaking. Large picnic pavilion perfect for large groups or family reunions. Cost=Free! No permit required for kayaks, but annual dock permit is required for tying larger boats up to the dock.