Best Tent Camping near Cowiche, WA

Campground Review

This campground is at the base of Mt Rainier National Park in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  To get to the campsite, you have to drive down into the ravine of where the Cowlitz River cuts through the campsite. There are many sites on the river, with the rest in the trees covering the expanse of the grounds. Large RV/ trailers can only be in the upper Loop H.

The road is a one way and for the most part, campers respect the speed limit, though there are some idiots who drive fast through. 

There are no hookups, so you will be dry camping if you bring an RV. This is very close to Packwood and a great place to stay during Memorial Weekend for their annual Flea Market.  There is no cell service at this site. Site claims to have flushing toilets, but those were removed a few years ago, there are only vault toilets and no showers. Depending on how the snow melt is during the spring, will dictate fishing and camping opening. 

Product Review

I had the opportunity to review a GCI Outdoor Backpack Event Chair.  This product is amazing for lugging around from campground to fishing and back. The chair has four different positions for reclining and hard arm supports for getting up and down. There is a large pocket on the back allowing for easy toting of items from car to wherever. The backpack straps make toting a breeze and the clip to close keeps the chair in place. It is very light and easy to transport and has a weight limit of 250, but my very large cousin (300+) was able to sit with no problem. 

https://www.gcioutdoor.com/camping-chairs/backpack-event-chair/

We stayed here 2 nights and will definitely be coming back. Tons of open sites to choose from right along the river. Designated fire rings but currently there's a burn ban. No vault toilets or picnic tables. Pack it in, pack it out! When we first arrived we spent about 20 minutes cleaning the site we chose after the people whom were here before us. Not such a big deal just a little saddening. #1 rule is to leave no trace. Extremely grateful we get to explore and camp on land that is free. We should all do our part and take care of it. 

A little surprising that we had cell phone reception with sprint! 

Near this area there are a lot or activities. Biking, hiking, swimming, fishing, kayaking.. to name a few!

This campground seems almost brand new. There are no hookups and no water on site, though there are several vault toilets.

Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, tent pad, and path down to a rocky beach on the Columbia. The sites are definitely not large enough for most RVs, so I'd consider this tent or van camping only.

There's not much shade at the sites, but you can get out of the sun near the river.

The biggest drawback to this spot is that it's just of the highway. You can and will hear air brakes all night. For me, staying on the Columbia was worth it.

Campsite Review: This campground is really in a nice area of the old growth forest but it's camping amongst crowds when we went in the high season, the entire 188 sites were filled. There were very few walk-up sites and the rest of the campsites themselves are a decent size but not spaced far enough away from other campers and there is no underbrush to separate you from each other at all. We stayed at site 54 in loop A and had people constantly walking through/by both sides of our campsite to get to the toilets which were located on the next level higher than us. People literally walked right by our fire ring and through our chairs at one point to then hike up the hill instead of traversing around to the right for some stairs. If you can go off season by all means try and do it, but avoid this particular site at all costs…

The toilet facilities weren’t the nicest ones I’ve been to and could have used a little TLC. The facilities right by us were dirty and a bit rusty. They also had no soap or hand drying instrument what-so-ever (neither paper towels or hand dryer). Thankfully we had these things ourselves, but usually in NP campgrounds you don’t have to bring them yourself to the restroom.

Amenities: not sure if every site had one, but lots of bear boxes (you’re in bear and cougar (mountain lion) territory), your standard picnic tables, fire rings, plus flush toilets, potable water, & dump station for you RVers |Prohibited: pets off-leash, & firewood gathering (The camp host drives around selling wood if you haven’t already gotten some at a store) we came right during a fire ban, but as soon as it was removed they drove around letting everyone know. There then seemed to be a truck driving around with firewood for sale, I wasn’t able to confirm though as we were headed off to Paradise and then the Olympic peninsula.

Nearby Hikes: Grove of the Patriarchs, & Silver Falls and not too far from Paradise which is a must do if you happen to come in wild flower season

Gear Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt I sometimes get the opportunity to test out products and the saving grace for this particular camp site was my testing of the Leatherman Signal (Designed for adventure!!). This is a truly fantastic Leatherman and even if you’ve had them for years you should really check out the newer lines of specialized gear. I had an old PST (pocket survival tool) as a boy scout and had upgraded to the original WAVE, but hadn’t checked them out in years as I still have them and thought what could be better than what I already have. I was wrong. This tool and many of the other lines (skateboarding, surfing, skiing, hunting) are also really worth checking out.

• This is designed specifically with camping in mind.
• Really impressed with the new ability to change out components from this and other tools are you wear them down.
• The hammer is great for knocking in tent stakes into some stubborn ground or breaking up that giant block of ice into some manageable pieces.
• Great locking functions on the blade, saw and hammer section - nothing comes loose as you’re cutting/hammering away
• It’s really all the little touches that make this an awesome tool. Like having a sharpener, a built-in fire starter and emergency whistle. These are things that might end up saving your life if you happen to get stranded while out in the woods.

I give the Leatherman Signal 4.5/5 Stars!

We stayed here after we stayed at Cougar Rock, and it’s got a similar setup in terms of getting a spot in the off season. You talk to the ranger, but instead of assigning a spot to us, this one sent us out to look for a site we liked that had an “open” tag on it, and to be back in 15 min so she could go to lunch. Even though the size limit for vehicles is smaller than the Cougar Rock campground, the space felt bigger and more open with more light coming through, and the sites were bigger. It was also a lot more active and busy with people.

 Max length for motorhomes or buses is 32ft, and trailers/5th wheels is 27ft. It’s $20/night. No hookups or dump station, but there is a water fill station for your RV tank. Beautiful hike to Silver Falls, highly recommend, the water is this crazy cloudy blue, only about 1.5 miles from the campground. There are also hot springs at the campground, but not ones you can soak in. But they’re still neat to see. Sites come with a bear box, picnic table, and fire pit. There are trash dumpsters here and plastic, glass, and aluminum recycling. There are flush toilets and water fill stations. Zero cell reception in the campground, though there were patches of signal on the drive from Cougar Rock.

Eastern Washington near the water is my favorite type of landscape.  It's a hot, windy, and a true desert climate.  When you get near a body of water like you do along the Yakima River, the diversity of life expands and makes for great wildlife watching.

Umtanum Recreation Site is part of several BLM campgrounds lumped together along the Yakima River known as the Yakima River Canyon Campgrounds.  All can be reserved ahead of time via the reservation.gov website:  https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/250985.  Standard for most BLM camping in Washington, sites are very basic.  Gravel parking, pit toilets, and a picnic table.  This place does have a dumpster for trash, not all do.  There are no hook ups, no drinking water, and in our case, very little shade.  Neighbors are close and there is not a lot of privacy.  The day use area is right there too, close to camping and can be loud.  It is heavily patrolled by the wonderful BLM folks to keep everything clean and the people orderly.  They also give out tickets if you don't mind the warnings for correct passes or day use fees.

The campground itself is one little loop with six sites.  The loop is an offshoot of a very large gravel parking area for day use.  Mostly boat launching and hiking access to Umtanum Creek and Umtaum Ridge trails.   You can check the Information Board for rules on day use and camping fees, passes, and how to check to see if a site is reserved. 

We arrived on July 3rd in the afternoon.  The campground was very quiet and all the sites were reserved.  The morning of July 4th, the recreation site turned into a total madhouse.  BLM Rangers, Law Enforcement, making constant rounds to patrol the never ending hoards of people coming to park and float the river. There was a lot of noise, dust, drunk and rowdy folks.  Friday was calm again until afternoon, Saturday was not as bad as the 4th but still pretty crazy.  It was also hot!  No shade to be had in our site.  After hiking in the morning, we spent a lot of time across the bridge, in it's shadow, in the river.  

If you are using this spot as a base to do some hiking, fishing, or floating it's very convenient.  I am sure in Spring and Fall when river floating is not at it's peak, it's gorgeous and peaceful.  The raptors and songbirds are splendid.  We saw Bighorn sheep on the hill, big rock squirrels, wild turkeys with babies, and fish.  No rattlesnakes or ticks, but this is prime territory.  Hiking down the Umtanum Creek trail, over the suspension bridge, is one of my favorite hikes ever.

We spend night 2 here on a backpacking trip. Glacier Basin campground has about 5 sites and a group site. There are some that are more private then others but we opted for #2 which is across from the group site for the views of the mountain. There are two bear canisters available for food storage. There is even an outdoor compost toilet a short hike away. No privacy what so ever and it was pretty nasty. The white river is nearby and is a great source for water. There was reports of a bear visiting the campground but all we saw were frogs, deer, and squirrels. The sites were nice and flat and had plenty of space for our two tents and four chairs.

We hiked in from 1st and 2nd Burroughs which was basically never ending switchbacks. The hike out on the glacier basin trail was nice and easy. Pretty views of Mt. Rainier and the surrounding peaks.