Best Tent Camping near Gifford Pinchot National Forest

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!

Great campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Smallish campground with about half the spots right on the river. Nice day use area slightly separated from the camping. Picnic tables and fire rings. Mostly tents when we were there, but there's also pull-through driveway type spots that could fit a trailer. At just $12 per night, price can't be beat.

Plenty of trees and grass. Most spots are slightly exposed to the turn-around road, but still feels private since there's space and trees between the spots.

Not too far from Mouton Falls, which are amazing, plus other hiking and swimming areas nearby.

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!

This is the kind of campground that we love, small, quiet and lovely. Tucked right on the banks of the East Fork of the Lewis River and on the edge of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, this is a great get away for anyone in the Vancouver / Portland area. The campsites are small with pull-through parking that could accommodate rigs up to 35’ or up to three vehicles. It’s short enough to walk it before pulling in to see if you’ve got enough room to turn around. 

The sites all have fire rings, and picnic tables and a small tent pad. The vault toilet buildings have taken the brunt of 3 decades of the Washington moss and lichen so were further along the way toward decomposition than I normally like in a bathroom building and smelly, but they were clean enough to use. The water was clean and good tasting and the campground hosts were friendly and efficient. 

The campground was pretty forested, but we were able to still charge up our solar powered system even on cloudy days in one of the less wooded sites. We didn’t even need to pull out our portable solar panel, which we often do when camping in forested areas, allowing the camper to be in the shade, keeping it cool, and being able to put the panel out in the sun. 

Nearby recreation opportunities are endless, from the world-class paddling on the Lewis River to many nearby creeks and streams. The area is a waterfall chaser’s dream, with many parks and hiking trails within 20 miles, just follow the road back downstream and stop at the many parks along the way. The road is pretty narrow and I wouldn’t recommend riding road bikes along the busy paved roads, but further into the forest the dirt road offers some great access and is perfect for gravel bikes. 

In this area you’re about 20-30 minutes from suburban Vancouver WA, where pretty much everything is available, including some pretty fabulous wineries. Check 'em out!

What a great way to spend our weekend. This place was a wonderful place to stay while hiking within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Washington offers so many hikes and beautiful places to see the best views. Mountains everywhere! This campground was great, located just off the road. It is pretty easy to find, and you dont have to go up a bad forest road to get there. The campground is great, pretty basic. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring. The people who must have stayed at our campsite before didnt really do a good job of cleaning. We picked up after them, which wasnt a huge deal to us. The campsites were a decent size- fit our tent, hammock and 4 people comfortably. The hiking was great. Highly recommend checking out the hiking spots nearby. The most amazing views ever!!

The tent sites are very large however they have minimal grass or shade. RV sites are very close to each other. There are two bathrooms of one toilet, shower area combined. The shower is coin operated so unless you plan ahead with quarters you are out of luck. It has a card option but does not work. The bathrooms are also not clean. There are 2 portable toilets that were very clean. They advertise quiet hours after 10 pm but it is not in-forced. There was a group partying until 1am next to us. Neighboring property was also blasting music into the morning. There are many other options in the area I would look into one of those.