Best Glamping near Gig Harbor, WA

told macdonald is super cute park and campground! they offer the typical primitive campsites with fire pits and picnic tables, as well as yurts and shipping container conversions for those who want more of a "GLAMping" outdoor experience. the campground, park and trails are very well maintained and they even provide you with garden carts to help you get your stuff across the bridge. great spot for steelhead + salmon fishing. we've fished steelhead and pinks out of the snoqualmie river in the past. it's located right smack in the middle of carnation so on a nice sunny day you could walk out of the park to get pizza, ice cream or even mexican food. the suspension bridge is pretty cool, but hold onto your phones tight because it could slip through the holes into the river below. i would rate this place as 4-5 star park / 3-4 star camping since it's not even close to roughing it. those bucolic woods are our backyard.

I have camped here a number of times over the years. This is a nice woodsy campground just south of Olympia, WA located on Deep lake. It has a very old growth forest feel to it. This campground offers many activities: hiking trails, fitness trails,fishing, boat rental, and even a concession stand. The fishing is good for trout,bass, and sun fish. This park offers both hookup and non utility tent sites as well as glamping tents.

Cons: most of the hookup sites are in a field with zero privacy but there are a few that are much better like the last spot I stayed at.

The primitive sites are better but the roads are quite narrow with limited access for RV's.

The "Glamping tents"are very nice but crazy expensive at over $300 a night. Like most of the State Parks reservations book up quickly so it pays to plan ahead

Pros: fishing is pretty good even from shore. The day use area is great but pretty rustic. Lots of trails to hike but not as well marked as I would expect. Really close to Seattle so it is ideal for a weekend getaway Friday after work.

Beautiful spot, though tightly packed and crowded/noisy. We stayed in spot 59 on a Saturday night. It was rainy and the fire pit area had plenty of puddles. Lots of folks came in later in the evening with multiple cars and sat out talking; plenty of them packed up and left before 8 am. We walked the fen trail, which was spooky and different from our home of Colorado! Reservations needed. There are also glamping cabins. Nice clean bathrooms with flush toilets, water available at multiple locations, showers available with tokens.

This is a very nice, typical Washington state park with plenty of trees, greenery, hiking, pathways and even a lake. There's a camp store along with several large outdoor kitchens that would be good to use for groups. Many of the structures like the kitchens and even bathrooms were built back in the 1930s by the CCC, which is pretty cool. It's just far enough off I-5 to not have the freeway noise, but close enough to be convenient. It's also nearby to Great Wolf Lodge if you're looking for a place to stay near there.

On the other hand, the RV sites especially are basically in a big field with a cement road going around it. The sites have tables and fire pits, but no privacy what-so-ever. The tent sites are slightly better, with more trees, but still very close to one another.

The campground also has glamping available (canvas permanent tents) that looked cool.

They have glamping! Or as the campground calls it: pampered camping. This is a beautiful park located on Deep Lake just outside of Olympia.  The park itself is huge offering lots of options for campers.  Super easy to get our trailer in and out of the spaces and there was lots of extra parking for our larger group.  A quick walk around the grounds offered a nice hike and showed us some pretty awesome sites Id like to stay at in the future.  They are on a progressive price, meaning depending on the site is what your price will be.

The canvas tent option was one I didn’t know about until I got there.  The tents are cabin shaped and have a few chairs and BBQ grill outside it.  Great option for families.

The park also offers a cottage right next to the lake.  This is a nice alternative to traditional camping.  One thing that was great about the park was the various kitchens around the grounds.  This offers a great way for larger groups to have a set space for meals.

Great PNW experience minutes from Olympia!

Campground review: First off this is not a primitive experience by any means. However this is a really interesting state park that has something for EVERYONE. The campground itself is separated into 3 separate sections. There is a larger trailer loop down by the main entrance, standard tent camping and lastly "glamping" and yes you heard me right. This campground also boasts a beer garden AND a boat house with kayak and canoe rentals. If this is all sounding a little much I understand. Surprisely though the campground was almost completely filled when we were there and do to it being densely vegetated and how it's laid out. Our campsite was very private and spacious. The campground itself was very clean and well kept and rangers were on regular patrol. It was a great fun local escape for us and our kids loved it!! They also have a few trails but we did not check them out this visit. My only complaint would be the restrooms are few and far between for how large the campground is just know this before your visit. Happy Adventuring!

Gear Review:

HellaGood Belmont Blanket

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I occasionally get products to test- today I am testing the HellaGood Belmont Blanket. Right away I was surprised by how light weight and extra durable this blanket was. Easy to pack in a backpack and bring to the water front with us and made a great blanket to cozy up under after a few hours of paddling. It was also a great additional play space for our kids at our camp site. The bottom is waterproof and the top is a soft fleece like material so I didn't have to worry about washing it when we got home. In the past we have just brought a beach blanket camping but this is for sure our new go to! www.belmontblanket.com

Millersylvania is located South of Olympia on Deep Lake. The campsites are nice, they have both RV, Yurts, and Tent sites. The RV loop does pack you in their like sardines. Deep Lake is a murky lake but is stocked with fish and has designated swim area.

If you are in Tacoma and dont have a chance to get to the East side or the coast, head to Dash Point. Just twenty minutes from Tacoma, Dash Point has a great camp ground and yurts a plenty for a quick getaway. Easy water access and lots of trails to explore make it very family friendly.

Coho Campground sits on the Wynoochee Lake at the Wynoochee Dam. Lush forest, tall trees, and moss make this place so beautiful and a magical campground for kids to play in! Campsites are private and shady. In spring, piles of wood are stacked in piles all over, from those which fell in winter. The lake has a great day use area and the campground also has yurts, with a lake view.

This is our second time going to Kanaskat Palmer Park and we decided to enjoy four nights in there yurts between the fall and winter transition season. I must say I was very impressed to see that the bathrooms and showers were still very clean ever since the pandemic and that it was quite a nice place to stay during the weekdays if you wanted a quietly stay in the woods with the sounds of the flowing river. We will definitely be back again next year!

What a beautiful place! The campground is in 500+ acre Tolt-McDonald Park, far enough away from any busy road so that there is no traffic noise, just the sound of the Tolt River rapids. All the RV sites are drive-through, with water and 20, 30, and 50-Amp service. (There is a privately-run RV dump on the way to the park.) The sites are wide because of the driveway. No trees between sites, but some bushes between sites offer some privacy for the back half of the sites. The 17 RV sites are around a huge lawn, with the restroom building at one end, and a path down the middle that is part of a long, level, paved bike/walking trail. There is a shower in each restroom, so the whole building is heated (which was really nice, since the lows were in the 30s in April, 2022) Access to both rivers is at the South end of the RV loop. There are tent-only sites to the North, and also yurts and more tent sites across a picturesque foot bridge over the Snoqualmie River. There are carts available to roll your stuff over the footbridge.

General: 50-site campground (including six yurts) plus a group campground. The campground is in two loops: one with electric hookups and one without. 

Site Quality: All sites are level and are a mix of back-in and pull-through. Site 24 was a pull-thru. Sites in the tent (no hookup) section are gravel while sites with electricity have paved camper pads. ADA-accessible sites (one in each loop) are completely paved. Heavily wooded sites afford good privacy between sites. 

Bath/Shower house: one building between the two loops with six all-in-one (toilet, sink, shower) units. They were clean. At first glance, it appears you need tokens for the shower but upon closer inspection, it did look like they were free. However, you were asked to conserve water and that the hot water was turned off at night due to vandalism.

Activities: Several trails that are open until dusk. Several places to put in and take out boats but you are warned that some sections of the Green River are Class III or IV and where you should take out if you are not a highly experienced boater. We also saw some people fishing.

This was our final stop on our North Cascades loop trip. The campground is located about an hour outside of Seattle yet it was very quiet (except for several trains throughout the day and night). Surprisingly we had zero cell coverage(Verizon).

One of the prettiest lakes in Washington. Can get pretty busy in the summer but mostly empty otherwise. Little to no cell service. lots of options for camping and backroads all around.

Campsite Review: The Coho campground in Olympic National Forest is pretty interesting as it’s just off Lake Wynoochee, formed by the Wynoochee Dam (I don’t think I ever really got the Indian names down quite right). This portion of the National Forest is really cool and feels very secluded as you drive for miles and miles from any real civilization into some wonderful old growth forests. The 46-different pull-through, back-in campsites are all fairly separated and you’re not at all bothered by your neighbors. There are also 10 walk-in tent only sites and a handful of Yurts (which looked interesting). Since you are off quite a way down an old logging road (paved one way, unpaved the the other) you have absolutely no highway noise to deal with and no one is coming and going at all hours of the night. All of the campsites themselves are a decent size with nice flat areas, huge tables, fire ring, etc. We stayed at site 41 in loop B which was open to the road, but we had no one behind us or on either side. When getting your site be careful about the exact size allotment if you’re in a big RV or have a 5th wheel, etc. Felt really bad for the guy trying to back into site 38 beside us. He tried for 30+ minutes pulling around and trying to get a better angle 2-3 times before they found the camp host and to move to site 40 which was empty. While the site might say it’ll fit your vehicle, the roads are narrow and there are random boulders here and there which may impede your maneuvering. The sites which are “on the water” aren’t really on the water, but overlook a pretty steep decline to the lake with the 16-mile lakeshore trail in between. If you’re a boater you’re also not too far from the boat access ramp.

The toilet facilities in Loop B were nice and clean. The facilities right by us seemed to have been properly maintained and no guests had come in and destroyed them. There was hand soap and plenty of paper towels and toilet paper (in case you forget to bring your own).

Amenities: Definitely larger than standard picnic tables, fire rings, plus flush toilets, potable water, & trash cans which were emptied first thing in the morning |Prohibited: pets off-leash

Nearby Hikes: Wynoochee lakeshore trail, which goes by a couple waterfalls & Working Forest Nature trail, which gives you a little insight into the life cycle of the forest

Gear Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt I sometimes get the opportunity to test out products and the highlight of this particular camp site was my testing of the Belmont Blanket #AdventureBlanket The best all-purpose blanket ever!! This is a truly fantastic blanket and completely different from the other “outdoor blankets” which either are supposedly waterproof or keep you warm. This blanket does it all. I felt like this was designed specifically with mastering the outdoors in mind.

• I was really impressed with the size that this rolls up into. Was thinking it wouldn’t be nearly as warm with such a small packed size for a 6’ x 5’ all weather blanket.
• Similarly, this blanket is huge. I’m 6 feet tall and this blanket can cover me from head to toe. So many times with an “outdoor” blanket, I can’t fully stretch out.
• The #AdventureBlanket is really soft on the plush inside, it’s very comfy and has actually become not only our outdoor blanket, but also our couch blanket.
• Can’t attest to the waterproofing in the wild (thankfully haven’t yet had to test out if we’d get ‘wet butt’ or not), but our makeshift water bottle rain test proved the blanket was fully waterproof (not resistant) which is awesome.
• Really like the design with the awesome leather accents. The colors are really sharp and make the blanket pop.
• Probably one of the best features of this blanket is that it’s Handmade in the USA!! How many companies or products can claim that now a day.

I give the Belmont Blanket #AdventureBlanket 5/5 stars and it's my go to "blanket" for any picnic/fest/outdoor activity and I actually got myself a second one!

This campground is hidden in the middle of a major Western Washington city, Federal Way. Once in the campground, you would have no idea that you are surrounded by a sprawling metropolitan area.

The campsites are small but private. They do allow for campfires but you should bring your own firewood. 

There is a trail that follows a creek down to the shoreline. If you are into geocaching we found a few along the trail. Depending on the season this trail can be quite muddy.

Lucked out with a dry Saturday night. Cold, 28 degrees. On the main loop the camp sites to the right are along the river with great access to the water. Stay away from the left side inner loop spots as they are tighter to each other, although, they are great for multiple groups looking to camp together.
About a 20 minute drive to Mt. Ellinore and Mt. Washington if you’re looking for good hikes with great views.

"Firstly, I just have to say what a positive and amazing experience I had at this campground. The volunteers were friendly, kind and absolutely awesome to interact with. Also, the camp was clean and beautifully laid out. I will definitely be camping here again the next time we go to Washington. I'm definitely impressed with how up to date and organized everything was around here. From the website updates to physical maintenance and upkeep - as close to perfection as we will ever get to as humans. I learned that volunteers are in high demand though so... I know what i want to do next summer!

Dash Point State Park is your average, nice Washington State Park, with trees, grass, pathways etc. When we were there at the end of March, only about half the campground was open, and we were able to get a last-minute spot in the late afternoon on a Thursday. Sites are mid-sized, with some having more privacy than others.

Cons: While several other reviews talk of the cleanliness of the campground, we had the opposite experience, with large and small trash everywhere we walked (including a whole foam mattress thrown away). It was also pretty muddy, as well as loud (from the airplanes passing over head until the middle of the night).

Pros: Across the street, the day use area is amazing, with a lovely beach, picnic tables, hikes, etc. Generally a very nice place to spend the day.

Tips: Unless you're there with another group or family, avoid the spots that look like they're parallel on the map (9 & 10; 15 & 16 etc.) since they're basically one big site split up with two driveways right next to one another.