Best Dispersed Camping near Ilwaco, WA

This is my first wildcamping/boondocking location, but I loved it. It feels like you're right in the middle of the forest! It's a wide dirt pullout with room for 7-10 cars. And although it's right alongside the road, it's not a super busy road like some highway spots, so it felt pretty secluded and quiet. Very few cars at night.

No signs of any kind indicating "no parking." 1 bar of Verizon LTE.

The dirt was solid -- I wasn't worried at all about getting stuck in the mud (and I'm here in the middle of winter with tons of recent rain). Plenty of room to turn around with ease.

And you're right at a hiking trail that takes you to beautiful falls!! What more could you ask for? -- Don't make the mistake I did. The trail all the way on the left side of the parking lot takes you to the falls. The trails in the middle of the lot are super steep and muddy and don't lead to the falls.

Only downside is it's not perfectly flat. It wasn't too bad though. I just parked with my head pointing uphill when I go to bed, of course.

There is also another option down the road to the east about 500 feet. It's a paved pullout, but it is smaller so it doesn't have as much space to turnaround.

Great spot because it's so secluded in the forest. There's basically zero traffic on the dirt road near the campsite. A lot of the trees around seem to be new growth. Great view of the stars at night!

There are at least 4 other campsite off this road at different points if you keep driving. Some of them are more or less level and more or less muddy. This one was the best, but there are lots of options. All of them are commonly used because there are ashes from fires. There's a moderate amount of trash at most of them.

Requires a Discovery Pass. I bought a day pass for $12 online since I don't need the annual pass. They tell you to write the date and order number in large print on a piece of paper and put it on your dash. No one came to check my pass though (in January, so it's the off season)

You have to take a dirt road to reach the campsite, but it is pretty well maintained. The only difficulty I encountered were two points where a few inches of road were a bit washed out. They were small enough that I could manage them alright in a 2WD van that had normal clearance. So most cars could probably manage them.

There's a small trail behind this spot that that leads to the creek, which is nice. Other than that, you can hike along the dirt roads, but there aren't any actual hiking trails that I found. I saw a porcupine for the first time while wandering one of the side roads! I didn't drive up to Snag Lake.

Snag Lake and Western Lake Campgrounds were both full, so we explored and went to the top of the mountain/hill near the cell towers. It had cement for parking and seemed to be a viewing point so we called it good. Not sure if this is a “legal” campsite but it sure was beautiful.

Great cell service! I was able to work remotely (teams calls) for 3 days with no issues. Also beautiful views! I went all the way to the top near the cell towers.

This place was beautiful!! Definitely best for car camping as the spots down by the river were pretty wet and muddy this time of year. The waterfall is amazing and only a 15 minute hike down! The only reason this place got lower than a 5 star is because of all the trash near the parking lot. Too beautiful of a place to be used as a dump!! Definitely used as a party spot but aside from this it’s worth the visit!

The trails are great and the waterfall is beautiful. The pulloff is muddy and hard but it's worth it.

A big pavement pull off on the ride of the road. The river is a walk down a very steep hill behind the pullout. No place to pitch a tent, best for car camping. Had some issues with people stopping and playing loud music, seems to be a hangout spot.

Relative to other options in Northwest Oregon this was an easy to find, plenty of space place to park the car. My partner and I angled our vehicle to block our tent from the road and slept like rocks.

Not scenic (though the waterfall that is a short hike away is). My only safety concern is someone taking the corner too fast running into your car.

This is what the title says. It's a large pull out on a quiet road in the woods.

There were other campers when we arrived. Very nice for a late night pull in. Not somewhere I would settle in for a few days, just a stop over.

The hike to the falls is to the far left of the pullout. Do NOT go down the super steep trails to the right. Beautiful waterfall after a short hike.

I just came across this spot off a fire road going up the mountain from cook creek campgrounds