Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Metaline Falls, WA

I found this awesome little campground on my way to Sullivan Lake from Metaline Falls.

It is just off the main road, next to Sullivan Creek. It is fully a dispersed group of sites so no trash, water, toilet, or any amenities. There is an information sign and several rock rings for fires.  This is my kind of site, just throw your tent up where ever and go fish or hike. 

The trees are fairly dense so the whole place is well shaded. Sullivan Creek is right there! Sullivan Lake is just a few miles to the east. With Metaline falls a few to the west, there are shops, eteries, and evan a movie theatre close by.

All in all a great place to stay a couple of nights.

Campsite 36 in the Pine loop is just a short walk away from a lovely lake beach that has fire pits and picnic tables. The campsite itself is very nice, large, shaded, with a decent distance from neighboring campers as far as campgrounds go. I didn't do what I usually do and walk around the campground to see what the best site is to book during future visits, but I have zero complaints about this site. We really enjoyed our stay at Lake Sullivan and our excursions to Metaline Falls, Gardner Cave, Peewee Falls, Mill Pond Historic Site, and Crescent Lake.

This campground is amazing!

 It is a small campground right next to the Boundary Dam and thanks to Seattle City Power is absolutely FREE! It just went through a major overhaul so everything is new and well maintained.  Lots of history here including the filming of The Postman.

They provide you with great amenities like full flush bathrooms, extensive day use facilities, Boat launch and dock, Water and trash. It has 22 sites(3 of which are ADA) and 12 RV sites. There are no hookups for the RV's. Each site has a fire pit picnic table and gravel tent pads.

There are many things to do here like check out the Peewee falls which is only viewable by water or take the free dam tour! A short drive away is the Gardner Caves which offers free guided tours if you have a discovery pass. Metaline Falls is also a short drive away in which there are a few eateries and even a movie theater.

Overall it is a great place to camp and boat, my only fault would be the 6 day limit! 

I highly recommend checking this place out if you have a chance.

***All reviews below this and above this are for Crescent lake in the Olympic National Park (also beautiful), Not this Crescent lake in the Colville National Forest, which the map indicates.

This Campground is in the thick of the Colville National Forest, on the East side of Washington State. There are only three campsites, best for tents or very small campers, no your 40 foot RV will not fit.....They are not reserveable, fcfs. It is a free campground, 1 mile south of the Canadian border. The road in is narrow and has a bit of down hill slope. Each site is equipped with fire rings, bear boxes and picnic tables. There is one Vault toilet. Bring your own water as there is no access. There is also one bear proof trash can. The campground is up hill from the lake in thick of pines. Just up the road from Crescent lake is the Boundary Dam Vista House. It offers beautiful views of the Boundary Dam, The Canada Border and Beyond, The Pend Oreille River, The Selkirk Mountains, and more! Also close to Metaline Falls, where the 1997 Kevin Costner Film, The Postman, was filmed.

The lake was even clearer than the one on the west side, it is stocked with Rainbow trout, and it's super awesome to see where you are fishing. For being a roadside lake I was quite impressed. There are a very few, SMALL, pull offs on the small dirt road on the lake. At the end is a slightly larger area to turn around in, or park (please leave enough room to let others turn around) There is a rope swing, however, the lake is not deep enough at the moment to be able to swing. People do kayak and canoe. There is no room for your trailer. If it fits in or on your car, feel free to use your boat. Most importantly please, respect this area, it's beauty is unparalleled.

Campground Review:

https://www.seattle.gov/light/Boundary/recreation.asp

Usually I would stay away from campgrounds like Boundry Dam Campground, also known as Forebay Recreation Area. A Free Campground from the Seattle City Lights Project. This place was beautiful and I will be back. 

While I didn't realize it until after I had set up camp, site #22 is the best in the campground and also one of three ADA sites. Since there were few others camping, I now see why it was available.They are unmarked and the only thing telling you this is on a board next to the bathrooms, Site 11,13 and 22 were mentioned as ADA on the board, however the entire campground is ADA accessible except the sites 1-4 which are very close together and tent only sites.  The RV sites are also close together.

Site 22 is backed up to the forest, and the most private site in the campground, there is only 1 site next to you and both of these sites are walk in. You park and then carry your gear in. I found this strange for an ADA site. It isn't a far walk and it is very well paved. 

Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. There are large and small day use areas along the river side, unfortunately only sites 1-5 are on the water, the rest have a water view, but its more like a parking lot. 

The bathrooms are updated, very clean, flush toilets. No showers. They have water spigots close to the sites and they have a lot of power. The landscape was too commercial, I would have preferred if they left the land as it was instead of adding bark chips and planting flowers. Its going to be difficult to keep those growing and maintained. 

The fishing dock was also new, sturdy and a beautiful spot for pictures. I have heard, and if you see the reviews under this, there is a waterfall, about a mile away from the dock in the river. Unfortunately I don't have a vessel so was not able to see this first hand. The water was pretty warm, compared to other places in the area. Saw tons of kayaks head out from this point. The waterfall is accessible by water only at this point, however, they are building trailheads, with parking lots and restrooms on the Eastern ridge to provide viewpoints of the waterfall and canyon by 2020. 

Cool fact, this is in the town of Metaline Falls, Washington. The Dam and the town are a features in the Kevin Costner film, The Postman.

There is also  FREE Dam tours Thursday-Monday (so don't show up on a Tuesday like us!) They are offered at 10:30am, 12:00pm, 2:00pm and 4:00pm, I will be back very soon to take advantage of this. Its a Hydro Electric Dam and it goes through a Limestone cave! 

Just up the Road is a Gardner Caves- Crawford State Park, Garner Caves offers tours of the cave at 10:00am,12:00pm, 2:00pm and 4:00pm. This tour you need a discover pass for. Again, I showed up on Monday evening and was unable to do the cave tour this time, however, I have done Gardner caves and that is super neat! 

If you are exploring the upper side of Eastern Washington, or going to Canada, I highly recommend camping, boating and exploring this area. 

Ranger Review: Grubstick Deluxe kit

https://grubstick.com/products/deluxe-kit

As a Ranger for the Dyrt, sometimes I get awesome camping gear, in exchange for a honest review. Today I am reviewing the Grubstick. The Grubstick is a pretty neat camping cook tool. It has a long extendable handle to keep you and yours safe. It also has along several attachments, so you can become a hit with the kids and really inventive with your camp recipes. This camp trip was an adventure and to keep it easy, we roasted some hot dogs for lunch on the second day. 

First, I had the opportunity to get the starter kit and the Deluxe kit. Both pictured here. The Starter kit comes with a Handle, A grub cage (square cage for roasting smore's, fruit, or anything that will fit.) A fork to roast hotdog's and a release tool to open the cage. Its pretty basic but again, pretty great considering your options to cook on this are endless. 

The deluxe kit comes with all of that plus, an extra handle, and additional fork, a burgcage, a Grub Pocket to make bacon cups, bread bowls, etc, A Grubtube for making breadsticks, and a bacon clip! 

I feel like these are meant for quality food. The cheap hot dogs I had, split down the center seconds after exposing them to the fire, making it hard to turn the stick with out the hot dogs also turning, and trying to slide off the stick, so they were not getting evenly cooked. Again, not a testament to the Grubstick at all. I love the idea of it, it just didn't work right with the cheap hot dogs. I am super excited to try them in the future and use the other attachments. They shipped very quickly and they are made of high quality materials, They also came in great carry bags. I actually only brought the grubstick with me instead of my large bulky camp stove, while that would have been a nice idea, always bring a back up- in case there is a sudden torrential downpour that makes it so you cannot have a campfire. 

All in all, very cool tool, I can see using these on family camp trips with the kids and making smores. Brats or polish sausage would work better than hot dogs on the fork.

The drive into this area is absolutely beautiful. Campground is large, with at least 3 loops. The campground itself is very clean. We saw rangers checking up and driving thru at least 6x through out day and evening. There are flush toilets and spigots throughout the loops. Bathrooms had toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

We stayed in loop 3, spot 61. It was smaller compared to other spots. This campground is big so there isn’t a ton of privacy and spots are close together. You can hear pretty much everyone’s conversations around you. Lots of RVs and families with kids. Lots of sites with dogs, so anytime people did walks with their dog, a symphony of barking dogs would start. Bring earplugs.

First night in, mosquitos were absolutely terrible. Literally swirling around us as we put up the tent. Neighbors were loud past midnight, and there was construction noise over night (woke us up around midnight and 2am).

Second night, still had noisy neighbors but these didn’t stay up as late as the ones from previous night. Mosquitos were not as bad. There was no overnight construction noise.

There are some nice hikes nearby, just be sure to plan accordingly as it gets quite warm.

Overall, while the lake was nice, it was not a place for me considering how busy and noisy it was. I did appreciate how well maintained it is though.