Best Tent Camping near Mount Rainier National Park, WA

This campground has super friendly staff, decent bathrooms and showers, laundry facility, access to a lake, fishing is welcome, swimming allowed, great playground for kids, allows pets, has a small store in the office with some essentials if you forget something. It is about a 1 Hour drive to the entrance of Mount Rainier National Park.

I've been coming here since I was a little kid and it's still one of my favorite campgrounds (with leashed pets allowed). It's cute, wooded, with a moss covered old growth forest, fairly private camps, with one large group site available. Obviously the river spots are the prime locations but we recently had to branch out and stayed in the more wooded Loop B at site B4. We found we had plenty of space and privacy for a party of 5. At this location we had piped water between us and site B5, and we were conveniently located a short walk from restrooms and Purcell Falls. There are plenty of options to keep you busy inside the campground such as visit to one of the many rivers or creeks, the blue hole or a hike to Purcell falls.
If you choose to use the campground as a base camp your close to many other options as well; Ohanapecosh campground and amphitheater, hike naches peak loop, visit the town of Packwood or Mount Rainier National Park (no pets allowed).

Good sites for tent camping but the sites aren't great for an RV.

We made reservations here 9/3-9/5. We had a dry camping, asphalt parking site next to the restrooms at the end of the loop (near the camp hosts). It was very quiet here and the area is just beautiful.

The roads through this campground are a bit tight and have a few low-hanging trees, so be aware if you have a larger rig. Our 32’ fifth wheel was fine but I wouldn’t want to go much longer than that.

There are plenty of hiking, fishing, and sight-seeing available in the area. This campground was a great jumping-off point for visiting nearby Mount Rainier National Park.

The campground has both dry camping and water/electric hookups, but no dump station. Flush toilets and pit toilets were located in the campground; the flush toilets we were next to were clean. There are several water spigots scattered throughout the dry camping loop, although they weren’t threaded so we couldn’t run a hose to them. Washing dishes at the spigots and in the restrooms was discouraged.

Nearby Enumclaw had everything we needed. The drive through the forest to get there was nice and we spotted several moose in the trees.

Verizon signal was spotty.

Decent coin op showers. Nice walk in tent sites. Nice RV sites. Decent playground. Fishing bridge just a short walk. There's no store or anything. Can buy firewood nearby. Flush toilets. Cleaned regularly.

2020 prices in the photo. Clean camp with multiple water points. There's 4 or 5 spots large enough for an RV away from the river. Several flat tent camping spots along the river.

We found the location a little noisy because HWY12 run along the north side of the park.

Has tents site to camp at

This campground is a strange hidden gem - stick with me through the downsides. Taidnapam is on Riffe Lake, which is created by a dam and as of about 2013 the water levels have been permanently lowered by 30-ish feet. This is bad news for people who only went there for boating and fishing and swimming in the swim area but for some of us it's actually good news.

The campground is slower than it used to be during the summer months due to the lowered water levels - but that means you can often still get a reservation at the last minute, especially for the walk-in tent sites (which is what we use). We have camped for three years now at the walk-in tent sites and it's a bit tougher to access the water but you definitely can still find plenty of places to get in or take a kayak down to the water. There's also lots of fun areas around the edge of the lake to explore that used to be under water - making for interested hiking.

We love this campground to go to with kids - the walk-in tent sites are great and the water is so shallow now for quite a ways out so the kids can play in the water and the sand/mud along the edge of the lake. There are so many nooks and crannies around the edge of the lake to explore with the kids - and we used an inflatable kayak while there to go across the lake. They also have a scavenger hunt of items hidden around the campground that you can do with your kids (or if they are a bit older they can do on their own) and a playground.

We Can’t Thank The Rainbow RV Resort Enough For The Wonderful Stay We Had. They Are A Clean Reasonably Priced RV Camping Site With Tent Camping Available, A Boat Launch A Beautiful Dock And Swimming Area As Well. Thank You To All The Rainbow Resort Staff For Making Our Stay An Enjoyable And Memorable One! Beautiful Place With Amazing Views Of Tanwax Lake! We Look Forward To Staying Again Sooner Then Later! Take Care!

This camping is great if you do not mind having others near you or if you are fearful of venturing out alone. If you are looking for a secluded location, this is NOT the spot. This location had many amenities. My husband and I tent camped and it included ample space to pitch our tent, a small in-the-ground pit, and a table. We noticed many RVs and many sites had available hookups. There is a nice lake in walking distance for boating, swimming, and fishing.

Well maintained campground, full hookups and tent sites available. Sites fairly large & private with tons of old trees and right next to a creek. Bathrooms clean. Fire pits and firewood available from hosts. Easy access to Rainier NP. Hosts super nice. Only thing that would make this place better is more substantial picnic tables which were new but kind of rickety. Would camp here again.

We spent a weekend tent camping here and I can't wait to go back when it gets warmer and this time bring the Turtle.  The campground is meticulously maintained, facilities are super clean, there is a dishwashing station, and a super cute store.  The two guys who run the place are super friendly, drive around delivering ice and firewood, and are so welcoming.  There is a creek that is fun for kids to play in and a large field to go explore and walk around in.  Beautiful location and close to Mt. Rainier NP.

Runs along a creek that you can here from all sites. Perfect for tent camping. The site offers picnic tables & a triangle shaped fire pit. The fire pits have a grill grate over top of them that we cooked dinner on at night. The facility only offers vault toilets, they were decent. The trash pick up is at the entry which did not smell & was picked up on Friday’s.

We had a few small visitors including a chipmunk & a field mouse.

Going up the mountain we found a really cool meadow & lake.

Tent camped here on a last minute whim. When the weather is not the greatest on the west side, we head to Cle Elum! This is all first come, first served camping. Nothing fancy, vault toilets, tables, fire ring. I would imagine if it was busy, it would be pretty loud and dusty. There is a small dirt bike track the starts here, so if you are looking for pristine quiet, this is not your place. If you come out to the woods to ride bikes, it would be awesome!

The weekend we were there, it was pretty quiet. Played in the creek. I would go back.