Best Tent Camping near Mount Rainier National Park

Wanted to make some headway leaving Mount Rainier towards Seattle and stay somewhere in the middle. Should have camped at Cougar Rock and driven further today. Expensive (30 plus tax) tent camping prices afford you an unlevel pad of weedy haphazardly maintained grass that's actually just the back yard of a house converted into way too many tent sites and two cabins. No fire pit, no picnic bench for my site, not raked after cutting the weeds so grass in EVERYTHING. The best part? The advertised wifi which would add some redeeming quality to the price tag doesn't reach the camping area (even though I could throw a rock to the reception desk from there) AND in the morning you have the blessing of COIN OPERATED showers after already paying for your stay. One single toilet and one single shower at the camp store for all campers.

AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS. Not worth your money when there are plenty of decently maintained forest service sites around with flat camping pads. I only give it 1 of 5 stars because I found something worth about 30 dollars in the parking lot. Otherwise it's 0/5.

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).

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.

Hiking is one of my favorite things to do when I am not working. I spend a lot of my free time doing this. Granite Creek Campground is a great place to camp- but it is also a great starting point to hike. You can start at Granite Creek Campground and hike to Sunrise Point which is in the Wonderland trail in the Mount Rainier National Park. It takes me about 5 hours to do a roundtrip loop from one point to the next and back. It is about 8 miles roundtrip, and I would say it was "middle' level experience. The scenery, wild life, and greenery are to die for. My favorite time of year to do this hike is in the spring time because there are so many gorgeous flowers that are blooming. I almost feel like I am in some sort of flower painting, because everywhere you look there is a different color flower. I have yet to stay at Granite Creek Campground but it is on my list to do at some point. Going through the campground in the summer, it is ALWAYS busy. So many RV's and tents all around- I would definitely say this was a great sign and tells you a lot about how much people like staying here. It is always clean too. There are bathrooms on site (I usually use them before and after my hike)! They are clean, and always stocked with toilet paper and toilet seat covers. I would highly recommend coming here! To camp or to hike!!!