Best Tent Camping near Olympia, WA

Went in the middle of the week and wasn't busy at all. Can tell this place is packed on weekends, being so close to Olympia. Nice swimming area with snack bar. Many of the tent camp sites are not private and right next to their neighbor. Overall a nice place to go during the week.

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.

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.

This place had it all; open RV camping, secluded van camping, tree canopy car/tent camping, walk-in camping, and themed safari tent camping, and one cute mini airstream. 

Lake down the road. Water and electrical hookups, dump station with dump water and fresh water. 

Restrooms and showers are scattered around. Showers are coin based and there is a machine to turn your dollars into coins.

I’ve been coming to this state park for as long as I can remember. There’s so many activities to do; clamming, shrimping, hiking, hunting for oysters, and there’s even places to rent kayaks. No shortage of bald eagles here either. Plenty of group tent sites as well as regular RV and tent sites. Each site comes with fire pit, hook ups, and a picnic table. Showers and bathrooms are clean and only costs a quarters for a shower with hot water. Great way to bring the whole family together. Will continue coming to this state park and campground for as long as I can.

Let me start off by saying - if there are so many campsites in Washington, why would you want to stay at the same place multiple times???

Ike Kinswa is the place I would stay at repeatedly. Between the incredibly helpful and friendly staff, to the private tent sites, to the water access, we’ve already stayed twice this summer!! So incredibly impressed with this gem!

Decent, but the facilities are a bit rundown and there were three tent sites 5 feet from my door. Staff was friendly enough and 20 mins into Seattle.

This campground was alright to stay in. The highway right next to the KOA was very busy and noisy all night long, bring earplugs. The tent sites were a joke. You get a small square in a grid of 16 or so squares. Our 10x10 tent took up more than half of the tent site. The neighbor’s tent was 4 feet from ours, offering little to no privacy. The WiFi barely worked, but the showers were nice. The back showers are private rooms which are really nice, especially when camping with little ones to keep them contained. There’s no water or electric hookups for tent campers in the little squares, I had to fill my jug up from a hose on the side of the main building. To access the WiFi you have to make an account, which was annoying also.

While it’s quite basic it gave an amazing nature experience. We usually do tent camping, but we opted for platform tents here as we were only staying one night. The tent was much nicer than we expected and had a good amount of space. We enjoyed hiking to the near by rivers. This was a great place to stay!

Stayed in the tent sites ONLY area. Lunch green grass with a fire pit. Shared shelter if needed due to weather with 2 grills for use. Great trees to hang the hammock!

Camped over the long weekend. Tent camping. Was in spot 28 which is not on lake side. Found that there is little privacy between sites. The bathroom is showing its age though the shower is free. The campground is dog friendly. It is pretty quiet campground.

This is a nice little campground. Mostly tent sites or really small campers. There are a few larger events sites. Nice trails right from camp. No dump. Flush toilets with running water. No electric.

We stumbled upon this campground by chance and were quite happy to have done so. We came early in the morning and were able to get a tent site (first come first serve $20/night) before setting out to explore the Staircase area of Olympic National Park. The campground hosts were super friendly and gave us great advice on where to go in the area. Our tent site had a fire pit with grill, picnic table, and nice gravel parking pad. The spots here are well dispersed and set back in the woods for the most part so they felt very secluded and peaceful. We didn't spend a ton of time around the campground and this was just a one night exploration base but overall it was clean, offered good basic amenities and was very quiet and tranquil.

Only con is road noise from Hwy7. Main through fare to Mt Rainier south entrance and services. Sites may be too close together if park was full. We were one a few campers! We tent camped and had view of Lake Alder. Nice campground host. We'll cared for, clean, organized sites. No sewer or showers, pit toilets.

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.

Camp Thunderbird is owned by the Boy Scouts of America and is available for public use. It is located at the base of Summit Lake, with a dock and great swimming spot. There are tent sites, adirondacks, and cabins. There is a great big field and lots of trails.

This is a large campground with all the of camping options. They have tent sites, platform tents, cabins and RV hookups. This is located on both the Hood Canal and the Dosewallips river. This provides lots of activities like hiking, fishing, clam digging and exploring. There are several camp sites located on the river. The campground is well maintained year round.

We stayed here for a quick night on the way up to the Hoh rainforest. This seems to be mainly used by people with boats but it was a nice woodsy spot with large tent sites.

It’s a bit out of the way which meant that even mid summer it was not full.