Best Dispersed Camping near Olympic National Park

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and spent a lot of my childhood out here in the Olympic National Park. Coming back to this scenic area was a real treat! We arrived very late at night and found a quiet spot up the mountain but moved in the morning in search of shade. We came upon a little dirt road off of 2918 near the river. We have a Jeep and I will say, it was needed for the area we found but if you have a high clearance whip, I recommend it highly. There are plenty of spots to stop on the paved areas too, but they are less ideal for my kind of camping. The spot we chose had three firepits: two up above and one down on the bank of the river. It's about 1/4 mile off the paved road and the river noise is enough to drown out the occasional passerby. We parked our Jeep along the road to let others know the area was occupied. I recommend doing so because you cannot see the dispersed area until you're right on top of it. We had a few people pull in looking to see if the area was taken. It can accommodate a group or a single party. Absolutely stunning, quiet area in the rainforest with trails and fresh water.

PLEASE remove your trash when you leave. The previous occupants left a full large black trash bag. THIS IS A RAIN FOREST IN A NATIONAL PARK. Have some decency people.

T-Mobile has 5G service in this area. Verizon is 1-2 bars of 4G.

We camped near Vance Creek trailhead to do the Olympic Bridges bike ride the next morning. Since this is a national forest, dispersed camping is allowed. We picked the first spot we got to since it was getting kind of late. It wasn't the most ideal spot and I think further down the road has prettier and more remote options, but it made do. There were really huge flies but they did not bite. The only complaint was that there was more car traffic than I wanted very late at night into the early morning. One car even slowed down and yelled at our tent around 2am. We never felt unsafe but it was annoying. A lot of trash was left behind from previous camper. I would suggest finding alternative spots if you're looking for a more enjoyable night but if you are just there for an overnight, it is fine.

This is a nice small campsite right next to a river very close to Olympic national park. I arrived at night and had a little bit of trouble finding the site but it is immediately before the bridge on the right coming in and dips down into a little bit of a lower area on a dirt road that is about 20 feet long to the landing.

I was driving a Toyota sienna with a 120 inch wheelbase and going over the edge down towards the sites I scraped the bottom of my car so be careful if you have a larger vehicle. There are three-ish sites down in the area next to the creek I would say to you could put a tent at two and maybe if you had a good sleeping pad you could place one on the third. You can hear the water from the site and it is quite peaceful and a great place to stay for the night.

I have AT&T and there was no service at this location, my car has Verizon built-in and it was able to get a good enough service to browse Internet and stream videos. Going to include some pictures and videos with this review that show where the site is and some more details of what is available there.

We didn’t feel comfortable driving our class C into any of the nicer, more private spots off of this road due to large potholes, ruts, etc. Since we just needed a place for the night, we decided to just stay at one of the large pullouts, which was fine. We didn’t even need levels. 

Obviously no amenities here, but we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t much trash to be found. 

Cell service was good here. Be sure to find a spot in the National Forest, and not the National Park that’s adjacent, because you will definitely get a knock on the door if you try to stay overnight within park boundaries.

There are about 5 sites hidden on the road. Please be careful the road is a mix of private land, national forest, national park. The sites can be easily found by their stone fire rings. The site that is directly on the river was very popular. I ended up staying 2 nights at one of the last sites before it turns to private land. It was tucked away, walk in site, had a nice fire ring, nice tent pad area. It has a large rope so you can access the river. The scenery is breath taking. Down the road there are at least 2 waterfalls on the right. In the town of quinault there is a laundry mat/shower facility!