Best Campgrounds near Packwood, WA

We spent 10 days here, and would spend the rest of the summer if allowed.  The site was a huge pull-through with all hookups. A Lake or a pond is your front view, the back is cliffs, prairie, and wildlife. Spent the day with a Fishing Guide (1-509-860-7233).  I hope the pictures show how great this place is. Showers are clean and modern. Long trails that are bike-friendly.

We stayed here after we stayed at Cougar Rock, and it’s got a similar setup in terms of getting a spot in the off season. You talk to the ranger, but instead of assigning a spot to us, this one sent us out to look for a site we liked that had an “open” tag on it, and to be back in 15 min so she could go to lunch. Even though the size limit for vehicles is smaller than the Cougar Rock campground, the space felt bigger and more open with more light coming through, and the sites were bigger. It was also a lot more active and busy with people.

 Max length for motorhomes or buses is 32ft, and trailers/5th wheels is 27ft. It’s $20/night. No hookups or dump station, but there is a water fill station for your RV tank. Beautiful hike to Silver Falls, highly recommend, the water is this crazy cloudy blue, only about 1.5 miles from the campground. There are also hot springs at the campground, but not ones you can soak in. But they’re still neat to see. Sites come with a bear box, picnic table, and fire pit. There are trash dumpsters here and plastic, glass, and aluminum recycling. There are flush toilets and water fill stations. Zero cell reception in the campground, though there were patches of signal on the drive from Cougar Rock.

Nice campground on the SW corner of Mt Rainier NP. We were here in the off season, meaning that reservations are not taken and everything is FCFS. You stop at the ranger office at the campground entrance and you’re given a campsite. $20/night. Zero cell service in this whole area (but there was good cell reception and wifi at Paradise, and free wifi at the museum 2 miles down at Longmire). 

There are water spigots at this campground, flush toilets, no showers, trash dumpsters, and glass, plastic, and aluminum recycling. Each site has a picnic table, bear box, and fire pit. The dump station has been non operational for several years and the ranger said she doesn’t think it’ll ever be fixed. 

The length limit here is 35 ft for a motorhome, and us at 28 ft head to toe felt very big here. The Wonderland Trail hike can be accessed from this campground, just across the road. Lots of trees in this campground, and we struggled to keep our batteries charged via solar, though there looked to be enough open sky for starlink (we don’t have starlink so I can’t say). All the loops here in this campground are pretty similar in layout and landscape.

This campground is on Mayfield Lake where the Cowlitz River flows into the lake. We were in loop D, which was the only open loop along with the cabins (cabins are loop C and attached to loop D). This is a partial hook-up loop. Full hook-ups are in loop A. The campground is heavily wooded which is really nice for shade, though it can make it tricky to get into a spot if you have slide outs. As we were on the outer part of the loop in a pull-through site, we had a view of the woods and quite a bit of space between neighboring sites. We could not see either of the neighboring sites while sitting by our campfire. There was a trail to the trash compactor next to our site, but it did not seem to be heavily used. The trash compactor is probably a good 1/4 mile down this trail by the dump station. It was very quiet at night, which was fantastic! Very good Verizon cell service. The day use area is out of the campground and across the main road. There is a playground and beach area. It would have been nice if there was a playground on the campground side of the park.

Complete view of the majestic mountain. Lots of room and even some flat spots. Idea for any rig, tent camper, hammock camper it vehicle. Road is rough in some spots but any vehicle can drive it.

The area around mount Saint Helens is beautiful, tons of space to park any rig, tent, or vehicle. The forest has majestic trees and when it rains, it resembles a rainforest. During August and September, you can find tons of edible mushrooms.

The camping is good but the owners are rude drunks I would not stay here the owners are always on site there mean to campers kids not good atmosphere

This is a newer campground with spacious and private sites away from the river.  Sites at riverside are narrow, long, flat, but not so private.  While the outhouses in general are pristine, by late summer those in the lower loop are usually over full, you would be better of with a bucket.  That said, we need an ADA site and the ADA and a few of the other accessible sites here are very good.  This is always on our short notice list of great places to relax.

Stayed here a few days a couple years ago and it was a great place. The campsites are nice and spacious with good privacy from other campers. The lake level was pretty low when we were there so you had to walk out a bit of distance to get to the water. But it's a nice sandy shore so great for the kids swimming and the water is so shallow for a long way out so you don't have to worry about the kids. It's a beautiful lake and nice area.

We stayed here a few days in July and loved it! The river is so beautiful with the waterfall cascading down into the river directly across from the campsite. There is a shallow part near the shoreline where the kids had a great time playing in the river. The river itself is wide and very fast moving. The campsite we stayed in was fairly close to the next one, but we were camping with friends in the next one so it was fine. But be aware, some campsites are very close together. There is some road noise, but mostly you just hear the river.

This is a lovely lake campground in the forest with gorgeous views of Mt. Adams. The campsites are private and separated. There was a few mosquitoes when we went, but not too bad. It's a quiet a peaceful location and is highly recommended. A jeep trail / atv trail goes steeply up council bluff to a beautiful view overlooking the lake and surrounding forest. Overall, a great location! We originally intended to camp at Lake Takh lakh but when it's already full, this place is an excellent backup plan.

We camped here for 4 days this summer. It was peaceful and quiet. The view from the camp site is simply stunning. The glassy smooth waters reflect Mt Adam's glacier like a mirror. The campsite we picked was large enough to accommodate our 22 ft trailer plus truck and a Jeep. The outhouse was cleaned daily but can get stinky at the end of the day. There is no official swimming area, but the shoreline has many great places to take a dip in the clear cold water. There was a few mosquitoes but not too bad. Best to go in late summer to avoid the mosquitoes. The road in from Randle is a bit rough at times for a car but doable.

Close to lots of hikes and views. A little bit of road noise but not much. Very busy but that’s to be expected at mt rainier. Clean bathrooms and easy check in.

This is my favorite dispersed site so far. Plenty of room for larger rigs, very close to a river and lots of woods to explore nearby.  Close enough to Mt. Rainier NP and nearby towns for supplies.   Vault toilets if needed, and the airstrip was only used twice in the 4 nights we stayed, i think (heard one mid-day, and saw another late morning).  

There is a single-lane bridge when turning in that could be tricky for a motorhome that is towing, but not enough traffic to cause us any issues getting in. For larger rigs - take the second left (at a Y-intersection, and then keep to the left and you won't have any trouble getting in. Going to the right at the Y takes you to an area that big rigs might have trouble finding spots or turning around, but still doable.