Best Tent Camping near Preston, WA

The Red Bridge campground is on the very scenic Mountain loop Rd in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. It's a very beautiful drive. Nestled in some great trees, there are 13 sites with shade, right along the river. The camp host was very nice and sold firewood on site. There are no hook ups, and no water spigots so be sure to plan accordingly. There are bear proof trash cans and vault toilets available. Each site has a tent pad, picnic table and fire ring. This campground provides ample hiking, fishing and I saw people kayaking plus its not far to a hike to some glacier caves! Also check out the old red trestle bridge just outside of the campground. At $15 a night you have to see this place. 
I highly recommend Red Bridge campground.

Cooper Lake is absolutely stunning and admittedly the campsites are situated pretty well for views and privacy but there are definitely Pros and Cons to this campground.

Pros:

Right on the lake and if not you get a very private site walking distance to water
Great hiking trail

Lake access 24/7

Lot's of big shade trees

No internal combustion motors 

Vault toilets in good shape

Dumpsters

Cons: 

Extremely busy (and LOUD) day use area

Steep hill and trails to all the sites - pack light and even then it is A LOT of work getting into your site

$18 for a walk in site...? eh a little steep for me

Did I mention the loud day use area with lots of screaming kids?

No bear boxes by the lake so you also have to trek your cooler/dry goods up the hill every night to not attract wildlife.

All in All this was a solid 3.5 stars.  There were pros to out weight the cons but in the end if I am going to walk that far to haul my stuff into a site I want it to be pretty remote/serene OR be a little cheaper.

This campground is right next to a state park. It’s also very close to a river and lots of woods. We stayed here to see Olympic national park, (I wouldn’t recommend this location to travel to Olympic every day, it was very far.)

The amenities were nice, bathrooms with warm water (one shower per bathroom.)

No laundry, no Wi-Fi and both Verizon and AT&T worked with about one bar.

The sites were level spacious and had a fire ring and picnic table at each. We chose the full hookup option. Firewood could be purchased through the camp host.

The best part about this day was the surrounding area. Every night, my husband and I would walk to the wildlife viewing platform to see lots of birds, or walk down by the river and see lots of elk and bald eagles.

Every dispersed campground we checked along this road (maybe five or so) was littered with human feces and toilet paper everywhere. We found a literal bucket of human waste beside the river with a soiled pool noodle nearby I can only assume was being used as a toilet seat. Please, if you care about keeping nature wild, carry out your toilet paper and dig a cathole or use the outhouse in the campground. If you don’t know what a cathole is, you should probably should not being using dispersed camping and try the campground down the road. We ended up staying at the campground because we couldn’t find dispersed camping where there wasn’t poop and had a positive experience there. Leave no trace!! 

https://www.nps.gov/articles/leave-no-trace-seven-principles.htm

Nothing special about it. It was SUPER clean! The camp was fully booked but the bathrooms and dumpsters didn't smell and were always clean and stocked! No showers, nonflushing toilets and no sinks. Did have water faucets for getting water for washing dishes. Nice big spots, saw several RVs of all classes, couple Eurovans and our Westfalia fit wonderfully! Lots of tent campers too! Had designated flat spots for your tent too. Located right on the Mountain Loop Highway which makes for an easy drive up to see some good scenery but can also be loud with a lot of cars.

I'd choose Verlot Campground next time because it is only a 1/4 mile or so up the road but it has a beach access point.

First of all, this is western Washington: it rains! We had two days and two nights of rain. Snow was still on the ground, and it was cold. Fortunately we were in an RV. There are only one or two sites on this logging road that are available for RVs our size (ours is a Class A 35') about a mile up the compacted gravel road from the lake. Road is packed well, washboard in some sections. Great for vans. Secondly, the site was trashed. We picked up a full garbage bag of trash. On the upside, it was very peaceful, and there are very cute little critters--chipmonks, humming birds, and butterflies. Beautiful wildflowers and a beautiful creek running behind the campsite. There are three fire rings, and plenty of places for tents. No water. No electricity.  We enjoyed our stay and we sat outside for a couple of hours in the sunshine on our last day.