Best Glamping near Startup, WA

told macdonald is super cute park and campground! they offer the typical primitive campsites with fire pits and picnic tables, as well as yurts and shipping container conversions for those who want more of a "GLAMping" outdoor experience. the campground, park and trails are very well maintained and they even provide you with garden carts to help you get your stuff across the bridge. great spot for steelhead + salmon fishing. we've fished steelhead and pinks out of the snoqualmie river in the past. it's located right smack in the middle of carnation so on a nice sunny day you could walk out of the park to get pizza, ice cream or even mexican food. the suspension bridge is pretty cool, but hold onto your phones tight because it could slip through the holes into the river below. i would rate this place as 4-5 star park / 3-4 star camping since it's not even close to roughing it. those bucolic woods are our backyard.

If you are in Tacoma and dont have a chance to get to the East side or the coast, head to Dash Point. Just twenty minutes from Tacoma, Dash Point has a great camp ground and yurts a plenty for a quick getaway. Easy water access and lots of trails to explore make it very family friendly.

This is our second time going to Kanaskat Palmer Park and we decided to enjoy four nights in there yurts between the fall and winter transition season. I must say I was very impressed to see that the bathrooms and showers were still very clean ever since the pandemic and that it was quite a nice place to stay during the weekdays if you wanted a quietly stay in the woods with the sounds of the flowing river. We will definitely be back again next year!

What a beautiful place! The campground is in 500+ acre Tolt-McDonald Park, far enough away from any busy road so that there is no traffic noise, just the sound of the Tolt River rapids. All the RV sites are drive-through, with water and 20, 30, and 50-Amp service. (There is a privately-run RV dump on the way to the park.) The sites are wide because of the driveway. No trees between sites, but some bushes between sites offer some privacy for the back half of the sites. The 17 RV sites are around a huge lawn, with the restroom building at one end, and a path down the middle that is part of a long, level, paved bike/walking trail. There is a shower in each restroom, so the whole building is heated (which was really nice, since the lows were in the 30s in April, 2022) Access to both rivers is at the South end of the RV loop. There are tent-only sites to the North, and also yurts and more tent sites across a picturesque foot bridge over the Snoqualmie River. There are carts available to roll your stuff over the footbridge.

General: 50-site campground (including six yurts) plus a group campground. The campground is in two loops: one with electric hookups and one without. 

Site Quality: All sites are level and are a mix of back-in and pull-through. Site 24 was a pull-thru. Sites in the tent (no hookup) section are gravel while sites with electricity have paved camper pads. ADA-accessible sites (one in each loop) are completely paved. Heavily wooded sites afford good privacy between sites. 

Bath/Shower house: one building between the two loops with six all-in-one (toilet, sink, shower) units. They were clean. At first glance, it appears you need tokens for the shower but upon closer inspection, it did look like they were free. However, you were asked to conserve water and that the hot water was turned off at night due to vandalism.

Activities: Several trails that are open until dusk. Several places to put in and take out boats but you are warned that some sections of the Green River are Class III or IV and where you should take out if you are not a highly experienced boater. We also saw some people fishing.

This was our final stop on our North Cascades loop trip. The campground is located about an hour outside of Seattle yet it was very quiet (except for several trains throughout the day and night). Surprisingly we had zero cell coverage(Verizon).

Do not believe the cautions about the worst road in Washington; there road is paved and beautiful.

I love this area and would have given 5 stars but for two things. The website says water is available - the water pump worked once in three days. I only saw one set of restrooms (vault) they were... unusable.

Maybe I will try again later in the season, when the summer campers put their tents away.

This campground is hidden in the middle of a major Western Washington city, Federal Way. Once in the campground, you would have no idea that you are surrounded by a sprawling metropolitan area.

The campsites are small but private. They do allow for campfires but you should bring your own firewood. 

There is a trail that follows a creek down to the shoreline. If you are into geocaching we found a few along the trail. Depending on the season this trail can be quite muddy.

"Firstly, I just have to say what a positive and amazing experience I had at this campground. The volunteers were friendly, kind and absolutely awesome to interact with. Also, the camp was clean and beautifully laid out. I will definitely be camping here again the next time we go to Washington. I'm definitely impressed with how up to date and organized everything was around here. From the website updates to physical maintenance and upkeep - as close to perfection as we will ever get to as humans. I learned that volunteers are in high demand though so... I know what i want to do next summer!

I was a volunteer camp host for this park for a month. It’s a busy place on the weekends especially. The system in Washington is sometimes showing how overwhelmed and understaffed they are, and this park is so severely understaffed it’s sad. Many folks do not understand how to cleanup and leave no trace. As volunteers, we learned a lot about the area, the fight with the Tulalip Tribe to have the land, the desecration of indian burial grounds, the full sale of the land by a private owner to the state because of a haunting and a family curse... there’s a ton of local drama in these lands. If you’re a ghost nut, this place is for you - ask the campground staff for the history.

My family stayed here for a night when we went out to Washington a few months ago. It was a nice little place. Mostly we stayed here because of how close it was to seattle, so we were't at the campground very much. It does have a pretty good amount of sites. It's got showers and bathrooms which is always nice at a campground. It does have a lot of activities because of how close it is to the water. We saw people fishing, diving, sailing, etc. The only thing I didn't like about it was that building wood fires isn't allowed in the campground. 

The seattle area has all kinds of things to do. My family went to Pike Place Market which was awesome to see. We saw a Mariners game, the space needle, and went on some awesome hikes around the area. 

Overall the campground was a pretty nice place to stay, especially if you are trying to visit the seattle area for a couple of nights. Great place!

Dash Point State Park is your average, nice Washington State Park, with trees, grass, pathways etc. When we were there at the end of March, only about half the campground was open, and we were able to get a last-minute spot in the late afternoon on a Thursday. Sites are mid-sized, with some having more privacy than others.

Cons: While several other reviews talk of the cleanliness of the campground, we had the opposite experience, with large and small trash everywhere we walked (including a whole foam mattress thrown away). It was also pretty muddy, as well as loud (from the airplanes passing over head until the middle of the night).

Pros: Across the street, the day use area is amazing, with a lovely beach, picnic tables, hikes, etc. Generally a very nice place to spend the day.

Tips: Unless you're there with another group or family, avoid the spots that look like they're parallel on the map (9 & 10; 15 & 16 etc.) since they're basically one big site split up with two driveways right next to one another.

After flying into SeaTac late in the afternoon this campground was a great place to start our Washington trip and only about 30 minutes from the airport. Located within the Dash Point State Park, there are day use facilities in addition to the campground including an ampitheatre, beach access and lots of hiking trails. The campground itself is well appointed with spacious spots, although the sites aren't huge, they are wooded enough to provide decent privacy. Our site (#21) was right across from a trailhead that led down to the beach which made for a great sunset watching location, I would definitely recommend reserving a spot on the lower loop by the beach trail. The site has a paved parking pad, flat spots for a tent, a picnic table and a fire pit with a grill top. The bathrooms are easily accessed by wooded trails and kept quite clean. Even visiting during the middle of the high season the campground didn't feel crowded. Although unfortunately there was a bit of trash by the beach, the campground was quite clean altogether and I would definitely stay here again.

Private group campground with 7 sites. River access. Vault toilet, no water. Road noise during busy times can be a bit much. Beautiful views from camp. No cell service!