Best Tent Camping near Washtucna, WA

Tent camping

I had the same experience as another reviewer.  An algae bloom cancelled a nearby reservation, but I came late here and got a great welcome from the owner.  I drove 7 miles on a dirt road and still found myself next to a busy highway and loud-tootin' train area, which gave him a good laugh.  He was interesting and open-minded politically, so it was a value-added conversation.  The 2 assistants I met were just as accommodating.  I'm used to traffic and train noise anyway - ear buds at night took care of any problems.  They do fun events like firework shows, DJs/karaoke, fishing tourneys and car/jet ski shows.  The tent sites are open area that allows fires, but I also noticed they were working on creating more private tent sites at both ends of the large property.  The lake was beautiful and not too big or small.  Mosquitos were not worse than expected as the wind helped a bit.  Everything worked, including the full-service bathrooms (4 quarters = 5 shower minutes) and mainly empty office/store that the owner was planing on stocking more as time went by. Thriving bird populations add to the good vibes.

We visited this KOA for several years on 4th of July to visit a concert in Walla Walla. In the early days this KOA was nothing more than dirt tent sites. Since then, it has developed into a nice campground with mature trees for shade and grass at each site. The river is easy access for launching motor boats and it is across the bridge from Palouse Falls and Lyons Ferry park for kayaking, swimming and a good picnic spot.

....The Campground and RV Park, located on Sprague Lake, just 36 miles west of Spokane, WA along I-90 and only 2 miles out of the town of Sprague, on a quiet paved road. (See our map) We are normally open from the 1st of April to the end of November.

....At Sprague Lake Resort, you can enjoy some of the best shore Fishing on the lake. The Resort is surrounded by springs that make this THE dock fishing spot for big (and tasty) Trout, Steelhead and even Bass. Sprague Lake is also known for it's big Channel Cats!

....If fishing isn't your thing, you can Camp or just picnic and relax under the big old Cottonwoods that shade our park. Bird watchers can enjoy sightings of White Pelicans, Meadowlarks, Cormorants, Loons, Wood Ducks and many other species.

....In our park under the trees, we have plenty of tent camping space and 31 full service hookups for your recreational vehicles. The endless shoreline offers a wonderful view from every RV or Camping site.

General: 41 RV sites with water and electric plus 11 tent sites in a grassy common area.

Site Quality: Reasonable separation between the sites. The back-in sites are wide enough to comfortably fit a TT, 5th wheel or RV and your toad or other vehicle side-by-side. The pull-through sites are very large. All sites have gravel camper pads and most appeared very level or had a level area. Our site, along with several others, had a nice view of Lake Sacajawea. 

Bath/Shower house: Clean even if a little dated. Didn’t use the shower so cannot comment on that except that the hooks are located outside of the shower stalls so even though there is a swinging door to the shower area, privacy is compromised a bit by this design. 

Activities: Unless you have a boat (there is a boat launch and dock), not too much to do here except relax. There is a small swimming area but no beach to speak of (grassy and pebbly area). There is a playground and horseshoe pits but no hiking trails that I could see. 

To get to this campground, you drive past many miles of apple orchards and then suddenly, you see the lake and campground. There are quite a few trees for shade. Surprisingly good cell (Verizon) given the remoteness of the campground. Be aware there are train tracks nearby and you will hear an occasional loud train. It was very quiet on the Wednesday before Labor Day, but we were told it would be completely full on the weekend.

Good experience camping here. Really loved watching the sunset over the water while taking a stroll by the shore. Metal fire pit made perfect for dinner, and the ground was mostly even for our tent.

Not a large campground, spaces are fairly close, enough to hear neighbors conversations….but generally everyone was quiet and considerate. The spot we lucked up on didn’t have much tent room, so it’s perfect for our camper van, but understandable why it was the only one left. Bathrooms are fairly clean with 1 pay shower with privacy door.

I have been going here for 20 years it's very nice clean and friendly people that run it. Great for tents or RVs. Full facilities with showers. You can watch the river traffic has a small marina by it that you can get gas at for your boat if you have those. Very busy Campground hard to get into at times.

This little campground/RV resort is just off a freeway & lots of trains travel close by....BUT, if u live nearby & are up for a last minute camp trip, this place satisfies! I don't fish, but I'm told they catch em off the docks. The host keeps things real clean/nice looking, and I'll bet u can almost always find a spot for a tent, and without a reservation!

We were there in mid March, the only ones there at the time. There are seven campsites total, three can be accessed with an RV, we did ok with a 27' travel trailer, but I wouldn't recommend going there with anything larger. the rest of the sites would be tent only. There is a clean outhouse, no water or garbage service.  We will stay there again.

Love this campground and will come back. My husband and I usually pull our ‘68 Aristocrat Lo-Liner but on this trip we were “roughing it” with a tent and a small SUV. I was happy that not only did we get a spot on the river, but there were free, clean hot showers centrally located. The back in spots were not too close together. Some spots offer shade, others are full on sun. And the catfish were biting!

Our tire shredded on our CRV and my husband was nervous to carry our heavy load on a dummy tire so we stopped here which was the closest town. We were the only tent as this is an RV park but had an okay grass patch. One tiny tree. You can tell that there are several long-term residents due to the skirting around so many of the rv's. We were able to get a used tire from the nearby tire shop in the morning and be on our way. Thankful for this place in a time of need. 🙂

Washington State Fish & Wildlife has established 8 campgrounds along Tucannon Rd, free with Discover Pass, 21 day stay limit. This review and photos are for campsite #8.

There is a pit toilet, and individual sites with a picnic table and fire pit, but nothing else. The sites are sort of close together, no division between them, and would be awkward if they were completely full. The campgrounds get progressively less crowded the further up the road you go, so by campground #8 it was completely empty where campgrounds 1 through 4 were pretty packed. 

Zero cell reception here in this entire area. This is a popular area for hunters, so during hunting season heads up for that.

This campground was a really fun trip! We had sites 13 and 14 for 9 total people. If I were to do it again, I’d reserve one additional for that size of group. The campsites were on the smaller size. Site 13 had significantly more shade than site 14. It was very hot when we were there, so we pulled the table from site 14 into 13 and made that our hangout area and put all our tents into site 14. We had cell service here too, although we all kept it in airplane mode.

Best feature: River is so close to hop in. There is no super easy walk in route to the river that we found. You may need to scramble over some stuff, so bring your floaties/chairs, but leave your rolling cooler or wagon at your site. The river is not very deep but that helps keep the temperature at an ideal. I highly recommend making sure you are wearing secure water shoes to help you get in and out. Some rocks were highly slippery.

Con: The bugs. Seriously. We were all eaten alive. We wore bug spray the whole time but it couldn’t keep them at bay. We had mosquitoes for sure but there were other bugs stinging us that left stingers in that we had to pick out... maybe yellow jackets? If you have severe bug allergies, I would not camp here. Bring your bug spray and your cortisol cream for sure.