Best Campgrounds near Waterville, WA

This review, and apparently most other reviews here, are for the south campground. I didn't see a Dyrt record for the north campground, but it should potentially have one as south and north are pretty different. North is more basic and peaceful and rugged, and south is more developed and family friendly. There is direct access to the lake here, with a boat launch. There's a playground, store with snacks and basics, and accessible and gendered restrooms. 20 ft max vehicle length, per sign at campground entrance. 

No Discover Pass needed to camp here, but the Discover Pass will get you in for free day use if you aren't camping here.

We checked this place out but decided not to stay. It’s free, and nice, and easy access, and there were a few spots where we would have fit in our 26ft class c, but it somehow seemed too overgrown and claustrophobic. We decided to continue on and look for boondocking in the forest. 

There was only one set of campers when we visited here in the middle of the week. It’s a small campground, with around 10 or fewer sites, one way in and out with an area to turn around at the end. 

Sites come with picnic tables and fire pits. Zero cell reception for Verizon or ATT. Clean pit toilet at the campground entrance. 14 day stay limit. No trash service, no water.

This is a huge USFS campground in the Wenatchee National Forest, with something like 4 separate loops and separate entrances from the road. Most of the sites are reservable on recreation.gov but they have a few FCFS sites (these sites aren’t marked with an“R” on the post). 

We got lucky on a Friday with a FCFS site when all the reservable sites were marked as “reserved” for the weekend. 

$25/night, pay with cash or check at self-registration kiosk. Park is run by a concessionaire. Nicely kept, very clean, host on site, pit toilets and water spigots available. No dump or water fill, no hookups. There are trash dumpsters but no recycling. Hard to get a site with an open sky view for solar. 

Many of the sites are pull through (curve along the camp site type). Some sites are right along the creek, beautiful and peaceful, and some are right on the road. There are trails and nice walks that take you to Lake Wenatchee, which is beautiful. 

Good cell reception for ATT and Verizon.

Wenatchee River County Park Really nice basic park that feels like a campground but it’s RVs only, no tents allowed. We stopped here for 2 nights with the Passport America discount to do a reset from boondocking- showers, laundry, cleaning, etc. We stayed in a back-in, PHU site by the volleyball court. Full price for this site is $40, no additional taxes or fees. The 50% Passport America discount is weeknights only, April and October only, for up to 5 nights. Campground is only open April through October. 

The showers here were hot and clean and $0.25 for 4 min, payable with quarters. Laundry room was nice but very small with only 2 washers and 2 dryers, $2.50 each, pay via credit card or download an app. There’s a book exchange in the laundry room as well. There’s a “dog run” which is just an open strip of land along the side of the park, fenced on one side and tree-lined on the other. Dogs are allowed off leash in this area. The campground also runs along the Wenatchee River, but it’s surprising they haven’t developed this area with a nice walkway along the river and benches and things. The area around the river is kind of rugged and overgrown, hard to really get to the water. They will fill propane here as well, $5/gal (yikes!), and not on Sundays. There’s a dump station here as well, and I didn’t see a clean water fill but I’d imagine they’d let you fill at an empty site. Staff here is really friendly, the campground has an entry gate with is nice for security.


The road noise was loud and a little obnoxious. There’s also a train that goes through here but the train noise doesn’t bother me like freeway noise does. There are signs everywhere that no tobacco is allowed- they seem to be very strict about this! They also asked what breeds our dogs are, which a county park has never done before, but I told her “mixed” and that was acceptable. Good cell reception and their free wifi also worked well.