Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Winthrop, WA

This is a small, free campground (with pit toilet), picnic tables and fire pits. It's a long drive on bumpy backroads to get here from Winthrop. Four wheel drive isn't necessary, but if you can air down your tires, you'll enjoy the drive much more.

The campground is a the trailhead for Tiffany Lake. I think it's about a mile hike to the lake, without much elevation change. The lake is very pretty and had a nice bench to sit on and eat my lunch.

No bugs in May, but also pretty chilly at night because of the high altitude.

Definitely no cell signal out here!

We came to this little gem of a campground from 6/22-25/2107. Based off our research, Black Pine CG had more use than we expected but we found a nice site (#23) away from the cluster of activity with a beautiful view of the mountains and lake. Even though the CG was almost full on the weekend, it was quiet (no loud or hooligan activity). There are two sections to the CG, upper and lower. We would have liked site #3 in the upper section if it had been available. There was quite a bit of day use activity at the lake with cars going in and of the campground beginning around 12:00 noon (weekdays and weekends).

The CG hosts were lovey. Lynn and Sherry keep the place spotless. Cleanest bathrooms ever! The camp supplied drinking water and there is plenty of firewood to be found. The pets on leash rule is strictly enforced.

Of course there were mosquitos but were only really bothersome at the usual morning and dusk time. It was not windy and overall was a beautiful and quiet CG.

We ventured down to the lake on day 2 and walked the short interpretive trail that goes about 1/2 way around the lake. Nice little trail and handicapped accessible. We only saw a couple of other folks on our walk.

There is active use for fishing from docks, kayaks, canoes, and rowboats. No motors allowed except for trolling motors but we never saw one. Discouraging site was the large brown trout in the garbage. Want and waste. Unfortunate.

In summary, Black Pine is a beautiful, peaceful, gem to enjoy and relax with easy access to trail heads in the area. We probably won't return because it was busier than we prefer. We're typically dispersed site campers but wanted to try out Black Pine Lake CG with our pop-up camper on this trip. It was an enjoyable location as we explore our new home state of Washington (transplants from Oregon).

Washington Rolling down the road on the Cascade Loop I took in all the scenery and enjoyed every moment. But something I noticed along the way was that cell signal was minimal and with that it made it a bit harder to find locations to stop for the night. Typically I enjoy a more remote site or a good forest camp, however along the loop, though there are many forest service roads, most certainly with camping available, being so remote without cell signal and roads looking more questionable in some areas, I feared going to far off the beaten path into the unknown in my small car. 

This brought me to the Riverbend RV Park, a Good Sam park along the loop which actually allocates some of their spaces to tent campers. Privately owned the features were a bit more expansive than many of the sites I had visited along the way including running water and full hook ups for those in RVs. Additionally they had a propane refill station which was quite nice for a small charge without having to wander into town to find supplies. 

The layout of the location was nice as it formed a large loop easy to access even by the largest of rigs. The office welcomed you as your drove in and made it easy to stop, pay for your site and find out all the information you needed to know not only about the campsite but also the surrounding area. A few brochures inside noted area attractions and information about the loop itself. This office also housed a small general store which had a few items you might need while at camp and some general items which could be nice in way of snack and food. Nothing large, but certainly helpful for those who were weary from the road and all the traveling excitement. 

This park welcomes families but also their pets, with a large pet area for them to run free and enjoy stretching their legs. Otherwise throughout camp they do ask you keep your pets on a leash, which seemed more than fair considering the large space they were given to enjoy free of burden. 

The kiddos were also welcome with their own play area that was well maintained and away from the other campers just enough to not disrupt the silence of the camp. This area had its own water fountain to assure hours of safe and hydrated play. 

The sites themselves were typical of an RV park, a standard picnic table and enough room to move around a little but still somewhat closer to your neighbors than you would be at many forest campsites. I found that the camping area I checked out for myself had a little more distance between the sites which was nice but there was no tree coverage so it is a bit of a trade off for space or shade. 

On premise is an activity room and also a restroom area. Restrooms offer showers and warmth on the cold days and night and the activity room is a large room with plenty of space to enjoy a game night or some time watching television in a more social setting. There is also a laundry facility at this building which was super helpful for catching up along the loop after several weeks of travel. 

All in all though this was privately run and thus a bit more expensive, around $30 a night, the benefits of the stay at this location were vast. Though it wasn’t my style of camping for every night a stop here was a nice way to check out some of the many amenities which contrast some of the other camps along the way. Definitely worth a stop if you are in an RV or if you want to have a place with a lot of benefits.

TIPS: 

• If you are a larger unit this is a great place to stay for amenities and size of spaces you will easily be able to pull in and get comfortable with your slides at this location.

• Location of this campsite is key as it is close to town but also along the loop within driving distance of the North Cascades Park and also some of the Washington State Parks.   If you can detach and use this as a home base it will work well with your travels.

The Winthrop KOA is similar and on par with most other KOA campgrounds, as far amenities go. The campground is right on the Methow River which is great, however, early in the camping season the current is so swift, you would not be able to swim in it. The campground itself has a western vibe, with old wagons that you can actually rent to sleep in, log cabins, and western-style artifacts throughout. The campground is right off of the highway, so there is a little car noise during the day. At night, we didn't really notice it. With the location of the campground in Methow Valley, it can get really windy. One of the nights we were there, we had to douse our campfire because embers were flying everywhere. We had site 18 which was at the end of one of the rows and it was very spacious with a big grass area and a few trees.

We liked the location because it was close to Winthrop and many of the outdoor activities available in the area such as hiking trails, off-road tracks, fishing, kayaking, etc. The area is beautiful and has much to offer in the scenery department, even for folks that are car-bound.