Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Yakima, WA

Nice spacious sites. Lots of privacy between sites. No dog park. Great view of the lake from your door. We took a 4 mile, one-way, bike ride to the town of Vantage and then to the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. The town of vantage is very small with a lot of closed shops. Has a gas station and convenience store. That’s about it. Very scenic area and quiet and relaxing.

Eastern Washington near the water is my favorite type of landscape.  It's a hot, windy, and a true desert climate.  When you get near a body of water like you do along the Yakima River, the diversity of life expands and makes for great wildlife watching.

Umtanum Recreation Site is part of several BLM campgrounds lumped together along the Yakima River known as the Yakima River Canyon Campgrounds.  All can be reserved ahead of time via the reservation.gov website:  https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/250985.  Standard for most BLM camping in Washington, sites are very basic.  Gravel parking, pit toilets, and a picnic table.  This place does have a dumpster for trash, not all do.  There are no hook ups, no drinking water, and in our case, very little shade.  Neighbors are close and there is not a lot of privacy.  The day use area is right there too, close to camping and can be loud.  It is heavily patrolled by the wonderful BLM folks to keep everything clean and the people orderly.  They also give out tickets if you don't mind the warnings for correct passes or day use fees.

The campground itself is one little loop with six sites.  The loop is an offshoot of a very large gravel parking area for day use.  Mostly boat launching and hiking access to Umtanum Creek and Umtaum Ridge trails.   You can check the Information Board for rules on day use and camping fees, passes, and how to check to see if a site is reserved. 

We arrived on July 3rd in the afternoon.  The campground was very quiet and all the sites were reserved.  The morning of July 4th, the recreation site turned into a total madhouse.  BLM Rangers, Law Enforcement, making constant rounds to patrol the never ending hoards of people coming to park and float the river. There was a lot of noise, dust, drunk and rowdy folks.  Friday was calm again until afternoon, Saturday was not as bad as the 4th but still pretty crazy.  It was also hot!  No shade to be had in our site.  After hiking in the morning, we spent a lot of time across the bridge, in it's shadow, in the river.  

If you are using this spot as a base to do some hiking, fishing, or floating it's very convenient.  I am sure in Spring and Fall when river floating is not at it's peak, it's gorgeous and peaceful.  The raptors and songbirds are splendid.  We saw Bighorn sheep on the hill, big rock squirrels, wild turkeys with babies, and fish.  No rattlesnakes or ticks, but this is prime territory.  Hiking down the Umtanum Creek trail, over the suspension bridge, is one of my favorite hikes ever.

Loved this campgrounds! Lots of trails to hike, pet friendly, and the river is a sight to see. Beautiful. Go during Memorial or Labor Day weekend and you can also check out the NW largest flea market in Packwood WA about 15 mins away.

This place is pretty cool. It’s close to Yakima and great for a place to visit while you’re in “The Palm Springs of Washington”.

My son and I are from the area and have been Boondocking all around Washington State for over a year now in our old RV's. My son purchased a panel truck to convert, and my shower is on the fritz, so we decided to give Yakima Sportsman Campground a try. We needed the advertised shower facilities as my son had court in Yakima the following day. Not ONE of the FOUR showers worked!! The camp host was a pleasant enough man, but had no idea (apparently) about the shower issues, and the Ranger wasn't due back until Wednesday. This was on Monday...the week before LABOR DAY! The campground loses at LEAST one star for being located in YAKIMA... I've been living in Parker since 2011, but my mother is from Parker, and the house I lived in has belonged to my family since she was a child (she passed last year at 78 years old), so I believe I've earned the right to say Yakima is the LAST place on the planet that I would bring my family for vacation. It's safer in COMPTON, California. I was raised in the East Bay, near Oakland, and used to travel frequently to the LA area for work, so I have a reference point for comparison. In fact, I'm Boondocking in preparation for a move back to California next month. Besides the dangerous location and the non-working showers, this would have been a 4 star visit, the sites had power and water, we're level and adequately spaced apart, and mine was the only "sketchy" looking vehicle around.... Which is appropriate, since I'm a little "sketchy" myself... Lol! (Blame it on the RAP... WEST SIIIIIIDE!!)

One of our favorites. Right on the Yakima river, fishing. Boating, floating the river. Watching Elk, Bighorn Sheep, Eagles and Pelicans.

My husband and I don't really ever make our way around the Yakima area, only because the hiking there is more "desert" feel and in the summer the rattlesnakes are out and about. The weather in the Yakima area in the summer is amazing, though (hot!!). We decided to make a day trip to do some hiking in the Umtanum area, which is within the Yakima River Canyon. The path was really good, clear, and easy to find. There were a few waterfalls, and creeks to cross to just know that your shoes/feet might get a little wet. The weather was perfect when we came in July. Make sure if you go in the summertime to bring plenty of water, because it is very hot. We luckily didn't see any rattlesnakes! There really isn't a "view" ending point, but the hike itself is beautiful. After we were done hiking we stopped and had a delicious dinner at Bron Yur (Spelling?), it is a pizza place that makes the most amazing pizza!! Highly recommend going there if you are ever in that area. We drove home by going Highway 12 and saw the most amazing views of Mt. Rainier.

I visited with friends from Victoria BC. It's our tradition to rent an RV and drive down to Washington at least once every few years. This Spring we did just this, getting to the Yakima Sportsman State Park with little hiccups. The site was average, but not clean and our neighbors looked like the greasy type. We still had a blast because instead if renting an RV we bought a used cheap one and got it cleaned from Auto Detailing Victoria before hitting the road. Most of our camping was done on the road, so this campsite was actually a relief to us even if it wasn't great. Better than camping in a parking lot!

Large Campground right on the river. very little shade. Vault toilets. Great place to stay for floating the river or fishing.located in the beautiful Ellensburg canyon on the Yakima river

Seems like there 5 or so spots, with a large picnic area on a calm bend in the river. Great location and 20 min to Yakima or 15 to reds fly shop.

Pleasantly surprised.  Lots of sites, reasonably priced, paved roads, near the Yakima River.  The train on the other side of the river will wake you once or twice during the night.  A great stop from Bend to North Cascades.

Overall a nice experience. $7.50/night with Access Pass. Dry camping only but close to Yakima. A fly fishing paradise.

There are train tracks close by which can be a bit noisy. However, trains don’t blow horn when passing by.

Great place to camp during Rodeo. Need to book a year in advance. Super nice sites on the Yakima river. My parents rented a cabin and we're wowwed! Nice folks and awesome scenery. Power and water to tent site. Good cell service and wifi. Hope to stay again soon

I could let go the dust, wind, noise, crowds of jerks not taking covid precautions (in Yakima County which has one of the highest infection rates in Washington, but one of the lowest pop. density in the state), such as gatherings of 30-50 people with none wearing masks, but I can't get over the poo and toilet paper littering the ground. You can see it just driving down the road. Forestry even posted a sign about the poo poo and TP. No wonder so many people are sick. Can't even go for a walk without dodging mine fields of poo and discarded TP. I drove 4.5 hours to get there. Terribly disappointing, disgusted, and left feeling dirty and possibly exposed to covid. BTW, got tested and was negative.

There was also no internet, calls or texting on Sprint.

Location 46°39'57.3"N 121°06'11.0"W (copy paste)

We stayed here 10 days or so. It is a nice split between towns, Ellensburg and Yakima. The hiking is a pleasure in the area, with lots of wildlife. Many deer in the area, even walking through the campsite at times. The park does get pretty busy for day use, like hiking and fishing but nothing too crazy. The suspension bridge is awesome!

setup camp at the koa which was right on to the yakima river. fired up our little msr whisperlite gasoline stove and had beef stroganoff then hit the showers. we always ride with full (safety) gear on, even when it's 100° out so nothing beats a nice clean shower facility! sites were nice and tidy. very little buffer in between sites, but if you come on a weekday like we did you'll have the entire campground all to yourselves.

This is one of my favorite campgrounds!! As a Tacoma resident we have a lot of clouds. I head over to Yakima for my sun. This campground never disappoints!

There are lots of spaces for tents and RVs. Clean and well maintained bathrooms. There is plenty of space for kids to play and visibility is high for bike riding. There is a huge group campsite that has bathrooms near it.

The surrounding grounds is a park with playground equipment and a huge field. There are tons of hikes and a small pond to explore...with turtles!