Neve Camp in Ross Lake National Recreation Area is surrounded by forested terrain and mountainous landscapes. Temperatures range from lows in the 30s Fahrenheit during winter to highs in the 70s during summer. Nearby attractions include Ross Lake and the North Cascades National Park, offering opportunities for hiking and water activities.

Backcountry Camping: A backcountry permit is required for all overnight stays. Permits are limited. There are numerous campsites along this trail, at most five miles apart. Some of the camps, such as Two Mile or Thunder Basin are small and do not hold larger groups. Designated stock camps are located at McAllister, Junction, and Thunder Basin, as well as at Five Mile along the Park Creek Trail. The main trail winds through some exceptionally large old cedar and fir trees, with periodic views of the creek. Woodland flowers abound in season. This is the home of many birds, including owls, woodpeckers, and osprey near the creek. Look for deer and other animal tracks in the sandy soil and mud. At around 1.5 miles (2.4 km) the trail crosses Thunder Creek on a large wooden bridge. Thunder Camp lies just on the other side, and is a wonderful destination for families or for a first backpack. Many day hikers also enjoy bird watching from the bridge or exploring the nearby gravel bars. A quarter mile past the bridge and camp, the Fourth of July Trail junction is on the left. Following this trail up 3.2 miles (5.1 km) of switchbacks to Fourth of July Pass provides beautiful mountain views, particularly from the backcountry camp. Neve Camp is a quarter mile beyond this junction, and is another lovely forested camp set well off the trail alongside the thunderous waters of the creek--which looks and sounds more like a small river at this point.

Neve Camp — Ross Lake National Recreation Area

Camping in the North Cascades is an unforgettable experience. Near Seattle, WA, the national park is a nature lover’s paradise. It’s also home to some of the best camping in Washington state. Take an early hike from the campground for bird watching — there are more than 200 species in the park. Grey wolves, deer, and squirrels also call the park home, along with elusive wolverines. Hike into the campground and pitch a tent, or stay comfortably in a cabin or yurt. RV drivers can pull up to their campsites. They are only a stroll away from mountain waterfalls, alpine meadows, and stunning glaciers.

North Cascades National Park

The Best Camping Near North Cascades National Park, Washington

Neve can be reached in a short 2.5 mile hike from Colonial.  We hit it coming from Panther Creek at about the 15 mile mark.  There are several sites that are all secluded from each other. There is a toilet and easy access to water.  This is a great site and if you can get the site over the creek its pretty awesome.  There are also fire rings.  Ive camped here twice at two different sites and enjoyed both trips.

Backcountry feel, front country distance

Neve Camp is another far off adventure that is totally worth taking; located in the North Cascades not too deep off the thickly forested Thunder Creek Trail.

When planning our trip, we read reviews on other sites where folks thought the trail was boring, but we disagree. It is thickly forested but we were still able to glimpse the icy blue creek through the trees here and there and there was so much more to see! We found snails, mushrooms, wild flowers, all kinds of edible wild berries, trees large enough to stand inside, a rock cave in the hillside, and, of course, the sweet wooden foot bridge leading across Thunder Creek right into the first camp of the trail, Thunder Creek Camp . We bypassed this camp for two main reasons; 1) it’s located uncomfortably close to the trail, and 2) it’s only 1.5 miles into the trail (though not a bad spot if you got a late start and wanted to skip spending the night at Colonial Creek campground at the trail-head) and we wanted to see what lay ahead. We trekked another easy 1 mile before finding signs to Neve Camp. We wandered the nicely spread out campsites until settling on the dope site with the awesome river views from the fire pit/cook area. The tent sites for this camp are located on a small side trail up the hill a bit. They even have a nice pit toilet which isn’t enclosed so you can enjoy the surrounding forest while there. We had originally planned to head out the next morning, heading further up the trail but at breakfast our group of four decided we weren’t going anywhere as we were all in love with Neve Camp! We had an amazing view and sounds of the river to help lull us to sleep at night. During the day we watched all kinds of birds use the river as a freeway to head up or downstream. We saw many osprey, herons, a few formations of Canadian geese, a family of woodpeckers and more small birds we didn’t have names for. Did I mention the berries? The boys wandered the forest collecting all kinds of berries; blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, salal berry, salmon berry, and strawberry. We assume all those berries is why we found fresh bear scat on the trail, and spotted a black bear across the creek from us on our last morning in camp.

This location could be used as a mini base camp to hike up or down the trail a bit more. Neve Camp is also located very near the trail fork leading to Fourth of July Pass.

Really the only remotely negative thing I can say about this spot was that the tent sites were a bit small. We rock a Marmot Limelight 2P and we hardly had enough room to set up our tent! Once we jammed it in the tent site, however, we were good to go and the tent site size no longer mattered.

Photos of Neve Camp — Ross Lake National Recreation Area

Real photos from real campers