Boundary Dam Campground, near Metaline Falls, Washington, is a fantastic spot for those looking to enjoy the great outdoors without breaking the bank. This campground is free to use and offers a well-maintained area with picnic tables and fire rings, perfect for gathering around the campfire after a day of adventure.

Visitors rave about the beautiful swimming spots and the easy access to Peewee Falls, just a short kayak ride away. The campground features clean facilities, including flush toilets and potable water, making it a comfortable place to stay. One camper noted, “Absolutely beautiful! Access to so many different attractions...all free!!!”

While the campground is more geared towards RVs, there are a few tent sites available, albeit close together. Some campers appreciated the peaceful atmosphere during the week, noting that weekends can get busy with RV traffic. If you’re into boating or kayaking, the boat launch is a great perk, and the surrounding scenery is stunning.

For those looking to explore, the nearby Gardner Caves offer guided tours, and the area is rich in history, including connections to the film "The Postman." Whether you're here for a quick getaway or a longer stay, Boundary Dam Campground provides a solid base for outdoor fun and relaxation.

The waters of Boundary Reservoir back up behind Boundary Dam on the Pend Oreille River in the very northeast corner of Washington State. The area offers 3 water-access-only small recreation sites on BLM lands, all along the reservoir’s west bank, which provide primitive amenities. The BLM sites are Everett Slough, Ledbetter Cove, and Grandview.

Access is by boat only, typically via the boat launch at Seattle City Light’s Forebay Recreation Area, located at Boundary Dam.

US Forest Service lands on the other side of the reservoir offer additional primitive developed and dispersed recreation opportunities.

Due to predominating dense forest and steep canyon slopes, Everett Slough is the only one of these sites that offers a hiking opportunity. There, hikers can travel through forest along the old +1-mile-long no-public-vehicle-access dirt road grade, that ends at the recreation site. Otherwise, activities at Boundary Reservoir include motorized and non-motorized boating, fishing, picnicking, camping, and nature viewing. The 3 recreation sites each provide basic sanitary facilities with privacy fence. Additionally:

Everett Slough has 3 primitive campsites, each with tent site, picnic table, fire ring, and bear-proof storage container.

Ledbetter Cove has 4 tent sites, 2 picnic tables, 2 fire rings, and 2 bear-proof containers.

Grandview has 2 primitive campsites, each with tent site, picnic table, fire ring, and bear-proof container.

Seattle City Light manages recreational use on BLM public lands along Boundary Reservoir, at developed sites and on dispersed lands. Seattle City Light manages this recreational use under the terms and responsibilities established in their Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for Boundary Dam. Please contact Seattle City Light directly regarding public recreational use on these BLM lands, by email at scl_recreation@seattle.gov, or call Boundary Dam at 509-446-3083 (option #9).

Boundary Dam Campground

Join the fun near Metaline Falls. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. Enjoy the scenic camping, fun activities, and sights and sounds of Metaline Falls. Ready to plan your adventure? Check out our campgrounds near Metaline Falls and user-submitted reviews.

Metaline Falls

The Best Camping Near Metaline Falls, Washington

We had the greatest time here! This campground is right next to the dam on the river! It was quiet, clean, and FREE! Can’t beat that! We also like to kayak, and Peewee falls is only a 5 minute paddle from the campground, if that! Highly recommended!

Free camping on the water

Free camping, first come first serve. RECENTLY RE-DONE! Beautiful kayak/boat ride to pee wee falls right around the corner.

FREE & CLEAN

  

**Campground Review:**

https://www.seattle.gov/light/Boundary/recreation.asp

Usually I would stay away from campgrounds like Boundry Dam Campground, also known as Forebay Recreation Area. A Free Campground from the Seattle City Lights Project. This place was beautiful and I will be back. 

While I didn't realize it until after I had set up camp, site #22 is the best in the campground and also one of three ADA sites. Since there were few others camping, I now see why it was available.They are unmarked and the only thing telling you this is on a board next to the bathrooms, Site 11,13 and 22 were mentioned as ADA on the board, however the entire campground is ADA accessible except the sites 1-4 which are very close together and tent only sites.  The RV sites are also close together.

Site 22 is backed up to the forest, and the most private site in the campground, there is only 1 site next to you and both of these sites are walk in. You park and then carry your gear in. I found this strange for an ADA site. It isn't a far walk and it is very well paved. 

Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. There are large and small day use areas along the river side, unfortunately only sites 1-5 are on the water, the rest have a water view, but its more like a parking lot. 

The bathrooms are updated, very clean, flush toilets. No showers. They have water spigots close to the sites and they have a lot of power. The landscape was too commercial, I would have preferred if they left the land as it was instead of adding bark chips and planting flowers. Its going to be difficult to keep those growing and maintained. 

The fishing dock was also new, sturdy and a beautiful spot for pictures. I have heard, and if you see the reviews under this, there is a waterfall, about a mile away from the dock in the river. Unfortunately I don't have a vessel so was not able to see this first hand. The water was pretty warm, compared to other places in the area. Saw tons of kayaks head out from this point. The waterfall is accessible by water only at this point, however, they are building trailheads, with parking lots and restrooms on the Eastern ridge to provide viewpoints of the waterfall and canyon by 2020. 

Cool fact, this is in the town of Metaline Falls, Washington. The Dam and the town are a features in the Kevin Costner film, The Postman. 

There is also  FREE Dam tours Thursday-Monday (so don't show up on a Tuesday like us!) They are offered at 10:30am, 12:00pm, 2:00pm and 4:00pm, I will be back very soon to take advantage of this. Its a Hydro Electric Dam and it goes through a Limestone cave! 

Just up the Road is a Gardner Caves- Crawford State Park, Garner Caves offers tours of the cave at 10:00am,12:00pm, 2:00pm and 4:00pm. This tour you need a discover pass for. Again, I showed up on Monday evening and was unable to do the cave tour this time, however, I have done Gardner caves and that is super neat! 

If you are exploring the upper side of Eastern Washington, or going to Canada, I highly recommend camping, boating and exploring this area. 

  

**Ranger Review: Grubstick Deluxe kit**

https://grubstick.com/products/deluxe-kit

As a Ranger for the Dyrt, sometimes I get awesome camping gear, in exchange for a honest review. Today I am reviewing the Grubstick. The Grubstick is a pretty neat camping cook tool. It has a long extendable handle to keep you and yours safe. It also has along several attachments, so you can become a hit with the kids and really inventive with your camp recipes. This camp trip was an adventure and to keep it easy, we roasted some hot dogs for lunch on the second day. 

First, I had the opportunity to get the starter kit and the Deluxe kit. Both pictured here. The Starter kit comes with a Handle, A grub cage (square cage for roasting smore's, fruit, or anything that will fit.) A fork to roast hotdog's and a release tool to open the cage. Its pretty basic but again, pretty great considering your options to cook on this are endless. 

The deluxe kit comes with all of that plus, an extra handle, and additional fork, a burgcage, a Grub Pocket to make bacon cups, bread bowls, etc, A Grubtube for making breadsticks, and a bacon clip! 

I feel like these are meant for quality food. The cheap hot dogs I had, split down the center seconds after exposing them to the fire, making it hard to turn the stick with out the hot dogs also turning, and trying to slide off the stick, so they were not getting evenly cooked. Again, not a testament to the Grubstick at all. I love the idea of it, it just didn't work right with the cheap hot dogs. I am super excited to try them in the future and use the other attachments. They shipped very quickly and they are made of high quality materials, They also came in great carry bags. I actually only brought the grubstick with me instead of my large bulky camp stove, while that would have been a nice idea, always bring a back up- in case there is a sudden torrential downpour that makes it so you cannot have a campfire. 

  

All in all, very cool tool, I can see using these on family camp trips with the kids and making smores. Brats or polish sausage would work better than hot dogs on the fork.

Ranger Review- Grubstick at Boundary Dam, Forebay recreation

This campground is amazing!

 It is a small campground right next to the Boundary Dam and thanks to Seattle City Power is absolutely FREE! It just went through a major overhaul so everything is new and well maintained.  Lots of history here including the filming of The Postman.

They provide you with great amenities like full flush bathrooms, extensive day use facilities, Boat launch and dock, Water and trash. It has 22 sites(3 of which are ADA) and 12 RV sites. There are no hookups for the RV's. Each site has a fire pit picnic table and gravel tent pads.

There are many things to do here like check out the Peewee falls which is only viewable by water or take the free dam tour! A short drive away is the Gardner Caves which offers free guided tours if you have a discovery pass. Metaline Falls is also a short drive away in which there are a few eateries and even a movie theater.

Overall it is a great place to camp and boat, my only fault would be the 6 day limit! 

I highly recommend checking this place out if you have a chance.

Free Campground on a lake by the dam

Absolutely beautiful! Access to so many different attractions...all free!!!

Free camping

This campground is amazing. Wasn’t expecting this type of campground to be free. 



 WOW!

This campground seems to be designed for and attract mostly RV campers with boats since there is a boat launch at this facility. There are only 6 small tent camping spots right next to the dam's bright lights. The tent sites are VERY close together so there is a lack of privacy and only 1 tent spot per site. Campsites have a fire ring and picnic table. We noticed that the campground sprinklers come on in the morning and spray the tent sites so beware of where you place your tent. There is a potable water spigot next to where the tent site parking is but the bathrooms are a little bit of a walk. We didn't see any staffing while we were there but the bathrooms, which had flushable toilets and handwashing sinks, were well maintained. There is a picnic shelter area and rocky shore area you can hang out on. Pee Wee Falls is a short paddle (1/4 mile?) around the right side bend from the boat launch area. We went Labor Day weekend and we were the only tent campers the first night (Friday) and then a single tent camper showed up the next day. The RV sites were packed full when we arrived very late Friday night. We had a great stay since we were one of the only tent campers and it's a free campground with all the basic amenities we needed to be comfortable.

Great for RV's, Cramped for Tents.

Really well maintained, beautiful campground with great swimming water. Peewee falls is about a 10 minute kayak from the beach. Great stay. Definitely recommend staying during the week. Weekend traffic is intense.

Honestly surprised this place is free

Everything is well maintained, the sites are clean if maybe a little crammed together. The lake is warm and the sites are great.

Photos of Boundary Dam Campground

Real photos from real campers