Close to Bellingham, Spots are veryyyy Close together, Walk to Beach and the View Priceless. Paid over $ 50 for one Night with Electric and than they shut the Power off at 10 PM????? No Discounts
Larrabee State Park is a great spot, surrounded by forests and a beautiful beach. The campsites are really well located with clean restrooms, picnic tables, and fire pits. The hike to the beach is well worth it especially walking under train tracks. The park is easy to explore, and the trains passing by at night are quite a unique experience. This place is perfect for nature lovers and those seeking a bit of adventure. A truly memorable camping experience!
The positives: close to Bellingham. Really charming little beach and trails. Clean grounds and bathrooms. Coin operated showers. The negatives: road noise, train noise and light noise from the RV pull thru sites and raccoon mafia noise. The challenges: Most of the back in sites are medium to smallish. We had a difficult time finding one large enough that was level enough for our car camping setup. This is one of the larger sites and offers okay privacy. The parking pad levels out just enough at the back end to get 1 short chassis vehicle almost level.
The campsites are extremely close together, tent camping along the outer edge and RVs in the middle row. The ranger office is only open from 2-4 so outside of that time you have to do self reservations, which turned out to be problemsome for our neighbor camper. He put the wrong site on his reservation slip, or tacked it to the wrong site, I don't know. But it ended up with him confronting us, confused, that we were in his camp after another group mistakingly bought his campsite earlier in the day. The RV people across from us were adamant about keeping his spot for him, which was nice for him, but they weren't very kind about it. The bathrooms were really nice and showers were included. The short trail to the beach was also nice. Overall an okay stay, it was really just the unfriendliness of other campers that harshed our vibe. Oh yeah and also the traffic right next to the campground + a very loud train that goes through at 2AM might dampen the mood as well. I would say don't stay here and just go another half hour to deception pass- MUCH better experience there .
Clean, smaller campground near small beach. Great hook-up spots. Bathrooms and other facilities were clean. Chuckanut Drive (WA 11) is narrow in spots so be ready for that as you tow in and out.
Clean showers well kept campground train noise to put you to sleep
Clean restrooms saw some wildlife
Great tent camping, clean, great walk to beach. Train was super loud throughout the night.
We managed to book a last spent site here. The site was not the best but still large enough for our family of five. The facilities are good, real bathrooms and showers in the center of the grounds, not a long walk from any site.
Some sites are more compact than others and few are extremely private. The sites on the north end would be great for multiple families or small groups—sparse trees and lots of run around space for kids.
We had some noisy/rude neighbors that made our particular site less enjoyable but you get what you get I guess.
Our boys love trains so being adjacent to the tracks was definitely a great experience for them. The 3 am horns are not that nice though.
The rest of the park is beautiful. Several trails and areas to explore. The main beach area is not huge but a nice quiet bay that still has plenty of room for water or beach play. Beautiful sunsets from the beach or a few look out spots on the cliff above.
If you have small boats then there are tons of fun areas to explore and rocks to climb on. Obviously be watchful of the tide, there are lots of rocks that are easy to climb out in at low tide but are completely submerged at high tide.
There is also a full boat launch if you drive a bit further up the highway. Also there are lots of trails up the mountain behind as well as a drivable road up to almost the top. It’s fairly standard mountain road with plenty of divots and pot holes but it was great to be able to have lunch up there with out lugging up our three small children.
Saw lots of mountain bikes and looks like a great place for riding!
We stayed on a Sunday night in shoulder season and the campground was half full. Very quiet except for the trains and occasional cars passing on Chuckanut drive. The trains came through a few times but didn’t bother us, but we are city dwellers and were in a van. Bathrooms at the north end at least are single-user (but multiple rooms), and both the bathrooms and shower are wheelchair accessible. The shower was a very generous 3 minutes for 50 cents and HOT — felt wonderful to get clean. Nice little beach where there are tide pools at low tide supposedly. There is a CG host who sells firewood but the whole time we were there there was a large OFF DUTY sign on the door. Thankfully we were having dinner in town and picked up some wood at the grocery store. CAUTION: the campground accepts cash payment only on-site and sites range from $25-45. We wound up in a super expensive site but I was too tired to move.
Next time I am bringing a kayak. Busy site but great location with hiking, paddling and biking all at hand.
Nice campground with great views of the water. Just be aware that it has some nosy raccoon residents who feel very comfortable coming right up to camp to investigate your food situation :) Nothing bad - just have to be careful not to encourage them
I think the train issue is worse in the lower campground. We were in the section of the campground that had a hill between us and the train tracks so it wasn’t bad. I didn’t much care for my site and everything in the campground seems scaled for smaller vehicles and campers. The dump site was a tight squeeze. I ended up parking across the front of my site due to the lay of the land. The group next to me was teenage girls “Oh my gosh!!”, who never shut up! And stayed up late, though I didn’t notice them except when I took the dogs out. The woods are AWESOME, deep woods motif. Ferns and moss and the trails were nice. The walk to the beach was under the train track and down the hill. Water shoes suggested. Awesome views , but a lot of “stuff” on the shore. There was a showerhouse but I didn’t use it. Only one for the whole area.
If you don't like trains beware. They come all hours of the night and can be startling. It is a nice place if you can get past that. I wasn't able to do much and didn't get to explore. Just passed by to sleep. Not sure if I would go back but I think I'd give it a second chance cause I like trains.
Clean campground in the rainforest along Chuckanut Drive. I visited in March and the pay showers were free during the colder months. Super hot showers were a delight. The campground is close to the train tracks and although you can't see them from the campsites, a middle of the night distant train horn will go off. While it's a beautiful forest campground, the campsites are pretty close together and not very private. I found one of a few grassy area sites suitable to pitch a tent, but it seemed to me that most of the sites were intended for small travel travelers as the parking pads looked about 20-30 feet of level pads. I would definitely come back again if I visit Bellingham, mainly because it is just outside town.
This is a great campsite if you are hoping to be near Bellingham and the Puget Sound. It gets lots of day use.
This campground was so nice and clean and was very well maintained. The bathrooms were spotless and the hosts were very friendly. Some really nice spots!
Excellent spot. Biggest downside is the train that runs by. If you’re okay with that, you’ll have quick access to a small beach and local amenities in Bellingham. Sites are large and bathrooms are kept clean and sanitary.
I used to live in Bellingham years ago and had never camped here before. It's only a few miles from town, so you could head in there for a day away from the forest/beach, or you could hike one of the many trails leading to scenic views. Easy beach access, playground for kids, dog friendly. Bring earplugs if you're a light sleeper, the train tracks are right there.
There is a train very close to the campground! It didn't bother us, but some might find that useful. We stayed 1 night here. It was pretty nice. Easy walking access to the beach/trails. cool mural tunnel.
The good: it's not far from Seattle and we had a great time beach exploring.
The Meh: The trains. They aren't kidding. They are loud and they are all night. The sites themselves are super tiny. One of our groups had to pitch their tent in the parking space.
Larrabee State Park is a publicly owned recreation area located on Samish Bay, six miles (10 km) south of the city of Bellingham, Washington. The 2,683-acre (1,086 ha) state park offers fishing, boating, and camping as well as mountain trails for hiking and biking. It is managed by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.
The park features a short walk down to a pebble beach with views onto Samish Bay and the San Juan Islands. For longer excursions, there are 13 miles of biking trails and 15 miles of hiking trails, including trails leading 1,940 feet up Chuckanut Mountain. Picnicking, boating, saltwater fishing, sailboarding, and beachcombing along 8,100 feet of saltwater shoreline are among the other recreational options. Two mountain lakes, Fragrance Lake and Lost Lake, offer freshwater fishing for hikers.The park also includes camping sites, an ampitheater, and large fields.
Campground was nice and bathrooms were clean. the campsites had a picnic table and fire pit. enjoyed our time at the campground. good for families and adults.
We stayed during Memorial weekend and had a blast! With young children we loved that Larrabee had a playground area and easy access to the beach. We also took advantage of the hiking trails nearby. One downfall is the heavy train traffic that runs straight thru the camp.
Campgrounds were very well maintained. We stayed in a walk-in site that was super close to a trail down to the water. Watched a gorgeous sunset from the rocks.
Bathrooms were close and clean!
Sites we’re close together but we felt like we had some privacy with trees. (Great for hammocking!)
If you’re there for more time, it’s worth it to explore some hiking trails nearby! We LOVE the chuckanuts!
sweet campsites. nestled in the super lush pnw forest. busy during summer. train tracks run right behind campground so expect to hear multiple trains per day passing by. nice little beach area as well.
We have not camped at Larabee State Park, but we did scope it out during a recent visit to Bellingham. Here’s what we saw:
-Great newer looking playground for kids: bonus for families!
-The Park is right next to a train track: and the trains go by frequently. Could be cool for kiddos. Could be a nightmare at bed time.
-We only saw the first loop of sites closest to the park entrance. They seem to look very close together, so privacy is pretty out the window. There are walk-in sites that you can book if you want better privacy.
-The sites back by the bathroom seem to look larger and more private.
-There are hiking trails and bike trails nearby.
-If you want to go out to eat: Bellingham is nearby!
We will book here in the future—and probably go for a Walk-In site.
Beautiful beaches with even more incredible views. Great playground for the kids and miles of trails through the Chuckanuts. A train runs through the area and can be loud at night.
Love the location. Easy access to water nearby for crabbing/boating. But trains hooting every 2 hours or so throughout the night as they chugs through near the park. It was hard to get a good sleep.
Lovely area and views. We visited in the winter, so it was quiet. Downside was the trains barreling through all night. Could barely sleep with earplugs.
thisnis a beautiful campground nestled right along the bay. There is a play ground ,covered picnic area , stage and of course walk the trails along and down to the beach or hit one of the amazing mountain bike trails. We see starfish on the rocks some times. This is an amazing spot for sunsets! The campsite is nice and the spots are fairly private but beware there is a train that rolls right next to the campground all night long!
