Ozette Campground — Olympic National Park

We’re not even sure that we should be reviewing this one… maybe we just need to keep it to ourselves. Cuz, it’s that cool!  We grabbed our beverages, our chairs, and walked the short path from our campsite to the shore of Ozette Lake. No sooner had we settled in to watch the evening’s color change than scores of water fowl claimed their nightly roots and an otter swam by on its way into its home in the grass – totally worth the drive in. 

This small campground lies at the end of a long winding, but well paved, road in Olympic National Park. Getting there is part of the adventure, but from here one can hike out to the western most point of the contiguous 48 US states, Cape Alava.   Worth every moment!

The sheltered lake offers many great miles of paddling and small boat fishing holes, as well as access to some great backcountry camping spots. We paddled from the campground to Ericson Bay and then hiked the very wet trail out to the Pacific coast, which was a great day trip.   The next day we took the path more travelled and headed out along the boardwalk trail to the beach where you can access Cape Alava.  Some native territory back in this area, so please be respectful of signs and warnings.  You can walk along the beach for miles and miles.

The campsites are rather small and won’t accommodate large RV’s but have a lot of grass area for tents, picnic tables and fire rings. The toilets are about 1/4 mile away at the Ozette Visitor’s Center, with flush toilets and running sinks, fresh drinking water, but no showers.   There you can dispose of trash and recycling, as well as check out some cool interpretation displays and access a couple of trails and the Ozette River. 

Many of the sites have good to decent open sky for solar power and satellite internet, the mobile phone service was non-existent.  In a word, PERFECT!

Nearby towns with any services are Neah Bay and Clallah Bay, which are both super cool to check out.

We’re not even sure that we should be reviewing this one… maybe we just need to keep it to ourselves?  Cuz, it’s that cool!  But since it's part of the Olympic NP campground list, it's publicly known, so here goes...

Upon arrival, we grabbed our beverages, our chairs, and walked the short path from our campsite to the shore of Ozette Lake. No sooner had we settled in to watch the evening’s color change than scores of water fowl claimed their nightly roots and an otter swam by on its way into its home in the grass – already totally worth the drive in. 

This small campground lies at the end of a long winding, but well paved, road in Olympic National Park. Getting there is part of the adventure, but from here one can hike out to the western most point of the contiguous 48 US states, Cape Alava. The sheltered lake offers many great miles of paddling and small boat fishing holes, as well as access to some great backcountry camping spots. 

We paddled from the campground to Ericson Bay and then hiked the very wet trail out to the Pacific coast, which was a great day trip.   The next day we took the path more traveled out to the coast via a boardwalk trail which will take you  to Cape Alava and you can walk along the beach for miles and miles.  Be mindful of the native territory in this area though and head the warnings.  Absolutely worth every moment!

The campsites are smallish and most won’t accommodate large RV’s but have a lot of grass area for tents, picnic tables, and fire rings. The toilets are a bit of a walk as they are located at the Ozette Visitor’s Center.  They have clean, flush toilets and running sinks, fresh drinking water, but no showers.  The campground could really use a couple of vault toilets as the toilets are a 1/4 mile away, and it's the only reason we gave this a 4 out of 5.   Trash and recycling is located near the visitor's center as well lots of information about hiking in the area.

Many of the sites have good to decent open sky for solar power and satellite internet, the mobile phone service was non-existent. Nearby towns with any services are Neah Bay and Clallah Bay, which are both super cool to check out.

It was surprisingly hard to find information on Ozette Campground before I went. There are a few mentions of it because it is actually within the Olympic National Park (not Forest) but not as much as, say, Hoh or Heart o’ the Hills or the Kalaloch areas.

There are actually 20 sites in this campground so it is not terribly small. The problem is that there is a lot of precipitation in this area year round (you know, what with the rainforest thing) and a lot of the sites are low lying or on slopes that cause them to either flood, or be prone to wash outs. So the campground itself feels a little like the NPS has given up on improving it and is content to just let campers figure it out as they go. That’s all well and good, but I would have been pretty annoyed to drive all the way out here for a first come first served site only to discover that it was not usable. I was not able to find anywhere you can obtain up to date information (even a call to the ranger was not very helpful, as the campground is also off their beaten track and they don’t necessarily know what it looks like on any given day).

$20/night. There is no potable water available in the off season although the campground remains open, so prepare to bring your own. Mosquitoes off the lake are also fierce and undeterred by citronella etc, but back off with the heavy duty DEET.

The official National Park Ozette Campground is a very small campground right on the lake and next to the ranger station in Ozette, at the upper NW quadrant of the Olympic Peninsula.

The sites are all flat and pretty much open - you will definitely see your neighbors. The toilets are a bit of a walk away at the ranger station / trail head. There is a huge parking lot full of cars but no people as this is a big place to hike out and camp on the beach (about a 3 mile hike in to the closest camping) - if you hike on the beach, you'll need a backcountry permit which you can get at the ranger station (available when it is open or closed).

It was surprising to me, but there were deer walking around the camp while we were there. Don't leave your food out. We also found it to be pretty mosquito-y here compared to other ONP camping.

This is actually in the National Park, so you'll need to have a NP pass or pay the fee to register your car. Camping is first come - no reservations.

All sites have a fire ring and picnic table. There is also a water point. For showers, you can pay at the Lost Resort up the street.

If you're planning to do the 9 mile Ozette triangle loop hike, you'll want to check the tide table at the ranger station. Low tide was very early in the morning during the summer and you'll find yourself racing the tide to get around the heads if you don't leave early enough. If you do wind up on the beach at high tide, you'll have to use the upper trails which requires some ropes and steep hills to finish the hike. If you have kids, be sure to leave early enough. If the tide is low in the morning, recommend camping here and using it as your base.