Ryan W.

Seattle, WA

Joined July 2017

Casual Camper and backpacker

A fun little forest gem

We stumbled on this after striking out on some First-come-first-serve sites in the area.  Willow was amazing and hospitable as a host.  We chatted and she helped us reserve the spot that she recommended for our group, then she walked (well, she ran and we drove…) down to the site and she talked us through the amenities.  

They'll provide some water, and each site has its own toilet (privacy tent over a bucket, with wood shavings for 'coverage') and garbage can.  There's also a fire pit, though we were there during the burn ban, so we utilized our own propane fire pit.  They take care of everything, you just camp and relax.  

We'll definitely keep this one in our mind for future visits up in the area. 

Of course, I forgot to take any photos because we were enjoying ourselves the whole time.

Quaint little campground, terrible site choices

A cute little campground near the Hoh rainforest. it is literally right off of highway 101, and you'll hear the trucks all night… we booked a little late and managed to grab a couple sites near each other, but not connected. we had site 5 and 7. neither were favorably placed around the site and mentioned the privacy wasn't great. when we got there, site 5 was literally sharing a wall with the bathroom and adjacent to one of the day use structures. I wish I had remembered a photo… people would constantly walk between the two cars and two tents all night to get to the bathroom, since the public path was a little further of a walk. angling the cars to leave very little space seemed to dissuade them in subsequent night. every time someone used the hand driers you could hear it three sites away, so imagine the noise in site 5… the reservation mentioned a few tents would fit and we had two, but of the three days we were there, it rained one and puddles formed near the tents. there was no place to keep them dry if it rained any harder. and this is right next to the rainforest…
site 7 also mentioned a couple of tents would fit, but only if you've got two bivvy tents, it was a tiny site with only one parking spot. we had one tent in this site and used this site to hang out most of the time since the bathroom smell would waft over site 5 every so often. the powered rv sites are interspersed with other sites at Bogachiel and site 7 was surrounded by them. most of those neighbors weren't bad, but a bad neighbor could easily ruin that site for you. end result, I probably won't be back due to the highway, and if I do, there's no chance I'll book site 5 or 7…

Great pnw camping trip

A last minute booking of a trip for 7 worked out when we found two sites together (101 and 103). Well surrounded by some trees for good tarping, though we did need to use one car

First to Review
Upper Hyas Lake stay

We did the Deception Pass loop (start at Hyas Trailhead, head north past the lake, west to Deception Pass, south to Cathedral Pass along PCT section J, and then back east to the Cathedral Pass Trailhead, which is only about 50 feet from Hyas Lake Trailhead)

Left on a Friday afternoon, bypassed the Hyas Lake campsites in favor of adding another mile in. There was only one campsite that we found by Upper Hyas Lake, and it seemed quite large, capable of housing multiple tents. I think we showed up right as a Boy Scout troop was vacating the spot. Nice flat spots with a little creek for fresh (to be filtered) water