Help us plan our trip - Washington State and Idaho

[alesis]

After another post I started, the great members here gave me great info to make our trip the best it can be and this caused our trip to change. That said, this post is updated with our new location plans.

I'm looking for suggestions on campgrounds to stay at, and activities that are "must do" while there.

We are traveling from Michigan to Washington State, and will stop for a few nights in Idaho on our way home. Our current plan is 4 days travel to Washington, 6 nights there, then 3 nights in/near Stanley, Idaho, and then travel home.

We love scenic drives, hiking, swimming, awesome scenery, adventurous stuff, along w typical tourist traps like aquariums and such. Kids are 7, 11 and 13. Full hookup CGs are a must.

In Washington, we want to hit Olympic, North Cascades and Mt Ranier NPs. Also a day trip to Seattle. Looking for a campground that is central to all of these areas to allow for day trips. If drive times are over about 1 1/2 hours to get to all the NPs from 1 CG, we're open to staying at 2 different CGs in Washington.

In Stanley we'll just be doing day trips around the area, so we're looking for a good base camp CG there too.

Any help is truly appreciated!

[Veebyes]

Trip Advisor, the official state tourism website, individual town websites for attractions & events, Allstays for about every campground there is, RVPR for reviews on many of them. Enough there to keep you researching for hours.

[2gypsies1]

If you take the ferry to Port Townsend - a wonderful little town, stay at Fort Worden State Park (hookups). The beach sites are very nice and there are also some wooded sites. Then you can easily do a day trip to the Seattle waterfront area by driving your vehicle down toward Poulsbo and on to Bainbridge Island. Park your vehicle in the lot and take the short ferry ride. It will let you off at the Aquarium area. You can then pick up the monorail which will whisk you over the city to the Olympic Space Needle. Return via the monorail and then tour Pike Market and bring your purchases back on the ferry for your return. It makes for a very nice day and an easy hassle-free way of seeing the Seattle waterfront area.

From Port Townsend you can easily do another day trip to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic Nat'l Park at Port Angeles.

When you're ready to continue your trip from Port Townsend head south toward Poulsbo, Port Orchard and pick up I-5 at Tacoma.

Or you can drive around the Olympic Peninsula via 101 and continue to Astoria and 101 down the coast.

This whole trip is beautiful!

[Tom_Barb]

Knowing that you need full hook ups.
Spokane to Leavenworth with a stop at Grand Coullee will be a full day, there are two full service camp ground in Leavenworth, Icicle Camp Is our Favorite.
Day 2. Back to 97 north and the north Cascade highway across to Concrete is another day, there are two very nice full service camps just east of Concrete one is KOA the other is private. That's a full days drive.
Day three will be getting to the Olympic Penn. via Highway 20, be certain to have reservations for any ferry you plan on taking. (specially the Key Stone to Port Townsend ) its a smaller ferry and is usually full. If you miss it. there is a very nice camp At Ft.Casey, right next door to the ferry.
The last real town with all the big stores is Oak Harbor, stock up before you cross to Port Townsend. the prices double west of the sound.

OBTW the north end of Whidbey Island has North Whidbey RV park. across the highway from Deception State park (which has no hookups)

[AmasaJulie]

Trying to give you suggestions about places to stay on your way thru Washington. Lots of people balk at staying at KOAs, but the ones I mention here we had good experiences with!

We made a trip to WA from WI a couple of years ago. We spent one nite at a nice KOA north of Spokane and visited a cool Ukrainian deli in Soap Lake for lunch. Stop at Lake Lenore Caves after visiting Grand Coulee, short fun scenic hike, no need to unhook. We did another KOA in Ellensburg and visited Roslyn where Northern Exposure was filmed. We also went down to Astoria, Oregon via Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens, both worth it.

[ohhell10339]

alesis wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions! While I love NPS cgs, they won’t work for this trip because we need the hookups. I do love all the suggestions for stops tho, we’ll try to hit as many as possible!
What about one base camp near Olympic for 3 nights, and one btwn North Cascades and Ranier for 3 nights?

Do you really "need" the hookups? Are you saying you can't survive for a few days without them? Most national park campgrounds will have at most, a dump station and a source of fresh water--but I've seen plenty of people in RVs happily camping there for several days on end. Same with national forest campgrounds.

In the Pacific Northwest, the most beautiful campsites are often dry or minimal service campgrounds. If you restrict yourself to Pay-For-A-Slab RV Resort, not only are you bleeding money, but you're sticking yourself in some of the least attractive locations. The RV parks in that part of the country are overcrowded, noisy, cramped, and hideously expensive. A shame to go there when you can camp in or near a beautiful national park for much less money!

[myredracer]

If towing a TT, stay clear of the Seattle area from around Everett to south of Olympia, including the 405 around the east side of Seattle. Traffic is a total zoo and is tiring, nerve racking, slow and can be hard on a truck & TT. I think CGs close to the Seattle area can be hard to get into because there's a lot of workers living in RVs in them. Check on websites like rvparkreviews.com for possible info.

We're Thousand Trails members. They have a wonderful CG in Chehalis, about 1/2 hour south of Olympia and could get you to/from Seattle for a day trip. Chehalis is within striking distance of the south access to Mt. St. Helens. Have been to a CG in Randle, which is close to Mt. Ranier - very pretty area and away from the madding city crowds.

Gotta drive up the 101 on the east side of the Olympic peninsula. Great scenery and drive, sort of like the Oregon Coast in a way. Lots of CGs there. There's a waterfront CG at Port Townsend, Ft. Worden State park, an old military fort - great location. Also gotta drive up to Hurricane Ridge visitors center out of Port Angeles (hopefully on a clear day). Many excellent CGs along the WA west coast.

Last fall I towed our 29' TT myself from Everett to south of Olympia east of the 405 while en route to Chehalis. Can't remember the exact route - road was quieter, twisty in some spots, scenic and took me through some lovely small towns. Great drive and would do it again anytime, but is a slow route.

Depending on the time of year, wildfires can be a problem in WA (and CA, OR & BC) from about July to Sept. It's possible routes may have to be changed along the way and some CGs may not be accessible. There's been some pretty bad fires in recent years.

[enblethen]

Your efforts to use a base camp does not work in my mind. Distances and driving times just makes it nearly impossible.

[ReneeG]

For the Stanley Idaho area here are my suggestions for full hookups: Just NE of Stanley off Hwy 75 is a full hookup RV park - Torrey's Burnt Creek Inn. Small and on the highway, but oh so scenic. The owner's are wonderful. Within that area for sight seeing is the Sunbeam Dam, right on the highway. The first dam breached for salmon migration and a very historic area. Not far from the dam is Sunbeam Hot Springs, right at a rest area and free for soaking. Also right at the Sunbeam Dam is the turn off to the historic ghost towns of Bonanza and Custer, both historic mining areas. Bonanza has a very interesting Boot Hill Cemetery and Custer has a walking tour with a lot of the buildings open. The old stage toll road in the back country between Custer and Challis is historic and passable during the summer and early fall months. Also near Bonanza is the old Yankee Fork Gold Dredge that is open for tours. The kids would love this.

Another RV park that we haven't stayed at, but looks nice is in Stanley, is the Mountain Village Resort, right at the intersection of Hwy 21 and Hwy 75. I think that's the name. I used Google Maps to locate the name. Each time we've driven by there have been quite a few nice rigs there and it's a clean looking place. Very scenic. If you are into hiking, there is a trailhead at Stanley Lake, that takes you to Bridal Veil Falls. It's probably a two mile round trip, maybe a little longer, but oh so worth it. Be sure to visit Redfish lake while you're there, rent a boat, and take a tour across the lake. Visit the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery about 5 miles south of Stanley on Hwy 75 and possibly continue on for a day trip into Ketchum and Sun Valley for lunch visiting the Ketchum cemetery and Hemingway's grave site. Aside from the points of interest, the Stanley area holds a lot for the outdoorsman.

[alesis]

Thanks for all the suggestions! While I love NPS cgs, they won’t work for this trip because we need the hookups. I do love all the suggestions for stops tho, we’ll try to hit as many as possible!
What about one base camp near Olympic for 3 nights, and one btwn North Cascades and Ranier for 3 nights?

[toddnks]

In Idaho it will depend on how you come into and out of Stanley. The drive from Idaho Falls to Arco (First city ever power by atomic energy) is interesting to see, but it is desert with only the National Research Laboratory to see, but past Arco you can go to Craters of the Moon national monument which is very cool and again its desert like the moon.

If you traveled the interstate across Idaho Twin Falls is a wonder and the Perine bridge at Twin Falls is amazing to walk onto and see the Grand Canyon of the Snake River, look east and you should still be able to see the ramp used by Evil Kenivel when he tried to jump the Snake River in the 70's.

Stanley is surrounded by wilderness areas, as another said you might want to try and boondock, it is amazing at night because there is nearly no light pollution in the NFS campgrounds.

BTW my signature photo is my truck and trailer imposed in the Sawtooth Wilderness area west of Stanley.

[Tom_Barb]

alesis wrote:
Where would you suggest making base camps? We'd be willing to do 3 nights in 2 places in Washington if that makes more sense.

What type of camper are you bringing?

To do the loop I suggested, You would be better off doing one night camps.

For example the Olympic Penn. highway system is a big loop around the mountain range. to camp on any one spot. it will require 1 whole day to drive the whole loop.

When you try to do the Seattle side trip. you'll be tied up in traffic most of the day.

[Tom_Barb]

Our travel time between home and Spokane 8. hours

[Tom_Barb]

I would add, There are a lot of NF camp grounds in the Twisp, and Winthrop area plus if you like you can follow 97 north to catch #20 at Okanogan it is a bit of twisty road for a few miles but nothing dangerous. and at the top of the Loup Loup Pass the Best National forest camp is about 1/4 mile off the highway. Its well marked.
After you exit out of the Methow Valley, your next camp is Colonial Creek camp on Diablo Lake. (thats on the west side) there is 87 miles between Winthrop and Concrete where there are no services -- that's nothing at all. -- nada -- zip.
After Concrete your back in civilization. ( I-5 Corridor actually) # 20 brings you on to the San Juan Is. and will bring you thru home town. 🙂 honk when you pass the house :

[hotpepperkid]

What ever you do, do not stay at the KOA in Kent WA. It is a POS over priced place

[LFish]

The previous itinerary from Tom/Barb is a good one. You will love the scenery.