Jerome

Dump stations at Washington State rest areas are generally in decent condition. The heavily used dump stations are along major highways, like Interstates and other highways in higher population centers. You are almost guaranteed to wait in line on a busy weekend at the Interstate rest stops.

The Vernita Rest Area, located along highway 24 in Central Washington is basically in the middle of nowhere. Traffic here consists mostly of trucks moving agricultural produce and supplies to the rural towns of the area, along with vacation travelers and depending on the time of year, students commuting to and from Washington State University. RVers that are out here are often dry-camping or boondocking someplace, in the vast wilderness of Eastern Washington, like the nearby Vernita Bridge area.

There is one dump station which is located in a nicely graded concrete catch basin with curbs and a rinse hose. This rinse hose is not your potable water fill, that is located elsewhere. This is typical for most Washington rest area dump stations.

The rest of the rest area is also very typical Washington State gear. Flush toilets, running water, soap and hand dryers. Cleanliness is acceptable, better than at a rural gas station or under-maintained mini-mart, but the rest stops are pretty heavily utilized. Again, being in the middle of nowhere is good for this rest stop because it is less utilized than the frequently mentioned Interstate rest stops. This facility has been through a remodel in the past 10-15 years brining the restroom facilities up to similar standards that are found in other parts of the state.

Picnic tables, grass areas and parking are all sufficient for the size of the location. Big rig parking is more limited, but almost never totally full. The 8 hour stay limit is also typical of Washington State rest areas, however I’ve never been bothered or harassed by anyone when making an extended stay at a rest stop. Generally speaking the state patrol would rather you be asleep at a rest stop than tired and out on the road potentially being a hazard to yourself and others.

Looking to camp in this area, a Washington State Discover Pass area near the base of the Vernita Bridge is right “next door”. It is utilized mostly by boaters for access to the river, but anyone with a Discover Pass can camp out there. No services.

Yes, just a gravel parking lot. And it isn't very level. But it is great if you are passing through and only want to stay a night and also can't find any space in the nearby RV parks (KOA and Alpine view on the east side of town) and don't want to be as far away as some of the other parks. It is a 6-10 minute walk to the center of town, which is where all the action is, anyway. And funny, all the rest of the parking lots in town, for cars, are all fee parking lots.

I think the only hard and fast rule they have is that you cannot stay more than one overnight in a 7-day period. No way to tell how well this is enforced, but Leavenworth is an organized little town and I suspect they do take it pretty seriously.

The night we stayed we shared the lot with a number of "vanlife" folks and one guy with a huge fifth wheel, and that was about it; the lot was basically empty.

We did feel safe there, it is in the middle of town and across the street/highway from one of the larger hotel facilities, you are far from being totally alone. There is road noise, which is minimal at night, but still present.

We've stayed at other KOAs before, and honestly not been super impressed. Previous, other locations, were fine stays, but nothing exceptional or exciting. Our first time at this location was super nice. These franchisees are really trying to live up to the higher standard that a KOA Holiday designation is supposed to stand for.

First, this location seems to have had a lot of changes in terms of traffic flow and entry from public streets as the typical KOA A-frame office building is way at the back of the campground, not at the entry. The entry, which is now off from Zelt Strasse, not River Bend Dr., has you entering the park at the newly expanded portion of the park. As you enter the park there is a "guard house" which is a new building that is an information desk with a small "comfort station" (restrooms with no showers), and small laundry facility. The info desk/check-in desk was not staffed during our stay. This entry to the park also houses all the new pull-thru KOA patio sites, and there are a lot of patio sties, not just 4 or 5. You have to drive through this section and veer left and drive further to the back of the park to find the office, original "comfort station" (which was being remodeled during our stay), pool, hot tub, playground, coffee cabin, and most of the other amenities of the park.

Access to WiFi towers in the park is good, however it is unsecured (which I really dislike), and it gets very bogged down at night, with lots of buffering and jittery downloads. I have no clue how much bandwidth they are purchasing for their WiFi offering, but it isn't enough. And not securing it means that everybody that lives in or goes by this location can piggy back on the signal. There are apartments nearby the KOA, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were people living there that are using the KOAs service because it isn't secured. This should be addressed by the owners immediately. If you don't like the idea of using unsecured public WiFi, there is good cell service. I had 3 bars with AT&T, however speeds were good, even better than the KOA's WiFi.

Check-in was fast and easy. Staff were very friendly and accommodating. The entire office building has been remodeled and improved. The check-in desk was modern, and the camp store was nicely stocked with lots of different camping and gifting products. Prices were acceptable. The laundry room at the main office was small but had very modern laundry equipment. The "comfort station" at the main office was being remodeled while we were there.

You are escorted to your campsite. I wasn't waiting forever for an escort and once I gave them the thumbs up when I got to the campsite, they didn't insist on hanging around and "helping out". I've had that experience at way too many other campgrounds that do site escorts.

The KOA patio is pretty impressive. A bean shaped concrete pad with a nice quality Webber gas grill, built-in wood fire ring and substantial patio furniture; a set of 4 chairs and a table plus a glider rocker love seat. Utilities at the site were also very good. The power pedestal was 50/30/20, and all the breakers were tight and not worn out, and the outlets were reasonably tight. The campground had one 20 amp outlet in use for electric heat tape that lead to the water valve. The water valve was a twist valve (I prefer the lift style valve handles), but was tight and not drippy or leaky. There were two sewer connections on the site, one closer to the entry side of the pad and one closer to the front of the pad. The sewer ports were capped with screw tops, not flip caps (I prefer the flip caps), but had not been ridiculously tightened down by a previous occupant or the staff. The location of the sewer ports were such that I didn't have to break out my super long sewer hose to reach. Utility design and services on site were really well thought out. Power quality is good. I was getting a shade over 120 volts through my entire stay, and while power draw was probably not high because none of use were using air conditioners (it was pretty cool when we were there) I suspect that even with high use in the park you will get good voltage most of the time.

Park employees pick up garbage from your campsite throughout the day. Just put a bag of garbage out on the edge of your site and one of the employees that is running around on a Gator will grab it as part of their normal duties. No need to make the "trash walk" to a dumpster on the far corner of the park.

The park offers more amenities through the summer camping season, basically Memorial Day to Labor Day. This includes pool and adults only hot tub, shuttle service into Leavenworth, and on-site food from the coffee cabin. Looks like they also do movies at night and a few more guided activities during the high season. Most of the additional amenities were shut down as we were there during the early spring. The playground is open all year, and like other parts of the park, is a modern playground with equipment you'd find in a municipal park.

There are a lot of cabins at this KOA. While they had the typical limited service cabins, there were many cabins that had lofts, and were fully self contained, including bathrooms and kitchens. All the cabins were occupied when we were there.

The older section of the campground has plenty of tree cover and even though your are parked pretty close to your neighbors, it feels very woodsy. The new section with the KOA patios and pull-thru sites has limited vegetation and virtually no tree cover. I hope in time they will foster some vegetation to provide shade or privacy between these sites.

This was the most expensive campsite we have ever paid for, however the accessibility to Leavenworth, along with the on-site amenities, quality of the camp site, quality of the utility hookups, make it worth it.

We chose the Coeur d'Alene RV resort, which is actually in Post Falls, ID, because we needed a more urban campground since one of us needed to do some remote work while on "vacation", which means having to have strong cellular access, and we needed close access to some of the local sites. Normally we are state park and Federal land campers, but being in an urban place and having a clubhouse with laundry, pool and hot tub was a nice change of pace.

I estimate that 80%+ of the campers here are long term stays. If you meander around the RV park you will notice a significant number of trailers and motor homes with skirts installed, and large upright propane tanks installed at campsites. These are the telltale signs of long term residents, and residents which winter over at this location. Additionally, each power pedestal had a power meter on it, indicating that long term stays were paying for their power consumption in addition to rent.

Short term stays are not intermixed with long term stays. It appeared to me that there were clumps of campsites located together that were dedicated to campers that were going to be staying less than a month. Site 9 is a short walk to the side door of the clubhouse, giving you quick access to the laundry room and restrooms. Pool hours are from 8am to 8pm, basically following lobby and clubhouse hours. They reserve the first hour of the morning for adult swim, and the last hour before closing for adult swim.

The reception desk area has a small supply of camper needs, think RV TP, water hoses, water pressure regulators, and beverages, including beer, for purchase. They also have a coffee station and there is free, fresh coffee available in the morning. The rest of the clubhouse is composed of a large meeting room, with modest kitchen, gas fireplace, ceiling fans, an exercise room and the indoor pool and hot tub. The showers, restrooms and laundry room were all kept very clean. There are posted cleaning times for the restrooms in the clubhouse, and they follow that schedule to a T. Men's and women's restrooms/showers are closed for about an hour each, late in the morning, for cleaning. The clubhouse is well maintained, but very dated; it gives off late 80s or early 90s vibes. Plenty of campers, and staff too, would hang out in the clubhouse and stare at their phones. The clubhouse is about the only location on the property where you can get decent WiFI signal. It was impossible to get WiFi to function at our site, even though we were a straight shot to the clubhouse. However, 5G at our location worked very well, negating any need to use the property's WiFi.

Another shower house and laundry room is located at the far end of the property at the end of the main feeder road into the park. This facility might be newer, but was built in the same image as the clubhouse and appears incredibly similar. The resort also has a playground, tennis court and supposedly a gazebo, however we could never find the gazebo, we think we found where it may have been, and the tennis court is disheveled and unused. The kids playground equipment looked in good order but seemed underutilized.

Sites are level gravel with a concrete pad for the picnic table. Most sites have some vegetation separating one site from another. Site 9 and 10 do not. There was a tree between the sites at one time, but it has been removed and the stump ground down, leaving a mound of shavings where the tree once was. You'll need to use your awning to provide shade. Sites all have picnic tables, however ours looked like it has seen better years. The table on site 8 was much more modern and didn't have splintering wood.

Hookups were very good. We had no issue with the power pedestal, and water pressure was very high, so use your water regulator. They do post that water pressure is 75-80 lbs at the reception desk and recommend that you use a pressure regulator. The sewer port was the narrow screw in type, so I had to break out my fancy hose with the screw in adapter, but the sewer port area was kept clean and it appeared that previous campers didn't do anything stupid or mess up the threads to the sewer port.

This is not a destination in and of itself, the pool and hot tub are a nice thing to visit during the day, after you return from exploring or before you go out for the day, but are not all that impressive compared to other facility pools I've been to. The location is excellent. You have good access to I-90, are a very short drive into Coeur d'Alene and not inconvenient to other north Idaho or Spokane locations. This location does provide a discount for Good Sam members and the staff is friendly.

What a great location on the western end of Rimrock Lake. The campground has waterfront access to Rimrock, along with a boat ramp and nicely sized day use area. This campground is a real jewel in the rough.

The location includes a store/cafe and small motel and a large private campground. They also rent cabins and parked trailers. The store is nicely stocked, but prices are a bit high considering how far away you are from any major cities or other groceries. They have a lot of beer and other bottled beverages in stock. The staff are super nice and work hard to be accommodating.

The food in the cafe is quite good, especially the milkshakes. They also make pizza. We had a pizza during our stay and it was good, aside from the crust being a bit overdone. But the milkshake we had with the pizza made up for the overdone crust.

We had site 61, which was full hookup. Site was just long enough to hold a 35' class A and park a car in front perpendicular to the rig. The site was nearly level and was a snap to get the RV perfectly level. The site also had a very nice, heavy duty, wood picnic table and a sizable, deep fire pit. The owners advertise that they allow one RV and one tent per space, or two tents per space, however this campsite would have had a hard time accommodating a tent in addition to the RV. Without the RV, one tent and a car would have been all the space could have handled.

The hookups were oddly located, and frankly just odd in general. The site had full hookups. The power pole was not really a power pole. There was a newer covered electrical box housing one 30 amp rv plug, no breaker or switch to turn it on and off. The box was located less than a foot off the ground and was basically located right above the sewer port.

The sewer port was nothing more than drain pipe PVC poking out of the ground, no flip cap, no threaded cap or threaded entry. You could look straight down into the sewer pipe. It took a 45 degree angle, less than a foot above the surface of the soil, obviously leading wherever sewage goes here. The water service was inches away from both the sewer pipe and the electrical; a standard twist valve. Apparently, maintenance activities in the resort had caused the water to be off that day. When I turned on the water it came out brown and did so for at least 5 minutes. I might have been the only user hooking up after the water service turned on, so I was the only one that noticed how dirty the water was. The water eventually ran clear, but I hooked up my 3-stage water filter to this source because I just didn't trust it. Water pressure was not impressive. I took off my normal water pressure regulator because the pressure was low enough that the regulator seemed to be hampering water flow, a first for my experience.

The utilities for the site were on the far corner of the property on the drivers side of the rig. I carry long enough hoses and a 30-amp extension cord, so hooking up those utilities to my amidships service bay was not a problem, but I don't keep a 20+ foot sewer hose on board. I didn't have enough sewer hose length to reach the sewer pipe, and my rig was backed up to the barrier between my camp site and the neighbor. All in all just the oddest structure and location of utilities I've ever experienced in a campground. A simple addition, like a second sewer port located farther up the RV pad would have been quite helpful. I also really missed the standard 30/20 amp RV power box that had breakers.

All roads and paths through the campground are compacted soil with some compacted gravel intermixed. We have had an overly wet spring this year, so the roads here were quite rough, and rather mucky to try to walk on. I suspect the compacted dirt and gravel would be much less obtrusive during a normal precipitation year.

The camp playground is serviceable. It includes a very well built set of swings, a simple zip line, and toddler sized slide and teeter totter. I can't say that this is a major attraction here, but it did keep my daughter very busy for many hours, especially the zip line.

Since I couldn't use the sewer port at my campsite, I had to use the on-site dump station. The on-site dump station isn't visible from the highway, so if you weren't staying here you wouldn't know they had one. Dump station is a compacted dirt driveway. The dump port is located in a concrete ramp which keeps overflow from going on the ground. The dump port itself used to have a brass flip cap on it, but it is long gone and replaced with this odd piece of PVC pipe with a plastic grill on top that is used as a lid. To dump you have to pull this pipe/cap out of the hole, set aside, and then insert your hose down the hole. If the soil was dry this would have been easy, however since all the drives in this park are compacted dirt and gravel, the dump station, especially near the dump port, was a muddy mess and very difficult to work at. It will be terribly expensive to pave the whole campground, but a patch of asphalt or concrete at the dump station would go a long way to making the whole experience a lot more pleasant and easier to accomplish.

They attempt to offer WiFi to guests, but the service is spotty and you have to keep connecting to two or three different hot spots that they offer. At least the password to the hot spots is the same. I think the Internet is satellite based, so there is a lot of latency, when you are able to connect to a WiFi hotspot. I saw a Starlink dish on top of the roof of the motel, however I don't think the Starlink service was serving the campground. I saw a Hughesnet satellite dish in the campground and suspect that they are using that for their WiFi service. When connected you can check email, send messages, maybe even make a call over WiFi, but streaming video is not possible.

If you have a boat or water toy, this is the place to be. If you are just looking to camp but want hookups, assuming that the hookups are well placed on the campsite, this is the place to be. Kids? They will probably be well entertained with the playground, walking along the shore and skipping stones or just hanging out. Like I said, this place is a jewel in the rough, a bit more maintenance and updating and it will be a really nice rustic camp resort.

We stayed here as we were spending a day at the theme park. Probably one of the better private RV parks or resorts we've been to. The whole reason for staying here is to visit Silverwood, but the RV Park is not underwhelming in spite of the captive audience. It isn't perfect, but it is much better than average.

From what I can tell, great effort was put into ensuring that the sites are level, at least where it counts, where you park your rig. Pull-thru sites are all circular drives, but they are broad circles which works fine for longer rigs. Utility hookups are in good condition. Water pressure is excellent. We had no issue with power fluctuations in spite of the park being quite large and having a lot of rigs plugged in and using A/C.

We had broken toilet fill valve on our rig when we visited, so we were forced to use the public facilities. While the staff did clean them very well, they did so very early in the morning, like 6am. After that the facilities didn't seem to get any more deep cleaning attention. I think there was a staff walk through in the evening, but mostly to ensure that consumables were topped off and excess trash was taken out, but the bathrooms were cleanest and most presentable very early in the morning and after that kind of went downhill. And relative to the number of non-rv tent sites, the quantity of facilities or rather the quantity of shower stalls, toilet stalls, etc. felt sorely limited. The men's bathhouse in the center of the campground had 3 toilets, 3 urinals, 4 showers and 4 sinks. The bathhouse at the front of the park connected to the office/store had 1 urinal, 1 toilet, 2 showers and 2 sinks, and was visibly much older, although modernized. For the number of sites in the park, especially non-rv and unserviced sites, this seems like way too few resources. Ever heard of hot bunking? Well, I experienced the toilet stall equivalent one morning as I had to wait for a stall and there was almost always a guy showing up right as a stall opened up. Also the last morning we were there I showered in the central bathhouse and of the 4 showers, somebody had broken the valve on one of the showers and it was constantly running cold water. Only 3 showers remained and they were almost constantly in use for 2 or 3 hours straight. So, if you are thinking about tent camping there, be forewarned that a full RV park means really full and really busy bathrooms. In short, they need to build another bathhouse and it needs to be at least double the size of the larges one they currently have.

There are some amenities in the campground. A modern set of heavy duty, park grade, playground equipment, a sand pit with volleyball net. All the roads and loops through the campground are paved. The RV pads are all compacted gravel. There is sufficient grass to set up your outdoor area at most campsites. Plus you get discounted park passes from the campground office; so I recommend that you reserve your campsite, and then buy your tickets to the theme park when you arrive

Stayed here for 3 nights for an RV club rally. Chose to camp in the Pavilion campground as it was the only one which had full hookups, not just water and electric as the rest of the campgrounds on site are so equipped. Campground was not full, but there was a mix of RVers here for the rally and folks with RV style horse trailers who were attending some type of competition.

Sites in the Pavillion campground are all with hookups, but utility location is not standard. There is one service pole per two campsites. The pull-thru section in the middle makes some sense because you can park drivers side to drivers side easily, however the back in sites on the edges are not so lucky and every other campsite will have some unlucky soul that has to run a long power cable or hose from the central post to the other side of their vehicle. What makes these even more strange is that sewer ports are all on the drivers side of the vehicle, no matter where you get your power and water. Watch those site descriptions and photos when booking online. They do tell you which side your utilities are on, but look at the picture to identify where your power, water, and sewer will be when you get there. The photos on their booking site are accurate.

Moses lake gets hot in the summer, and while there is a minimal amount of shade on the north and south side back-ins, the middle section of pull-thrus has no trees or shade at all.

Sites are very close together, and sites which boarder the middle of campground turn around have almost no frontage, whatsoever. Towing? Unless you are short, the pull-thrus do not have enough room to have you park your tow vehicle in front of a long trailer or fifth wheel. You might be able to put your tow vehicle next to your passenger side frontage, but since there is no picnic table, that doesn’t matter, does it.

And so, yeah, no picnic table. This makes some food prep and dining difficult. I found myself in my kitchen cooking on this trip and not outside grilling because I typically use the campground picnic table for my tabletop grill. I suspect a lot of RVers do the same, not to mention “traveling light” tent campers. The absence of picnic tables really reduced the utility of this campground for future visits not associated with the RV club. If you want to cook and dine outside, be prepared to bring your own camp tables. But also be aware that you will be almost on top of your neighbor’s utility pole or sewer port.

Water pressure was good, not too much, not too littler. Power was also good. I didn’t notice any sagging voltages under higher load. Air conditioners were being used a couple of the days I was here and my neighbor’s use of AC and power didn’t seem to have any impact on my voltage measurements.

Staff at the office were friendly. There was supposed to be a camp host, and their fifth wheel was set up, but I don’t think I saw them during my visit.

Campsites are mostly grass, with a compact gravel drive through the campground. Other campgrounds that are partial hook-up have more grass and less gravel, and I felt more trees and foliage.

Bathroom and shower facilities are located near most of the campgrounds. There was not a bathroom/shower located near the Pavilion campground, but the campground just to the west had a newer pre-fab building which was industrial, but also well maintained. These are not resort campground bathrooms by any means.

The Grant County Fairgrounds might have been on the outskirts of town years ago, but the city has grown out and around the fairgrounds. You have a bit of a drive off from I-90, through town to get here. Enter at Gold gate off from Airway Dr NE, and the office will be straight ahead on the left with an after hours board nearby.

Campground is very quite, logical as you are a long way away from major highways. Also logical as the lack of picnic tables, lack of fire rings, odd utility setup, and lack of space between rigs doesn’t really foster late night entertaining. Oh and there is nothing here for the kids to do, no playground, no pool. So, if you have kids and they are used to campgrounds with kids stuff, or are used to state park or national park campgrounds where there is stuff to explore, well none of that here. Lots of fairgrounds buildings, but that is about it.

I get the impression that most who camp here are doing so because they are passing through with horses and they have horse facilities, or they don’t have horses and are passing through and the price is hard to beat, or they are attending something at the fairgrounds, a livestock event, a rally, etc. The price is hard to beat for a full hookup site, but the price also reflects the lack of the site being set up for real camping.

This was our last camping outing for the year before we had to winterize and pack it in for the winter. I received an email from Washington State Parks in late August that promoted the new Cove Loop at Steamboat Rock State Park. So, looking at the reservations page for this park, it showed the new loop and what appeared to a mostly unreserved campground through the remainder of September and October until reservations ended for the season. I had to jump on the opportunity of staying in a new loop with new utilities, new fire pit, new picnic table, etc. I wasn't disappointed.

In the new Cove Loop, each campsite has full hookups. While not totally unheard of, this is the first I've experienced of a full hookup site with two sewer ports. One about midway up the driveway and one at the back of the driveway next to the power and water post. At first I thought it was overkill, but then it became clear how logical this was. Different rigs have different locations for their sewer dump, and it has become quite common for a lot of newer trailers to have sewer dump at the rear of the rig, however a lot of other rigs still have dump about amidships. This was a huge design plus for the site. However if you are like me, a service bay that is amidships, the rear of campsite location for power and water required me to get out my longest water hose and my 30amp extension cord to get connected. I'm glad I had both of those or else I wouldn't have had power or water. The electrical box is new and very much up to standard. I looked at the readings from my Power Watchdog a few times over the weekend and found that input power never suffered any voltage drops and the post was wired up totally correctly without any odd grounds or hot neutrals, etc. Being a new power post the outlets were tight and the breakers were very positive. I wasn't super excited to see a rather average twist valve for the water service. I had kind of hoped to see a lever pull water service. Water pressure was very good.

Since we were camping in October, weather was not hot, but the days were pleasant and the nights not bitterly cold. We did have to heat overnight. There is little established vegetation in the new loop. Our site had an asphalt driveway that was nearly level, with a pea gravel camp area. If you are tent camping this might not be the most comfortable surface to pitch a tent on. The central area of the loop has the restroom/shower house, and has a very green lawn. Some trees have been planted in the lawn area. However each campsite is bordered by unlandscaped areas that are covered in weed mat and very large broken stone. If this were the middle of summer our campsite would have had no shade, and Steamboat Rock is known for being very hot in the summer. I hope the state comes through and plans more trees around each campsite. This will add to the privacy of the sites and provide necessary shade during the summer. The sooner they do that the sooner those trees will mature to provide real coverage.

All camping loops are connected by a paved bike path that runs along the waterfront. There are two access points from the Cove Loop to the bike path. We rode that path numerous times. The playground is all the way at the north end of the state park near the day use parking lot and boat launch. It is a very impressive playground and your younger kids will probably want to be there most of the day.

Steamboat Rock is basically in the middle of nowhere in Washington State. It is a fairly long drive from I-90, through a number of small towns and then onto winding state highways which are a bit washboardy. Be prepared for a slower drive. Also beware of wind. You may have a lot of wind along hwy 17 and hwy 155 depending on conditions. This will also slow down your journey. There is a rather long access road off hwy 155 that takes you about 2 miles from the highway to the state park entrance gate. The entrance is staffed. I've arrived after hours at other state parks and been able to check in at the welcome board without issue, I did not notice how Steamboat handles after hours check-ins.

Steamboat Rock is an oasis in a desert of sagebrush and columnar basalt. It is a great place to unwind, maybe put your boat in the late, let the kids run around on their bikes and stargaze at night. The park is in excellent condition and very well maintained. Prepare yourself for varying and changing weather conditions, especially in the spring and fall.

Cell service is varied. We had weak service at our campsite, but had very strong service at the playground. Our provider is AT&T. We also found better service closer to the water than inside any of the camping loops. Your mileage may vary.

We booked a full service pull-thru in the T-sites. The layout of the pull-thru T-sites felt very un-Washington State Parks and was totally different from our previous experiences with camping in Washington State Parks. The numbered loop sites are very pretty, and very typical of most Washington State parks on the west side of the Cascades, with lots of natural vegetation separating sites. The T-sites, which have all the utilities, felt like a low budget RV park. There was no separation between sites with vegetation or any kind of natural barrier. You could see everything your fellow campers were doing in their sites, and the lack of tree canopy or vegetation meant that daytime sun came through hot and heavy during our early August stay, making this part of the campground unusually warm compared to the numbered loops. We had an overly friendly neighbor that invited themselves into our campsite to chat and whatnot every couple of hours, we figure this wouldn't have been the case if there had been some kind of wall of bushes between us and them.

One of the best parts of this campground is the access to the Mt. Saint Helens interpretive center, which is easily accessible through a pedestrian tunnel underneath hwy 504, which separates Seaquest on the north side of the highway from the visitor's center on the south side.

Lots of bugs, the mosquitos were very bad, probably the worst during our combined camping trip, which visited 3 different state parks in the northwest. Try to come prepared, but even with bug spray and candles and making a fire every night even though it was hot out, we were basically eaten alive.

Cell service was spotty at best. I marked that we had one bar of 4G LTE while there, you could pass a text message or two, but phone calls were difficult and data was not possible.

Restrooms and showers were typical for Washington State parks. Restroom with a single shower stall at the back end of the restroom. Washington state charges for showers. Something like 3 minutes for 50 cents, plus you have to exchange your cash for tokens. The restroom near the T sites had a cash exchange there, sometimes the cash/token exchange is only at the check-in station at the front of the park. Restrooms were almost always totally spotless and well stocked. The color pallet is fairly modern, bright, mostly light grays and whites, no earth tones. The shower stall was "self-contained', including a toilet and shower in one very large stall with a bench. While the combined shower and toilet stall makes for a nice routine if your mornings include a constitutional prior to your shower, the lack of multiple shower stalls for so many camp sites, both the pull-thru T sites and for neighboring numbered sites, means that a backup of people waiting for a shower could be possible. It certainly didn't seem like enough facilities for the number of sites in the vicinity of the shower house.

Utility provisions on the camp site were typical Washington State, with a nicely mounted and solid water faucet, a normal power pedestal in good working order, and a well placed and easily accessible flip cap sewer port. While the site may not have had much privacy, the utilities were in excellent working order and well designed.

We would come back again, but we might forgo having sewer on site and stay in the numbered loops with water and electric to have a more woodsy camping experience. The biggest improvement the state can do for the T sites is to get some native vegetation planted between camp sites to at least give the illusion of privacy.

We started our camping season with a weekend visit to Wanapum. Site 6 is a pull thru on the original loop. The RV pad is very level, but is also gravel, not asphalt. The utility pole was in great shape, like most Washington State Parks, and functioned properly. Water pressure strong and voltage available at the pole did not sag, as it often does at other RV parks. There is minimal shade on Site 6. Neighboring Site 8 has much more shade through the day, but the RV pad did not appear to be as level and the whole campsite is basically on a downhill slope. Site 4 had more shade at their picnic table throughout the day, but was basically a shade less site like 6. The sites that are mostly back-ins and on the inside of the main camping loop had more shade due to having more mature trees. I'd estimate that the back-in sites nearest the restrooms have the most opportunity for shade.

Campsites are huge, but not at all private. Sites are also not well shaded. We only had shade on our picnic table during the afternoon, but it wasn't particularly good shade as the trees that provided it were rather sparse. We had a huge amount of grass available to us in our campsite. A fire ring and aluminum picnic table were on our site, but a rather longish walk away from the RV. This is one of those campsites where you had better have a Clam day tent or awning to put up as you aren't going to have the campsite amenities close enough to your rig for your RV awning to do much good for you.

Campground hosts were visible and were out tidying up sites which had just been vacated almost as soon as the previous group had left. Because the campground is in the desert all the grass you see has to be irrigated. So unoccupied campsites were being actively irrigated in between occupants. I didn't notice too many campfires around the campground while we were there and couldn't locate the firewood for purchase. It was pretty warm for a mid-May visit, so maybe nobody was thinking about having a fire at night.

Restrooms were typical for Washington State Parks; well maintained. Washington State typically charges for showers, but during our visit the showers did not require tokens or coins to operate. I wouldn't bank on this being a permanent change to park policy.

Cellular service was excellent. Performance was as good or better than if you were in a major city. I was fully connected all weekend, which might not have been the best for unplugging and enjoying the outdoors. Access to the water is going to be at the swim beach or at the boat ramp. The campground itself has no access to the water except by following the roads down to the water or hiking the marked trails down to the beach. This is a 5 or maybe 10 minute walk. It helps to have bikes to get around because things are a bit spread out here.

We will be back, not sure when, but overall a quality, well maintained, if not fancy, campground.