MarigoldTheMinnieWinnie

We have only used it for the Sani dump and that experience was horrendous. I won't go into details but do not get fresh water from this Sani stop. The whole rest area has been a long term camp site and the authorities do nothing about it. Each time we go by it has grown larger.

We spent two nights in site 49 the past weekend.

The good:
- location! amazing location with great scenery and views.
- great programs for kids and adults
- a great location for exploring Whidbey Island.
-some sites with lots of privacy and space

The things to consider:
-noise from aircraft is there, however, for us, the few planes that we did hear were not disruptive.
-choose your site wisely - some have uneven pads and the driveways can be a bit hard to navigate with larger rigs also some are quite close to your neighbor.
-site 49 is one of the few sites that are close to the highway and highway noise was constant. We loved our site itself but not the noise.
-we had a large group show up at the site beside us the second night. They were very loud until after 1:30am and no one seemed to come by to stop it.

Summary:
Amazing location! Amazing scenery! Great programs! A gem of a state park. Just choose your site wisely in terms of location within the park and be sure to check the individual site photos to make sure the site will be suitable for your needs. The lower down in the loops to the lake you are the quieter site you should have from hwy noise.

We just returned from 5 nights here. Let me preface by saying this is our first experience at a US National Park campground in the last 8 years.

Positives:
-It was a great location for exploring the Northern end of Olympic National Park. We were able to do day visits to the Hoh Rainforest, Rialto Beach and La Push, Cape Flattery and area and Hurricane Ridge.
-Easy to get to - right off Hwy 101
-Lake access was great.
-Sani dump on location.
-The forested location and beautiful lake were lovely.
-The sites themselves were clean and picked up between campers.

Negatives:
-the sites are very unlevel. It took several attempts to get our trailer in a position that was level for the 5 days we were there. Not just getting the trailer level but you would have to brace things put on the picnic table as it was slopped also. And getting chairs to a flat spot was very challenging - it is on a hill so everything slopes.
-the restroom situation is not sufficient. Loop A had closed restrooms and outhouses (that were in horrible condition) loop B's restrooms were really serving both loops along with the day use area as they don't have one. That is three stalls for two loops plus a very, very crowded day use area on the weekend. The restrooms have no soap which has been mentioned but was also just not well kept up and cleaned we felt.
-the noise from hwy 101 is constant and many, many times overnight you will hear the logging trucks applying their brakes coming down the hill beside the campground. There is no getting around it as it is so close to the hwy. I will say there was not a lot of late-night noise from other campers which was great.
-there is a boat launch on-site and a small dock area for swimming with a small parking lot. We were there over a very warm weekend in August and that area was filled with a couple of hundred people and all their cars there for day use. This made access to the Sani dump (which is in that parking lot) impossible. Plus as mentioned above - all those people are using the campground restrooms.
-the garbage dumpsters were so full they were overflowing at times, especially the ones closest to the day use area and walk-in sites. I think this might be a result of day use using these also. They stayed that way for a couple of days and would be an attractant to wildlife for sure.

Summary: We would stay again for an overnight as we moved through the area. For an extended stay, we found more negatives than positives - Which makes me very sad to say it. We love the National Parks of Canada and the US. Perhaps we are seeing the results of being grossly underfunded - we are not sure. We are from Canada so don't know the complete picture of funding. We believe that could be the case as we also came to ranger stations not staffed and many areas that were showing that infrastructure could not keep up with the demand as in almost every location the restrooms were in pretty dire need of upkeep, garbages were overflowing etc.

Olympic National Park is a stunningly diverse and beautiful National Park and we were so glad we had a chance to visit and explore it and would recommend it to anyone considering it. If the neglect of locations that we have seen is truly due to funding we truly hope that these gems are better-funded once again n the future!