Bowl & Pitcher Campground

Had to stop for the night, took whatever I could find. The sites by the river are really cool. But I was up top and a short walk to swinging bridge, hiking trails and the exit.
Quiet grounds, clean and friendly hosts.

Riverside State Park is a gem of Spokane. There are actually two campgrounds; the larger campground is located on the north bank of the Spokane River, at "Bowl and Pitcher". There is another campground located at the northwest end of the park, situated on Long Lake (aka Lake Spokane). This review is for the larger campground located at Bowl and Pitcher.

The campground is beautifully situated on the north bank of the Spokane River. There are a several ways you can access the campground which should be obvious with a GPS or map; all involve taking Aubrey White Parkway either from the north or the south. The northern approach is probably easier for bigger motorhomes and trailers. Use caution because it's a park road with lots of bicycle and foot traffic. The speed limit is 25 MPH.

There are many site options including tent sites, paved RV pads, and group camping. Many of the sites are right above the river bank. You and your pets can't swim here though. The current is very fast and there are rapids just downstream from the campground! If you're looking for swimming acces, visit the park's other campground on Long Lake.

Positives:
-very well maintained
-choice of sites
-on the river
-just a few miles from downtown Spokane
-access to over 80 miles of hiking/biking trails

Negatives:
-can fill up in the summer.
-can be noisy in the summer

Date of Stay: July 2015

Needing to stay in Spokane for a few nights, we chose to stay at Riverside State Park - Bowl and Pitcher. Named after rock formations that resemble a bowl and pitcher (funny how that works), the park is in a beautiful setting on the banks of the Spokane River.

The campground has an upper loop and a lower loop. Upper loop only has a few sites with electric and water, with the remaining being dry camping. The lower loop has all electric and water sites.

We snagged the last remaining site about a week out and ended up with site 22, a dry camping site. For $35. No, that isn’t a misprint! And we were nailed a $5 non-resident fee when reserving online. Plus the $8 online reservation fee. For a tidy sum of $83 for two nights of dry camping. Yeah, not overjoyed by this.

The upper loop doesn’t have much space between each site. It is in a generally round pattern with sites in two loops - think a loop in a loop, kinda sorta. Anyhow, the bottom line is that it is pretty tightly packed in. We literally had a site behind our site, even though the driveway was next to us. Weird. And not conducive to a lot of peace and quiet when it is full. And it will be in the busy season.

The day use parking lot is just below the upper loop, so you get the joy of listening to the day use crowd.

The lower loop not only has the water and power connections, but it is tucked down by the river, past several signs that say no day use. In other words, it is quieter down there. But more expensive. Tradeoffs, right?

The river is very peaceful with a suspension bridge leading to the other shore. And a network of trails that can be used for hiking or mountain biking. Speaking of biking, the Spokane River Centennial Trail passes through the park on the opposite shore from the campground. This is a 37 mile paved bike trail, which we took from the park to the north end and back. Very nice. Wide, quiet and scenic.

Back at the campground, there was some noise from a distant train, every now and again. No whistle, fortunately. Just the rumbling. And the second morning of our stay had military helicopters doing their thing up and down the river. I find that cool, but some people might find it annoying.

Speaking of the river, it was flowing fairly slowly (levels were down), so you could take a dip in the edge if you so desired. Of course you might want to think twice before doing this as there is a sewage treatment plant (they call it a water reclamation facility) one mile upstream. Yes, they dump the treated sewage into the river. Yes, there are signs that say don’t eat too many of the fish. I can’t make this stuff up!

Good AT&T and Verizon cell service, as one would expect from a park in a major city.

...as there are plenty of reviews that summarize this perfectly, I'll take this moment to talk a little about WA State Parks in general, and how Bowl & Pitcher compares.

Basically, it's good.

We had a river spot for the first three nights. It had water and power hookups. $35 / night.

Then we had to move up to the top campground, which meant smaller spots, no hookups, and the crowd up top was much louder. $25 / night up there.

But you can't just show up to a WA State Park and get an open spot. You HAVE TO make a reservation online.

Which comes with a $5 out of state fee. And an $8 reservation fee. So I think that's a scam, really. If you choose to just play it by ear, you'll need to move around a bunch. Every day you'll need to wait until close to checkout time and then find another open spot. Annoying.

And most of the state's state parks, well, they suck. They're more like private RV parks (close spots, big grass patches instead of whatever the actual nature should be). Bowl & Pitcher was pretty natural though. We saw an osprey screaming at a falcon, the latter then snatched something from the osprey's nest and dropped it into the river. Saw a big buck, and a bard owl (I believe) swooped down in front of us as we drove home one night. That was all epic.

Some sites, deemed "popular", can run as much as $45 / night. That doesn't necessarily mean hookups, just that the site is popular for whatever reason. And then you have to pay for showers. Except the token machines were broken so we didn't have to pay. And the water was cold.

But the cell service and proximity to Spokane was great. So I would, should I ever choose to return to this odd little town in the hills of Eastern WA, stay again.

And I'd complain about the reservation system. And hope for more wildlife.

The staff was particularly nice, so I wanted to mention that. But in WA, boondocking at Fish & Wildlife or choosing an NFS campground is preferable to state parks. They're cheaper and just more beautiful.

Toodles.

We were in the top loop without power -- too bad because we're staying in a heat wave (mid 90s). Smallish sites and no privacy screening. 15-20 minute drive to downtown but the Riverside park is beautiful! Centennial Trail is close and downtown is bike-able for the ambitious.

This a popular park and as others have said reservations must be made online ahead of time.

Unfortunately, WA State Parks, supposedly for financial reasons, decided to close for the winter the best sites in the park, the utility sites at the lower campground by the river and leave open the cruddy, noisy and cramped non-utility sites at the upper campground. Regrettably, they fail to mention the closure of the prime utility sites at the WA Parks website. I brought this to the rangers attention and hopefully they will update their website. IMO, it's a crime that they close the best sites in this very busy Park, especially without notification.

Ended up staying in the upper campground gagging on the campfire smoke of our neighbors.

Non-utility camping sites are free at all WA State Parks from October to the end of April for all WA State residents 62 and older with a senior off-season WA Parks Pass. Utility sites cost $10 per night with the pass. Passes cost $75 per year. A real bargain that pays for itself very quickly!

Nice shaded spots close to city with friendly staff. Bathrooms were clean and access to water and dump was easy. Fair price for WA but always hate paying $32 for no hook-ups.

Fantastic bike, hike, run trail runs along both sides of river. A few little beach/swimming holes along the river near campground. Really quiet.

Very impressed by how well run and maintained the campground was! Initially we felt that $45/nt. was pretty steep for a site that didn't have sewer hookups but you can see that the money is well spent on keeping the campground in great shape. Sites are gravel, level, reasonably shaded, and well maintained. Campsites 1-14 are right on the river bank and have lots of greenspace.
On the drive in, you pass a water treatment facility which doesn't have the most pleasant aroma - from the campground though, you'd never know it was even there.
Be aware... the road in/out of the park is very narrow with steep cliffs on both sides - larger rigs should take it slow.

Great campground with decent proximity to the city. Good hiking right from the campground, and beautiful, secluded spots that were spacious. Our site #10 had a little path right down to the river, which other sites did not. Overall wonderful experience there!