Cowlitz Fish Hatchery

The river is beautiful... the hatchery looks like a prison, with barbed wire fencing all around. There's some great grassy areas on either side of the boat ramp parking lot, where we saw a tent pitched, but it's just not an area where we'd spend more than a night.

There is free camping available ad hoc on the grassy, large sides of the boat launch parking lot, anywhere you don't see a sign saying "No Camping". Rules are maximum camping 3 days in a 7 day period, no campfires, tents and gas stoves allowed. There is a pit toilet at one end, and a porta-potty at the other. No running water, showers, dump, or utilities of any kind.

It's nothing outstanding, but for free, it was quite solid. It is worth a 10 minute detour from I-5 just to have the sounds of a river rather than traffic all night. There is camp space next to the river on the left as you enter, or plenty of flat, grassy space on the right for your big rig. On a summer Saturday night, there were 6 other campers dispersed around a huge area beside the hatchery.

Closest store was the Shell station when you get off at exit 63. I stopped at Safeway in Kelso exit 39 northbound, or in Centralia exit 82 southbound. AT&T LTE 2 Mbps down/0.2 Mbps up

We found ourselves here after failing to find a boondocking location near Mount Saint Helens. As of this review a lot of roads are still closed, and all the cool things to see are still closed as well (grr!).

This fish hatchery is run by Tacoma Lighting and Power, and the location also has a very popular boat ramp to launch into the Cowlitz river. During our stay there was always someone there fishing, and every so often the sounds of outboard motors filled the air.

It honestly wasn't that bad. We had relatively decent internet on Verizon, enough to stream. We used the dump station at Gus Backstrom City Park, and got potable water at the Cascade Peaks Campground on our way out to our next spot.

Stayed here a couple nights on the way up north. It’s in a rural area, very quiet and beautiful. We parked in the evening on a weekday and there was maybe one other person here after 7 pm. We saw a bald eagle and multiple blue herons our first night. There is some cell service and a pit toilet. Official signs with rules say “3 nights with 7 day absence”. We were confused if it was two but the signs are very clear. Best you can ask for lot camping/dry camping.

Stayed for one night. Felt a little weird parking by the groups of cars at the end so I parked further up on the grass and was perfectly fine. There was a port a potty and a vault toilet in the main parking area. Minimal but some cell service. It is a boat launch so be prepared for fisherman coming early in the morning and lots of traffic in and out. No picnic tables either. But if you’re looking just for a free place to sleep for the night it works.

Blue Creek Boat Launch

The boat launch is located near the trout hatchery and includes a large parking lot, restrooms and ADA-compliant riverside fishing platforms. There is no cost to use the boat launch.

Camping is allowed in part of the parking lot for up to three days, but no fires are allowed.