Absolutely loved this campground and are so happy we made this our home base for the trip! These campsites are decently big (we just had a two-person tent and a compact car), and the area was relatively quiet outside of quiet hours. The entire time just felt calm and peaceful. The surrounding forest is beautiful, and there are some good trails to be found here. The Ohanapecosh Visitor Center is also here, so you'll have access to rangers and free WiFi to plan your day and get your maps sorted. Check ahead of time to see if they are allowing campfires - there is currently a campfire ban, so we made sure to bring our portable stove to cook. Some sites are first come-first serve, others can be reserved in advance. Definitely plan ahead and check out their website. Clean bathrooms, but there are no showers at this campground. Great choice for a campsite in Mt Rainier! read more

Ohanapecosh Campground - Ohanapecosh River - Parks Near Me - Packwood, Washington

One of the best campsites I've stayed at. I love this place so much. I prefer it over cougar rock. Lots of trees and so green and pretty with a river right next to you and an amazing hike. We plan to come back next year and stay at this campground read more

See all

A wonderful space to relax by yourself or to bring your family for a easy hike. Gorgeous forest, wonderful rangers, and a nice setup for fresh water and restrooms. No cellphone or wifi service, which I thought was kind of nice! read more

See all

It's a nice reasonably priced campsite with good friendly staff. Silver falls hike (2.5 miles rt, easy to moderate) starts from this campground and is definitely worth going for. There is also a small stream close to the campsite which you can walk down to as well. As for firewood, there is a blue colored van which comes into the campground between 5-7pm to sell firewood ($6 per bundle). Unfortunately our fire pit did not have an height adjustable grill, so we we had to figure out how to make it work for our cooking. The only complaint I had was - the campsites are close to each other. I am not an avid camper but in my previous experience I have seen much more private lots. Some lots were very close to the restrooms, so pls do make sure before you reserve. read more

See all

Beautiful campground under giant trees which provide plenty of shade. If you can't get reservations, keep checking the website daily. We scored some as people changed their plans. Bathrooms were clean but try to avoid D-loop. Although not bad, those facilities are more heavily used by day hikers parking nearby to access the Silver Falls trail located within the campground. read more

Friendly Staff and Nice Place Nice little hiking trails wind you along nice rivers and waterfalls through majestic trees and wonderful greenery! This is a nice place to explore some nature. Definitely make the short 2 miles or so round trip hike to silver falls, The water was so powerful there unlike most of the more gentle falls we saw in Oregon and Washington. The staff at the visitor center was really friendly and I liked the tree dating display which was super cool. Camping here gets pretty packed but I was happy to find a spot for the night! Tip: Bring some firewood with you when you come, or pay close attention for the firewood truck when it makes it rounds. My normal scavenge hunt for firewood proved less effective since the wood on the ground is mostly wet and rotting already and thus doesn't burn almost at all. read more

Ohanapecosh is a great campsite-lots to do in the vicinity. Recent landslides have closed a few campsites but there are lots to go round at Ohanapecosh. Calling the ranger ahead of time is recommended- that way you know what to expect and what is open. Grove of Patriarchs is a close hike away. Lots of waterfalls and places to explore. read more

This is a good reasonably priced campsite on the east side of Mt Rainier on Hwy 123 just before you get to the gates into the NP (you still need a NP pass to camp here). It has a River running through it and trails leading from it and Grove of the Patriarchs is about a 5 min drive away just inside the park gates if you want to do the shorter 1 1/2 mile walk. This is a standard NP campsite, water, flushing toilet, ranger programs certain days (Thurs-Sun when we were there in Aug) and no showers. We didn't have a booking so had some trouble finding a site so I would recommend booking or getting there early to get a walk in site. Its also really shady as the trees are quite large all through the campsite. read more

We just returned after camping at Ohanapecosh. Due to the fact that it's a popular campground and my friends wanted to delay registration by a couple weeks, we ended up booking pretty late and had to go from Sunday to Tuesday. This ended up being fortuitous since it was not too busy during our stay. We were bummed because there was a burn ban in effect due to the wildfires, but we were prepared and brought a camp stove. The rangers were very friendly and informative. The bathrooms were clean and the garbage stations were well-tended. The Silver Falls hike starts right behind the visitor's center and is worth the three miles round trip to visit the falls. We really enjoyed our stay and will come back again next summer. read more

See all

Love the serenity feel of this campground. Beautiful hike to Silver Falls and fun river play though the water is cold so it's more like skipping rock play. Blue water from the glacier. You can't see Mt. Rainier but it's only 45 minutes drive to Steven Canyon entrance. To see Mt Rainier you have to be there before 8 am or after 12 pm. The fog covers it in between those time. I went end of June. read more

Beautiful place to camp! Large campsites. Lots of trails and the waterfall is a big bonus!

So very disappointed in my recent trip back with my family :(. My husband and I specifically picked this campground because marijuana is not allowed.....or so we thought. There was so much weed smoking going on. Now the burn ban was totally disregarded by many. The Rangers did not seem to care. The bathrooms were filthy!! We ended up leaving early and very disappointed. I used to camp here as a child with my grandparents and family and have lots of wonderful memories. I am so glad I was able to bring my husband and daughter here to show them where I used to camp. The hike to Silver Falls was just as beautiful as I remembered. But unfortunately this will be our last trip. read more

Been coming here in every year for 25 years. It was a family tradition that I have passed on to my kids. We love the A loop, love the flushing toilets and love hanging out near the river. The rangers are basically there when you need them, but normally, they aren't walking around. Listening to the river running through camp is relaxing. Every year, we like to jump in the river and play below the bridge. There are many hikes around, many of which we love - silver falls, snow lake, reflection lake, and of course Paradise. Along the way, there are many waterfalls. Also, we love spending time with family and relaxing in front of the fire. read more

I cannot believe that I am leaving a 2-star rating for this campground that I have come to know and love for almost 50 years! The campground itself, and the old-growth forest, hikes to Silver Falls and Grove of the Patriarchs are all still 5+ star attractions, however the lack of campground management leaves the experience less than satisfying. I offer the following for your consideration when considering this, or any other NPS campground) campground: 1) The TOTAL lack of management of the natural resources are quickly turning the once-lush campsites into barren dust bowls! There is no enforcement of rules and visitors have turned the old-growth forest into a playground for their unsupervised children...who behave no better than their absent parents, trampling everything underfoot and picking every plant they see! This, coupled with not enforcing campsite-capacity rules result in hordes of campers descending upon campsites like a biblical plague of locusts, smothering the forest and consuming/destroying everything in sight. 2) DOGS, DOGS, DOGS!!! It is incomprehensible why a NPS campsite, where dogs are (supposedly) not allowed on the trails, allows dogs to be kept in the campsites, especially when they bark constantly and the Park Rangers are not willing to enforce quiet hours. I have discussed this matter with them, only to be told that their is nothing that they can (will?) do...and the dogs go on barking, destroying the other campers' enjoyment of nature's peace and quiet! So, go to enjoy the hikes and sights, but do not go under the illusion of enjoying a pristine and peaceful camping experience. Your disrespectful fellow campers and the non-enforcement of park regulations by the NPS work together to quickly destroy that! read more

The grounds are nice and well maintained but it is located in a narrow and steep valley, which meant two things. First, the sun was behind the mountain to the west pretty early, leaving it feeling dark and a bit dreary. But more importantly, the smoke from the campfires was trapped in and very thick at times. We ended up packing up and going down to la wis wis and got a beautiful site right next to the river. I'm not sure if the smoke is always a problem or if we just picked a particularly still day. read more

I have stayed at Ohanapecosh for years. LOVE IT! Most of the negative reviews seem to be about not liking to "rough it". It is NOT a resort. it IS a wonderful place to experience nature. To those who did not like it, add that it is quiet, beautiful, and, oh yes, the water is COLD! I heartily recommend it and its sister site at La Wis Wis just down the road toward Packwood. read more

Ohanapecosh is breathtaking. Campsites are large and well laid out. Bathrooms are clean and well stocked. Dogs are not allowed on any of the trails, no scooters or skateboards are allowed for the kids. The Visitor Center here is small but very nice. They offer the Junior Ranger Program at 10am, guided nature walks with rangers at 2:30 and on Thursday thru Sunday they have evening programs about interesting facts about the area in the spacious amphitheater at 8:30pm. Something I have never seen before in our camp trips, Sunday Church services in the amphitheater at 10:30 am. Thought that that was pretty cool. The Ohanapecosh river cuts the campground in half, the D through H loops nearly all have bubbling creeks coursing through them, perfect for the kids to build small dams and splash around in the hot afternoon. End of July and the river was much too swift for swimming although the braver teenagers and some adults did dive off of a few of the glacial rocks in to the river...but they were each strong swimmers. The Silver Falls hike is about 2 1/2 miles roundtrip, I would stay on the visitor center's side of the trail's loop and just back track on our way back if I were to do it again. MUCH prettier trail. The Grove of the Patriarch's is another .9 miles from Silver Falls. Making the Grove of the Patriarch's hike little under 4.5 miles. Doable and worth it, even with kids, but where good shoes and pack plenty of water and snacks. (flip flops kept us from continuing on, not fun.) If you don't hike in to the Grove and want to drive, you have to have a National Park's pass in order to park ($15, good for 1 week at all of the National Park's trailheads/interpretive centers). This campground is NOT in Elbe. It is just 9 miles outside of Packwood. From Seattle to Ohanapecosh it took only 2 hours to reach using Hwy 410 beginning in Enumclaw. read more

Extremely disappointed is only the start. We respected the burn ban but others did not. You walked by certain camp sites and all you could smell was weed. My son talked to a ranger about the weed and was told they couldn't do anything. On to the burn ban....a large group of young people showed up and I went over to their campsite and told them about the burn ban. They went ahead and started a fire, they were using lighter fluid so the flames were up to six feet high. We went and talked to the ranger about it and he said off the record he thought it was ridiculous that there couldn't be a fire. He did go talk to them and said they could use charcoal in the fire pit but we sat and watched them shoot the fluid on it to make real high flames then we're just laughing and smoking weed. Yes, we were that close to their site. The problem was the ranger didn't care. Charcoal was fine if they would of used it for cooking but they weren't we watched them cut up the wood around the site. We have camped up here for years. We took two dogs with us but we cleaned up after them sure wish others would do the same. We've made our last trip there. We left a day early because of these young people and a Ranger that should of taken his job serious. read more