Best Camping Spots In The State

Ask Seattle transplants why they moved to the Northwest and most will answer: proximity to the outdoors. And there's no better way to enjoy the outdoors than by cooking, cavorting and sleeping in it.

By: Roddy Scheer, Kristen Russell Dobson, and Brangien Davis | July 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Whether you prefer your alfresco accommodations to be luxe or lumpy, waterside or on wheels, our camping guide has you covered—but don't forget your sleeping bag.

camping

Roughing It
The Northwest offers plenty of ways to commune with nature, but nothing quite surpasses the getting-back-to-the-land feeling of hiking, sleeping and cooking outdoors—especially when s'mores await at the end of a day spent entirely free of walls.

Not so Roughing It
If sleeping on the ground—even on a pad in a warm sleeping bag and tent—is more than you can stomach, there are other, more civilized ways to spend the night in the great outdoors (just don’t tell your hard-core hiker pals).

Vamping
A Eurovan is the ground-averse camper’s silver bullet

Going Rogue
For many of us, spending the night in a crowded car campground, even in a beautiful locale, feels like camping in a mall parking lot.

Occupational Hazards
Contributor, avid hiker and mother of two uncomplaining campers, Kristen Russell Dobson wants to be sure you know a thing or two about the nature—and perils—of camping in the Northwest before you pitch your tent

Camping With Children
Taking your wild things with you to the wilderness?
Camping with kids presents special problems, so we asked a family-camping veteran—ParentMap’s managing editor, Kristen Russell Dobson—for some answers.

Easy Salted Caramel S’mores
A tower of decadent s'mores

Originally Published in July 2010