Camano Island State Park

Nice last minute stay on a Thursday night and got lucky to grab a lower loop site that had a perfect view of the water. Spent most of the next day parked at the day use beach enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views of the Olympic mountains and Mt. Rainier peeking over Whidbey Island.

Bathrooms at the beach are very clean and nice! Also the trip to Cama Beach next door is fun. Check out the Wooden Boat center on the beach for kayak or boat rentals. There is also a very nice Cafe for lunch or breakfast there that is open from 8-2pm Thursday through Sunday.

During peak season (May 15 - September 15) there is a three-tiered fee system in effect. Currently, the fee for a campsite is $27, $32, $37. Reservations are not available for same day occupancy - only for the next day forward. However, a list of available non-reserved sites is posted daily around 9am. These sites can only be occupied for one night. Each of the 5 days I was here (end of June) there were plenty of sites available each day. For instance, there were about 7 or 8 of the least expensive sites available for each of the 5 days I stayed here. On Wednesday June 22, there were a total of 44 sites available for one night occupancy.

If you can get a spot facing south, you'll have a wonderful view of Whidbey Island (Langley). On the map this park looks flat, but it sure is not. It's hard to find a level RV spot,
They take reservations starting in Mai 15th. We were there in beginning of April, arrived at 3 and had no problem finding a near level space with view. Spaces with view are $30, there are spaces for $10 and $20

Camping in late march. No reservations needed (or possible). Campground was about one third full. There are several hiking trails (nothing too big, although you can hike through to the next state park over) and access to a large rocky beach. There isn't a ton of things to do in the area, but nice place to relax for a few days. There are cabins near the group camping and that area was noisier on the weekend.

Washrooms are heated and showers were available. Water in off season is only available at the washroom area.

Remember when you were a kid and your parents dragged you camping ? This park is like what I remember. Kids screaming, dogs barking, packs of people heading to the bathroom and...generators. It's a pretty spot with lots of shade (solar will be a challenge) and old growth forest. Totally dry camp with water available at the dump station, which I took advantage of. We got lucky and snagged the last spot during busy season and it's the ADA one staring directly at the rest room. Close enough to hear the hand dryers lol. We came to escape the heat and smoke of Eastern Washington, so mission accomplished. This is a classic park built before trailers got big, so choose very carefully. The lower loop has the cherished water views, but only a few sites look like they would take a rig like ours. There is the Camas park to explore (only cabins but a old time store) and the whole of Camano (pronounced Cah-Man-oh) area to poke around. Worth a stay if you don't mind what a boondocker might see as a negative and other people just call camping. Free for me, disabled vet.

I stayed here for 4 days and 3 nights (Tuesday - Friday) in August of 2019, and it was quite lovely. I would definitely stay at this park again in a heartbeat. The views from around site 9 (where I didn't stay) were AMAZING -- and the stairs down to the beach were well maintained. (See caveat for dog owners below.) All in all - a lovely campground with a lovely host and dedicated volunteers.

Arrival was self-registration which is good and bad. Since it was my first time at this park, I ended up going down to the parking lot by the water and having to double back because (AFAIK) there wasn't a sign for turning right for the lower loop sites. (Note: I didn't have a co-pilot, and I got turned around so that map didn't help me - and folks got backed up behind me :( ) I always appreciate it when the ranger at check in can guide me to the spot, but I think next time I will have to cement the directions better in my head for any self-registration sites since signage can be lost or hard to see.)

Site 7 is a TRICKY site for backing into. I have a 17' fiberglass trailer with a single axle. (Casita Spirit Deluxe) and a 17' Ford Ranger. There are LOTS of trees (even next to the road in front of me) and the slot to back into is narrow. I'll add some photos to illustrate. While the pad is longer, it gets more and more sloped as you go back. The WA parks site lists this as "slight" slope - but I would argue anything that would require multiple sets of leveling blocks might be better listed as "medium" - especially if you needed more length. In the end, I pulled it off, and got compliments from the audience, but I would probably NOT stay at site 7 again if I could avoid it. It is probably better suited to tent camping for this reason and for the privacy reason I'll list below.

While you cannot see site 5 from site 7, I had two separate loud families next to me, and I could hear their every word - especially from the upper part of the site. Perhaps because all the other sites around me we silent / far enough away - but this is something folks should be aware of. Good privacy != silence. In fact, I have to wonder if because they couldn't see me they didn't think to lower their voices. *shrug* The lower part of the site was a tiny bit quieter - and it was certainly more private and more level - it would make a great spot for a tent.

A couple other caveats about this particular campground...

While the stairs down to the beach (next to site 4) are well maintained, part of my concern using them was that they have nailed metal mesh to the treated lumber stairs. This mesh was -mostly- flat, but in spots it had been bent up and could have easily torn my dog's pads. We only did the stairs once because of this reason. I would recommend they consider a different traction treatment OR that dog owners bring booties.

And then there is the garbage situation... There is a nice big dumpster by the bathroom. It appears this gets emptied on Fridays. All good. There are also recycling stations scattered around the loop. So far so good. What's not great is that the recycling stations have now been adapted to also handle a single garbage bin. (So there are three bins, one for cans only, one for general recycling, and one for garbage.) The garbage bin was overflowing because people are downright lazy and terrible. Sorry. I'm that grumpy old fart. Part of my general crankiness is the lack of recycling knowledge from people who are camping and love nature.. and the larger part of my general crankiness is that the garbage attracted a lot of wasps. I wish I had packed the tools for a wasp trap and more garbage bags. (I generally only bring a few newspaper bags for my trash as I don't generate that much. I would have taken all the garbage up to the bin and set up a trap if I had known this would be a problem.) So yeah... There's that. LOVE this campground, but site 7's proximity to people's laziness made it less than ideal.

If I had my druthers, I would remove the garbage bins from the recycling stations. Failing that, I would have a nasty sign that says "if the garbage lid doesn't close, take it to the dumpers - otherwise, you're attracting pests!" I imagine they added the garbage bins to try to get people to actually recycle properly. I would also add photos to the recycling bins to make it clear that ONLY cans (no plastic) goes in the can bin - and that the recycling bin in the middle only takes clean good recycling. I would also include a link to Trevor Noah's "if you didn't know, now you know" on recycling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-htnUTN4mH0

Regarding the RV dump station - be sure to wear LOTS of DEET - lots of mosquitos there. Otherwise, it was a single stall dump station. Perfectly standard. The "lid" wasn't a lid though. It was just a lever and a stone. (I'm comparing this to the ones at Deception pass which were full lids.)

Ok. Enough ranting - back to the joys of this campground..

Absolutely beautiful. Firewood was $7 at time of writing. Camp host was friendly and helpful. Volunteers 100% wonderful ... In general, the most folks staying at this camp were friendly and good intentioned folks. I would definitely stay again - I would just bring: earplugs for the loud talkers, more leveling blocks for the "slight" slope, more garbage bags and gloves for fixing the garbage situation near me, and dog booties for the stairs.

I have mixed feelings about this park. First of all, amazing views in lower loop. In Jan 2019 the campground is now reservations May - Sept. First come first serve is tricky because you can only register for one night! I stayed in lower loop, site 11 which has lovely views of water (I have FB Airstream so could see water from my bed). Very very noisy campground! I could hear every conversation in every site on this loop. Adjacent site #12 insisted there were no quiet hours and made noise until 2am. No rangers to be seen Mon/Tue. Had no recourse to deal with lousy neighbors & was camping alone. So don’t come here for peace & quiet (and I’m here mid week early June). Upper loop almost empty so may be quieter there - and nice forest views and sites. Most sites aren’t level so if you have a trailer bring your “LEGO’s” etc. I will try again in off season. Probably too close to metro area is why so many noisy, disrespectful campers. (BTW trash left in camps by noisy campers was never cleaned up by host/etc so I went ahead & cleaned myself) ***I think they should set aside a certain number of spaces for first come first served so you don't have to move around. The park was 90% vacant for 4 nights, but many of us still had to scramble each morning to be sure we could extend or if we had to move.

We stayed 2 nights in April with a little bit of rain. The Prime sites have views of the Puget Sound and Whidbey Island. There are a few trails throughout the campground and nice long beach walks. Bathrooms were really nice and heated. Beach facilities were impressive should you want to get a group together and rent a large picnic/gathering area.

We have camped here for years, and always love this getaway so close to home. We stayed the first couple of nights in site 10 - the second best site in the park. The pad is mostly level after getting up a little rise. Take your stabilizer bars off before you back into the site. We moved next door to site 9 for the second two nights for the larger site and sweeping views of the Puget Sound, the Cascade & Olympic Mountains, Whidbey Island and Mt. Rainier.

All sites are first come first serve and have no hookups. Loop 1 is open all year and the Loop 2 is open, I believe Memorial Day - Labor Day. Most of the pull through sites that would accommodate large rigs are in Loop 2.

There are lots of trails through the forest around the park as well as a trail down to the beach. The beach can also be accessed by car and has a boat ramp.