Cowlitz Fish Hatchery

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.

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