Dworshak State Park Campground

Luckily we didn't meet any vehicles on the drive down the hill. It has tight switchbacks and a steep grade. We have a Tundra pulling a 20' trailer. The park grounds needs some maintenance. The bathrooms and showers were clean. We didn't swim in the reservoir as it was very murky and didn't look very clean. We are used to clear, clean lakes for swimming so that was disappointing. We did hike out 4 miles on the Big Eddy Trail and if you hike the full trail it is almost 10 miles but it is a point to point trail and we didn't have a vehicle at the other end. We visited the dam on our way home and that's pretty impressive. We had 1 bar of service with AT&T if we went out on the point at the swim area if one "needed" to text. I don't think we will go back as we have better camping close to home.

A lovely state park at the bottom of a deep valley in the Palouse. There was a lake with a reservoir that was very pretty. The sites were spaced apart well, but our site, 55 had some more shade and vegetation which helped with privacy and shade (some did not have that). It was fairly quiet, but I could see at the height of summer the campground getting a bit more rowdy with all the boaters. Our site was equipped with water and electric with a dump station at the entry gate. There were a few trails throughout (probably more that we didn't explore) as well as a very nice playground. The "Beach area" swimming access was small, grassy, muddy and very "natural" and not a sandy beach or anything.

Also, be aware that there are very steep 9% grades with pretty extreme switchbacks coming into the park for about a mile. We didn't have any problems coming in or out with our Suburban Z71/Imagine 2400BH setup.

Also, we had absolutely NO cell service, even with a Weboost/MIFI set up.

Our campsite was very nice. Close to the tent camping area, which we didn't mind since we were tent camping as well. Taking a kayak to the lake can be a workout though as it's very steep to get to the lake. Our site had a lot of trees which made it nice for shade and to hang hammocks. There were old screws and nails in the trees which had been placed in them before we arrived to our site. I had temporarily just rested the hook of one of our hammocks on a screw because I was going to relocate that end to another tree. A couple park rangers driving by stopped and the senior officer between them just outright said "I see you guys put a screw in our tree, you know that's illegal and we call it campers blight." We responded right away saying we didn't put the screw in the tree and that if you look at it, you can tell it's been there for awhile. The younger junior officer was polite though and I told him that I had the hammock hooked onto some 550 cord I had wrapped around the tree, but had unwrapped the cord to make a leash line for the dog.

It is not the easiest to get to, and the road is a test for your engine and brakes, but once you arrive it is a quiet peaceful park with great water access. We originally had a reservation for a view site with no hook ups, but upon arrival they had a hookup site (#104) available, and the temps were nearly 100 degrees, so we took it! The park is large and thus the areas seem nicely spaced apart, never felt crowded, even though there are over 100 sites. There is lots of shoreline and plenty of water for everyone. We launched the kayaks and enjoyed the water ourselves - paddled to the opposite shore and found a remote unoccupied camp.

This is a nice State Park with good facilities,spacious campsites and good access to beautiful Dworshak Reservoir. It is, however, pretty isolated, hard to get to and without cell service. The road from Orofino is twisty with 7-10 per cent grades that took us one hour to drive. If you are a boater or just looking to escape, this might be your place. But to access all the treats of the neat Orofino area, there are better options.