Goodell Creek Campground

We travel full time and, generally speaking, we need to be connected to the internet so my wife can work a part time job.

I scheduled Goodell purposefully on the two days of the week she is officially off work because of the review just below this one which states:

"The Verizon service was marginal and barely enough for a video call. It worked, but was not ideal for heavy internet use even with an extender."

The report was written in August of 2020 and is no longer true. We have 4 bars of Verizon service in Site #5 and enough bandwidth for browsing the internet or streaming. I am composing this review in the campground.

This time of year and because the snowpack is plentiful this year, the sound of Goodell Creek as it moves by Site #5 is thunderous. Great for opening the windows at night for sleeping in the 50 degree F. temps.

We have a 25' van with a carrier on the back making our total length about 28' and fit nicely into Site #5.

Getting a site is by reservation, but, and this is a great exception. If you arrive without a reservation and there's a placard on the site post that says "Free," indicating the site is not reserved, you can move into it and it's free to you for the night. You may have to move if the site is reserved the next day.

The $10.00 site fee reflects a senior discount.

This is a very nice campground that is right on the Skagit river. We came at 10am on a Wednesday to snag a site that fit our 42' 5th wheel really well. We had access to a small beach on the river. This is dry camping with water available in various locations along the campground road. There are also pit toilets available.

Each site had a picnic table and fire pit. The sites vary in size, but are spaced apart a reasonable distance. There are two loops that we were able to drive down with our 5th wheel. It was fairly quiet at night with moderate traffic during the day. The key is to come early and look at the tags on the sites. Each day a ranger comes around and writes the stay dates on a dry erase tag that is attached to the site post.

The Verizon service was marginal and barely enough for a video call. It worked, but was not ideal for heavy internet use even with an extender.

I highly recommend staying here as it was beautiful! The Gorge Powerhouse is a couple minutes up the road in New Halem. The closest services are in Marblemount which is about 20 minutes south.

We really enjoyed our stay at Goodell Campground, where we found one of the few spots that would accommodate our fifth wheel. We wanted to stay in the National Park Complex for our stay in the Cascades, and this one of two campgrounds that were still open for the year. The other being Gorge Creek. The nice thing for our stay is that it was October, and the CG was on primitive status, and they were no longer charging for the season. The creek behind our campsite was beautiful, and there was lots of foliage. If you have solar like us, then just count it out for your stay here, as you can see in the pictures its a pretty heavy canopy, which was kind of neat as it rained and it felt like a leaky umbrella. Several trails are in the area via driving to them, but just a short distance down the road is the Newhalem CG and the NP visitor center, that host several shorter trails. If we were to come during the regular season, we would at least attempt to find a spot in that CG.

Small campground very close to Newhalem. Close enough to have a couple bars of 4G. Sites on the water have gorgeous river and mountain views, but no privacy, as usual. Site 19 is fairly private, in comparison. You can hear hwy 20, but it's not terrible and dies down completely by 9pm. Vault toilets, boat launch, water spigot, trash dumpsters, and bear boxes. Most, but not all, sites are level. First come, first served. Only accepts cash or check. I looked first around Diablo Lake. Gorge Lake CG was full and Colonial Creek CG no reservation area was really cramped, almost full on a Monday in late July. Goodell, I had no neighbors on either side. Tho part of that is due to the site I chose, this campground was def less crowded.

This campground is very centrally located in the park and even though it was right on the main road it was quiet and in the creek side sites, you can hear the creek from the campsites. While there are no hook-ups, there is room for small motorhomes and trailers. We were there in June 2015. On Saturday, the campground filled up, but during the week there were only about five other sites occupied. Not all the sites are suitable for motorhomes/trailers due to the slope.