Poole Creek Campground

Very nice campground and we were there week before labor day weekend. Weather was nice with rain in the forecast for the weekend. Roads are a bit tight and our site required some work to fit right and to level. Beautiful lake but the fishing was terrible. The vault toilets were clean and well stocked with the essentials. Water is nearby. Now my complaint. Late August and the forest service bureaucrat in charge had decreed NO CAMPFIRES AND NO CHARCOAL fires. So not only could we not have a nightly campfire but we could not cook outside on our grill. I know it's fire season but we are in a forest service campground with fire rings. And it has not been a particularly dry summer. Lots of green grass and green vegetation in the forest. Not catching fish and no campfires really took the wind out of the experience. The fishing issue was not anyone's fault but our own but the campfire issue was certainly and over reaction by an unaccountable bureaucrat in and office. Really looking forward to this trip but we won't be back,

Stayed here overnight after a late departure from Olympia WA and a very late - 10:00pm- arrival in the dark. Many spots were open, and all had reserved signs on them. On close flashlight inspection, these were for future dates, so I picked one and walked a few hundred yards to the fee station and filled my envelope with a $20 bill for a pull-thru. This National Park reservation protocol may be good to know, as I drove past other park areas that appeared taken with reserved slots, but that had open sites.
I haven’t dry camped much, and this may be no new news for others. Check-in is at 2:00 and check-out at 1:00.