Salmon La Sac Campground

Salmon la Sac is a fairly large, well laid out Forest Service campground at the end of WA highway 903 outside of Ronald WA. A good mix of back-in and pull-thru camp sites of highly varying length. Be aware that not all pull thru sites have the camp area on the curb side of your rig. The odd numbered sites starting with 17 thru 26 are all pull-thru, but have street side or drivers side camp sites; so you have to walk around your rig to get to the site or you have to drive against one way traffic to park with curb side facing your campsite. This also seems to play out with a number of the back-in sites. Camp sites are large and mostly secluded. In most sites you will have little view of your neighbors. While it is possible to reserve sites at recreation.gov, there are lots of first-come sites most weekends, show up mid week, Wednesday or Thursday to get the best choice of spots for over the weekend. No cell service or any kind. Potable water is available from manually operated pumps at a number of locations on site. One well head had no manual pump and a solar panel, but I was unable to make it work. The solar operated well head is also near a day use area with a pavilion and picnic tables. This is a super relaxing and beautiful place to stay.

Salmon La Sac is an older campground from the CCC days. It is quite large with 69 sites. Vault toilets and water spigots are spread throughout the campground, but no hookups. Friends and I stayed in sites 43 & 44 which were right next to the Cooper River. It's lovely sound lulled us all to sleep at night. Sites are large (my friends had a 12X12 ft tent), and driveways on some sites are long. I saw some very large Class A rigs and Fifth Wheels. There is a variety of sight types from very shady, to very open, close together and spread far apart with good privacy. There is something for everyone. The road to and through the campground is paved. Even though large, this campground has always been very quiet and clean. On one side of the campground runs the Cle Elum River that has a whitewater kayaking course. You can stand on the bridge and watch kayakers going through the course. There is a lot to do in this area. Lots of mule deer. And boondocking spots along side roads if you want that. Check out Cooper Lake - it is incredibly beautiful with great kayaking and fishing.