Silver Springs Campground

First off, there are no longer any first come sites, all sites are reservable. You can stay in an empty site for 1 night only. If you want to stay longer you need to go online and make a reservation.

Large, private sites. Salmon were spawning in the creek. Lots of hiking nearby. Campsite is empty this time of year.

Campground is closing for the season on 26 September.

If you’re looking to grab a reserved campsite close to the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park, this is your lucky spot. Silver Springs Campground is just a few miles north of the official entrance to the park and approximately 40 minutes driving time from the Sunrise parking lot, where you’ll access the trailheads to Mount Fremont Lookout, the Three Burroughs and the Wonderland Trail. The White River Campground is the closest to Sunrise, but is typically booked via first come, first served.

The Silver Springs Campground features a mix of modern (flush/running water) bathrooms and vault toilets (very clean - thank you camp hosts!). Potable water spigots are available on each loop, although there was a temporary outage on my loop which necessitated a slightly longer walk (free exercise, right?). The majority of sites feature excellent privacy among the lovely forest and the White River flows alongside the campground. The sites are dirt/gravel and most are fairly level. If you choose a site close to the main road, you’ll hear some noise from passing traffic; otherwise, you’ll hear the flowing river and wind in the trees.

The sites are primitive, in that there is not electric/water/sewer at individual sites. The cell phone signal was sparse, at best only two bars of LTE using Verizon. The tree foliage may limit the efficiency of solar panels, but it also provides protection from the occasional rain showers.

I would definitely return to this campground.

We had a great time staying at Silver Springs. Apparently the camp host had quit or something, because there was none. The maintenance guys were friendly and helpful, and firewood was available for sale self-serve in the empty camp host site.

The upper loops are better for big rigs, but more road noise.

Plenty of trails in the area, and spots to see the river. Lots of shade so solar power would be hard to get. Overall, just what I needed!

I would NOT stay at this campground again purely due to the camp host. He was not friendly, not hospitable, not approachable, and downright rude.

He came to our campsite multiple times to complain. If he had approached us in a completely different tone, it would have been no issue. (Dogs need to be on leash, too many cars in spot). We have no problem following the rules, but these rules were not listed online so we simply didn’t know.

We paid $33 for a campsite and then had to pay $8 for extra vehicles. He made us feel very unwelcomed and as if we could do no right.

I will say the campground itself is a beautiful wooded area. Just don’t piss off the host.

We made reservations here 9/3-9/5. We had a dry camping, asphalt parking site next to the restrooms at the end of the loop (near the camp hosts). It was very quiet here and the area is just beautiful.

The roads through this campground are a bit tight and have a few low-hanging trees, so be aware if you have a larger rig. Our 32’ fifth wheel was fine but I wouldn’t want to go much longer than that.

There are plenty of hiking, fishing, and sight-seeing available in the area. This campground was a great jumping-off point for visiting nearby Mount Rainier National Park.

The campground has both dry camping and water/electric hookups, but no dump station. Flush toilets and pit toilets were located in the campground; the flush toilets we were next to were clean. There are several water spigots scattered throughout the dry camping loop, although they weren’t threaded so we couldn’t run a hose to them. Washing dishes at the spigots and in the restrooms was discouraged.

Nearby Enumclaw had everything we needed. The drive through the forest to get there was nice and we spotted several moose in the trees.

Verizon signal was spotty.

Silver Springs Campground is a favorite for camping near Mt. Rainier. The campground is just beautiful, well-treed with several spring fed creeks running through the park. The sites are almost all back-in and fairly level. Adequate separation between sites and lovely walking trails in the park.
The camp hosts were very personable and helpful. They kept the park very clean and raked each site between guests. There are flush toilets in some loops, pit toilets in others – I did not see any showers. There are no hookups, except for #26 which used to be a host site and has full hookups. Even though the park was full over the 4th of July, there were no loud, rowdy groups. Our Verizon was pretty much worthless, but we were able to boost it to 2 bars of 3G.
There are at least two trails out of campground, one is a short walk to an old veteran’s gravesite. We enjoyed it, but be sure to catch the “River Trail” (trailhead is signed) out of the campground – it doesn’t show on the campground map, but you can walk for miles on a nice trail along the White River. There are also plenty of other hiking and mountain biking opportunities nearby and it’s just a short drive to the Mt. Rainer Sunrise Visitor Center.
Highly recommend this park if you love camping in a wooded setting with mossy creeks and a glacier fed river nearby!

A few small springs fed a creek that backed up to our site. Doug-firs were abundant and take the trail near site 13 to find an old gravesite of an early pioneer and some massive logs crossing a small waterfall area.

My fav of all the NFS and National Park campgrounds in the area, though not the old growth you'll get elsewhere, still grand in every way.

Just watch out for the whisky jacks, they'll snatch good right out of your mouth!