SPAM needed: camping in Washington (Mt. St. Helens??)

[sparklett]

We live in Oregon and just returned from an EXCELLENT vacation in Seattle.  We want to explore WA a bit more over the summer and would like to spend a week or so camping. We would love to camp at the coast and Mt. St Helens and I would love to get some recommendations for good camping spots.  I'm a camping sissy, so a place with flushable toilets would be lovely.  But really, I'd give up the toilets in exchange for amazing scenery, fishing, etc. 

Where do you recommend?  Any specific sites at Mt. St. helens?

Thanks!!

[spedtchr]

Two summers ago, we had a family camping trip near Mt. St. Helens, and it was fabulous!!  I'm trying to remember where it was and am coming up blank, though :(  We were not actually at Mt. St. Helens, but close enough to easily get there and visit.  We had a great camp ground with flush toilets (I believe - we had little ones, so don't remember dealing with pit toilets with them), the camp site was spacious and great for the kids to ride their bikes around, and we were close to some great hiking.  We must have been on Mt. Ranier, because we drove up to the visitors center one day.  The scenery was breathtaking, and I'm sure there was fishing around, though none in my family are fishers.

Ok, looked it up since it was driving me crazy!  We camped at Ohanapecosh campground - I think it's near White River.  We live in Oregon, so the drive was very reasonable (maybe 3 hours) and again, very convenient to Mt. St. Helens.  You will need to make reservations for the campground I named, but if you google "camping at Mt. Ranier" you can find info about it and the other 2 campgrounds in the park.  We were there for a 3 day weekend and had a glorious time!

On the Washington coast, we've camped at Ft. Flagler (which is Whidbey Island) and near Westport.  Both have some great camping.  I haven't been up there in a while, so am not very good about details there.

[mum4boys]

Just a correction Ft. Flagger is not on Whidbey Island. It is not to far from Port Hadlock.

If you want a Whidbey Island great camp ground Deception Pass is great. It has both a lake and ocean.

We have yet to have a good time at St. Helen's because of the mosquitoes. They are bad bad bad there. We stayed at Seaquest State Park. They were so bad we worried about are small children being carried off. We have had better luck camping on the South side of the mountain so we could go see Ape Caves. There are all kinds of spots to camp. We camped I believe on the river owned by Tacoma Electrical company. It was free and pretty okay for free.

Our favorite place to camp at is Cape Disappointment which is right across the water from Astoria Oregon.

[Disco Infiltrator]

my favorite place to camp is Dungeness Spit - bathrooms, hot showers, awesome sites, a beautiful beach and if you need to escape you can head into Port Angeles for a movie. There are tons of farms in the area, wineries, and you can head up to Hurricane Ridge for a day trip. I love it there. It's a wild, windy place.

http://www.clallam.net/countyparks/html/parks_dungeness.htm

If you want to go further out the peninsula, Salt Water Creek is nice too.