Ike Kinswa State Park — Attraction in Chehalis

This is a real nice place and the deer will almost feed out of your hand. It’s shutting down for 9 months for some upgrades although I couldn’t book loops B & C or a cabin but I notice lots of people are back there behind a Do Not Enter sign. A bit confusing…I hope they leave layout the same because it’s nicely spread out, we’ll see, hope my suspicions are wrong. The current budget for 1.3 million for addition and upgrades to sewer, water, electrical and to repave some already great roads…They have a well groomed trail you can walk or bike on and it’s pretty easy. I used a ADA site and it was pretty bad, I fell just once and from then on stayed in camper knowing I’d bite the dust specially at night. The concrete pad is just eaten up not near level. So I could of used a normal pad without concrete and it would been better. I think the upgrade is to also replace these old pads. Deer a plenty here early in the AM and lots of other wildlife to see. The trail going north leaving the day use area across the road from campground is lovely walk and we’ll groomed also. The day use ares is of coursed not being maintained by state parks and such a shame also. There’s a big tree fallen by swimming area and it brings upon more issues and the State will just let it all build up and degrade the soil as we see in so many other parks. So it’s ruining an otherwise great swim area. It’s a shame they couldn’t get these ADA pads fixed when destroyed either. The beach area has a bath and the bath in campground were well cared for. No trash containers anywhere in camp park except the one at garbage compactor…really weird and shows the states lack of dedication to not allowing waste to be disposed properly but just in one spot, in a old trash compactor. They just need to put out a few bear box trash cans and they will keep all wildlife out of it, but then the state would have to pay more to empty them and we all hate to see the more be waited on by the few. Excuse the polluters for just tossing their trash for a fine that is never enforced because there are not any trash cans in the park, what a circle. Staff uses a leaf blower to clean leaves off streets and highway….so they don’t have time to empty trash either. There’s a spot in entryway to campgrounds behind a shed. Guys are always setting there just hanging out, different guys. One day I saw a little rolly-poli of a lady in a state park suit run them off. Not sure if it’s one of them gay meet up spots or dope dealing or what? Just watch the kids till you figure it out. They sure do like to just sit in cars/trucks and hang out, hard place to avoid when coming and going at campground. Just lowered my review from 4 to 3 because this ADA spot really restricts my camping because I can’t walk around the fire or picnic tables. They are just concrete pads a crew could of fixed these years ago in just a week or two. The staff told me last guy complained also, they need to remove the ADA signage and let people with ADA restrictions know this isn’t a fit site. Gota go I hear the leaf blowers coming through I need to close up camper windows while they leaf blow the roads!🤪🤪🤪 State parks should be all eletric I think...

Beautiful place. We had great Verizon signal. Enough to stream even. We went just last weekend so only the hook up sights were open. We Never did find the playground. Fished at all times of the day and night with everything you should use and only caught one small trout. No one around us on shore caught anything either. As usual in the winter we were the only tent campers. It was packed full, every spot was taken and with there being ZERO privacy between sights, that's never fun for tenters. The bathrooms were spotless and the water was hot. There is a nice big shower that takes tokens- 1=3 min. The rangers sold us wood when we checked In then brought the bundles to our camp maybe 15 min later but were never around again for us to buy more. It's definitely one of the nicer state parks. The views are stunning. There is a beautiful trail that follows the water. There was only one grassy area by the water but people had a couple dogs off leash, that the rangers saw and allowed, that immediately went after my dogs, so we didn't get to enjoy it.The drive is easy and it's easy to find. The roads were in good repair, signs easy to see and follow. The turns aren't sharp anywhere. The trash compactor was easy to find, you pass it as you come into the park. You don't hear any real highway kinda noise. There are residents around the lake but they were far enough away that you don't hear every barking dog and car starting up. We forgot something and found several little grocery stores around. A few were sketchy and not welcoming unless your a certain "type" of person but the one in mossy rock was nice and had everything we needed. I think in the future this will just be a day stop. The sights are just to close for comfort imo. But the park is beautiful, everyone should see it at least once. I would think if you have a trailer or camper this place is ideal. Every spot will hold you...

A snowy and frozen night at Ike Kinswa State Park Campground. I absolutely enjoyed my stay closing out 2021 in a lovely and picturesque park campground. Only two other people were at the park, but interestingly, almost all the sites had reservation tags on them. The only loop that was open had all but 2 sites with power and water. I don't use power or water in my van as I'm entirely self contained. The space rates were 20$ for regular sites, and 30 for hook-up sites. I paid twenty and left a note on the payment envelope that I had to use a hook-up site because the only two non hook-up sites that were available we're out of reach due.to snow and ice. The ranger was out the next morning with a tractor clearing snow and ice from sites and told me it wasn't a problem at all, that he had seen tracks attempting to get in to the non hook-up area and saw the slipping and sliding tracks. Anyway, he was very kind, polite and amicable, a great set of qualities for a park ranger. This is a beautifully wooded park. There are very nice looking cabins just off the shore of Mayfield Lake. Lovely views. The community toilets were very clean and smelled well taken care of. As we left, we made the loop once again to get a good look at all the sites. I'm my opinion, IKSP is a top-tier state park. As we left, we saw the ranger diligently clearing out spaces for many travelers that probably wouldn't show up due to the weather. I totally recommend Ike...