Seaquest State Park — Attraction in Kelso

We were booked this summer for a couple of nights in the "T" sites, which are the full hookup, pull-thru sites. Compared to the regular camping loop, the "T" sites had about as much ambience as a trailer park or budget KOA and were very unlike most of my Washington State Park visits. Sure, there are plenty of walking trails, a dedicated pedestrian path and tunnel to the Mt. Saint Helens visitors center, and lots of forest surrounding you, but the T-sites are in a huge clearing in the forest and there is no privacy between sites, not even a short set of shrubs between campsites, and you are exposed to a lot more weather than the campers over in the unserviced and partially serviced loops.

We had an overly nice neighbor in the site next to us which seemed to be showing up every 30 or 45 minutes to talk and give out free RV advice. Nice people, really, but a bit of physical separation between us and our neighbors might have made the neighbor visit us a lot less often.

On the positive, the hookups were typical of Washington State Parks, well maintained, fully functional and well thought out. Washington State Parks have probably some of the best full hookup sites I've visited at least in terms of where they place water, power, and sewer. Nothing is out of reach, nothing is oddly placed, and the utilities are always in good functioning order. I've been to much more expensive private parks where some utility at a campsite is almost or totally unusable because it is broken, worn out, or just placed so poorly that it can't reach the coach. So, kudos to Washington State Parks.

Bugs were a huge problem during our stay. The heat, combined with the humidity of the west side of the state and we had mosquitos and no-see-ums that made being outdoors after dark incredibly difficult. We also booked this campsite 9 months in advance, and yet there were quite a few no-show vacancies while we were there. I figure that the "T" sites were only about 70% full during our visit, and yet, when I checked the booking system we noted that there were no vacancies in any part of the park. This could only mean that people had booked and were just sitting on a site they were not going to use. The punitive cancellation policies of Washington State Parks is to blame there.

We would come back, we would even book again in the T sites and hope for more reserved neighbors, maybe a bit farther north where there appeared to be more tree cover and shade, but we would choose a cooler time of year, late spring, early summer, rather than the beginning of August.

This is a great park, choose your...

Very quiet, cozy and private campground close to Mt St Helens. Just enough restrooms for the amount of campers they allow. Firewood can be purchased as well. The ranger station always seemed to be closed when we were there which seemed odd. The hosts for the RV loop were so kind and always cleaning up trash or sweeping the campsites. Very clean place to stay. Stayed in site T11 for full hookups with my 20 foot RPOD.

The RV loop is enclosed in trees but open with most sites being right next to each other with no trees. Sites T1,T2,T3,T13,T14,T15 are the most private since they are not central. Sites T12 & T16 are private but the fire pits are on the slope so you can only enjoy half the fire pit - not safe in my opinion especially if you have kiddos as there is little space to move around. They do however look out onto the forest which is gorgeous.

The South Loop has no hookups at all and felt very serene and private. It's in a totally seperate area than the other 2 loops and mostly tent camping since many of the sites were on hills. Again, VERY private and beautiful. So private that I doubt you could even hear your neighbors in some spots.

The Mid and North loops were my favorite! All sites nestled within trees, many areas for water or to dump gray water, many private, many social. The North Loop has no hookups so mostly tents or boondocking trailers there. VERY private and quiet. Didn't pay attention much to which sites were best since we are hook up campers. The best sites for privacy in the Mid Loop were 1,7,9,10,16,24. Sites that have little privacy were 3,4,17. Sites that are really close together and good for camping with another group are 13&15 or 5&6.

There is a small playground as well as swings and lots of field with picnic tables to hang out. Nice for kids for sure as there is a restroom right next to it. There is also a Yurt village that I didn't go see.

You will need a discover pass if your not camping for the night. Not too far from I-5 and there are a few gas stations close by...

Seaquest State Park is a fantastic place to camp in an RV, tent, or even a Yurt! It’s also a great place to have a picnic in the day use area, where there is a small playground, and swings. There is also an abundance of horseshoe pits (Discover Pass Required)! It is a short walk/hike to Mount St Helens Visitor center, and the Silver Lake Wetlands Trail. Which has beautiful views of Mt St Helens, and Silver Lake. There is even a tunnel going under the highway connecting the two, so you don’t need to play Frogger getting there!

The campground has fairly spacious sites, fire rings, and pick nick tables on concrete slabs. I do have to say that there is little to no privacy between most of the sites in the RV loop, but for the price with full hookups it is worth it! The only downside that I truly saw is that the sewer connections are pretty high off the ground, so your standard sewer trellis is almost useless if you don’t want standing water in the line!

The bathrooms are clean enough to use. In the RV loop there is one stall with a toilet and a shower in the men’s and women’s bathroom, which might be problematic during the busy season!

There is a pay per use dump station, as well as drinking water near the exit of the campground…which is a plus if you didn’t have a full hookup site!

There are many hiking trails around the campground and park area, most of which appear to be easy to possibly moderate, depending on your abilities.

A WORD TO THE WISE, FROM MY UNDERSTANDING THE ONLY SITES THAT HAVE RUNNING WATER THIS TIME OF YEAR IS IN THE RV LOOP, AND THE REST OF THE SITES YOU HAVE TO GET WATER FROM THE POTABLE WATER AT THE DUMP STATION BECAUSE EVERYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN WINTERIZED!

All in all, we had a wonderful relaxing time, and we will be back to...