Swift Forest Camp — Hotel in Battle Ground

I just got back from a 3-night stay here (8/22/18). There's currently a burn ban until further notice so no campfires :( We came because it's on Swift and we kayak. This was my first visit and probably not my last as we had a great time! I've also been to Beaver Bay a few times. It's a 40 minute drive from Cougar. Swift Camp is similar, but newer and the topography is a little different with higher elevation and further out from civilization. It's $18 per night. This campground is owned and operated by PacifiCorp like Beaver Bay, so it's very well maintained and clean. Some other reviewers complained about the staff, but our camp hosts were super nice and friendly! One let me use his wifi calling phone in an emergency, and another helped my wife in the middle of the night as she needed asprin. Zero complaints with staff! The campsites vary in size and there are big group sites or smaller single family ones, but they are not tiny and wide open. You are a little close to your neighbors and there's not much privacy. There are two loops, one closer to the water and an upper section that's more shaded. The bathrooms are kind of primitive, but are plumbed and have flush toilets. Cold water only. No showers, no electric for RV's, and there are NO lights anywhere in the campground, bathrooms included so bring a flashlight or lantern to your nighttime constitutionals. There may be some bats in there at night (they visited me) to keep you company and eat the mosquitos! No, they don't bite or go after you. There is potable water that comes off the reservoir. It's filtered first, and I saw that they test it daily and it's cleaner than the water you get in town! If you do need anything urgently, the Northwoods and Eagle Cliff store are a short drive There's a dump site for RV's too. There's a boat launch and dock like Beaver Bay, and a barrier around the launch to keep out large debris. The water was very low when we were there, down at least 20 feet, but it made for amazing land features that are normally invisible under water! Beaches, islands, alcoves. Prefect swimming spots! You could only get to them by a kayak, jet ski or jet boat though as it got really shallow in places. I'm a geology nerd so there are so many rocks and places to explore. The water is colder then Yale or Merwin so swim on a warm day or get chilled. My only complaint is that it's really dusty there. There's lots of volcanic ash and dirt gets that gets kicked up by the wind or from foot traffic and cars and settles everywhere. Also, it can get windy and if you're on a waterside campsite you'll get wind and there's not much shade so you get full sun on a hot day. Last, there's a pump station near the boat launch area with a generator inside. It kicks on randomly and runs for 15 minutes at all hours night and day which can get annoyng. Be aware of this if you're in campsites near the exit of the lower loop A Section. Otherwise, I give Swift Forest Camp my recommendation! Quiet, peaceful during the week, clean, well maintained, and a ways out from civilization, too. Primitive enough for most folks looking for a good camping experience, but who don't want to give up camp hosts, running water and...

So I will admit it's a nice campground but the whole rule of having all four tires on the pavement while parked at a campsite is a complete joke. I was told by an older man that I needed to move my car as it was my sleeping quarter for the night and had to park elsewhere given I didn't have the choice but to park in overflow aka bfe to have to walk back and forth to my car for any essentials needed and not be next to my family. Here is where I'm lost as most camp sites with an RV are short paved and counted dozens of sites that upon backing in a fifth wheel or bumper pull travel trailer that the trailer alone has four wheels OFF the pavement. At the price per night to have a campsite is yes reasonable although for years now I have not seen much money put into the campsite to accommodate parking..now keep in mind one vehicle is $5 a day and others pay $20+ a day if I'm correct at a site rental. But given all the RV or or motorhome parking per spot there is no way to park a truck and trailer as the trailer is parked in the dirt and not on the pavement as the vehicle towing it would be on the pavement.. I know the income yearly is more then enough to extend the campsites with asphalt to accommodate truck and trailer plus one car given certain sites. Perhaps it is just a money income to make a buck off people that travel a great distance to come to a place that is serene and so enjoyable other then being told you need to move your car by farmer John in the blue jean overalls that gave a rather rude speech about how I needed to move my car. I won't come back to this place as it was not accommodating and the bathrooms were not regularly checked on as I went three times to a bathroom in a 5hr span in the morning to only show up to no toilet paper. Younger lady at check in was very polite darker hair did her job quickly but to be harassed by the older gentleman in the golf cart is why I will not...

Horrendous staff. Extremely unwelcoming and very rude to our hispanic group. For starters, the "help" desk was not very helpful. They refused to sell us fire wood and gave us wrong directions to our campsite and told us the wrong checkout time. Then the camp ranger came to us well before quiet hours and gave us a long and extremely rude and derogatory lecture about keeping it down. He said if he could hear us from his camp then we were being too loud. News flash ranger! If your camp is directly behind us, odds are you are going to hear us somewhat! So after that lecture we really took care to be quiet and only spoke in really soft voices and guess what? The ranger came again and started to give us the same lecture when one of us spoke up and said that we had been quiet and he called over camp security who then searched us for alcohol (We had none) all the while calling us little punks. I'm excuse me? We had 16 people camping all between the age of 20 and 30 and you have the nerve to call us little punks? He then gave us another lecture on what it means to be quiet and asked us over and over if we were looking for problems. Then he said if he had to come over again we would be kicked off the premise immediately. We just went to bed after that and left Asap the next morning, but not before the same ranger yelled at us to put out fire out (We didn't even have a fire going) the really infuriating part about all this is that there were several extremely loud groups who he never stopped to ask to keep it down. There were also groups who had alcohol out in the open and nothing was done about it. We felt that there was a lot of discrimination against us. It's a beautiful park with a nice camp ground but I will never be back and I will not recommend this...