Larrabee State Park Campground — Hotel in Bellingham

This is a terrible idea for anyone trying to get away and relax. I'm not the kind of person to leave a review but this was a truly awful experience. Firstly, we had to reserve two sites even though it was just two of which was actually not too bad since the sites are about 15x10 feet so we appreciated having the extra room. When we showed up half an hour from the designated check in time there was already a tent setup directly between our two sites. We drove back up to the office and the guy explained to us it was a common thing and all we could do was wait for the park ranger to show up. He was already on the way because this had happened earlier and someone else had already complained. We were then yelled at for moving the person's tent to the edge of the site. Once the ranger showed up the best possible outcome was for us to get moved to a small "overflow" site and get a refund which still hasn't been credited back to my card. The site we had was about 30 feet from a very active train track so even with earplugs there wasn't a chance in hell that I could sleep through the dozen passes of a train. Unlike the deceiving map of the camp grounds you are fenced in and cannot access the beach aside from a tunnel which is at least a mile and a half away from the closest campsite as result everyone just meanders through everyone's camp looking for a way to the beach. Plus you are bordered by a road which is very close and active so go ahead and waste your life and money coming here. We left after one day and will never go back to a public campground like this again. For reference, I grew up living next to a 4 lane highway and that pales in comparison to the level of noise all night in this campground. Please don't go here the scumbags that run this place and profit off of misguided people's attempts to relax and get away. In case this isn't enough the super nice neighbors of ours packed up on the middle of the night because they had enough...

Booked 2 nights at site 9 in August, stayed only 1. THE GOOD: Trails were plentiful (though there are a variety of desire trails with no outlet, so be cautious), bathrooms were clean and stocked. Tide pools on the rocks held many cool creatures (saw a brooding anemone!). Short drive from Seattle along a lovely thoroughfare. Near to Bellingham and many great hiking trails for midday excursions away from camp if desired. Site full of ripe blackberries. THE BAD: From our site, we felt as if we were in the city: The roar of cars along Chuckanut and the screech of train wheels drowned out bird sounds or the waves in the nearby cove. There was next to no visual separation between our site and two to the SW. The ground was obscenely dense/firm (difficult to drive stakes in, even with a steel spike and a hammer). And the trains. Oh my god, the trains. "Up to 16" trains travel past this campground each 24 hours, which meant 3-min bouts of screeching metal while you're trying to sleep (is a curve in the track nearby?!?). All the dogs in the campground weren't fans either. Other campsites further into the campground seemed more insulated, so reserving sites in the 20s or 30s may be better, and RV or campervan users may not notice the noise as much if they stay in their vehicles. Overall, a sleepless night followed by the arrival of extremely noisy neighbors (cranking Disturbed at a campground? REALLY?) made us uninterested in another night so we bailed. I'll be back here only as a rest stop on the way to/from Bellingham,...

AVOID THIS PLACE FOR CAMPING - SERIOUS TRAIN NOISE

We are never staying here again. We regret that the state decided to place a campground here literally less than half a mile from train tracks that are heavily used. Note that there are over 30 reviews mentioning TRAIN NOISE. The train tracks are so loud and run so frequently that we could not rest at all. We heard other campers talking about wearing headphones to skeep and on our first night here it was just unbearable. Do not book an extended stay here. We regret doing so and now have to pay last minute rates to find another place as the whole point of getting away was to relax in the woods and get some rest. I am writing this review at 145am in the morning after I was woken up for the fufth time tonight by very loud train noise. Book someplace else, the campground is tiny, crowded and too close to the Chuckanut Drive coastal highway as well. There were motorcycles audible doing speed runs at midnight as well. Three strikes. We're moving to another place ASAP. I can't believe anyone who enjoys camping out in nature and quiet would ever stay here and the high star reviews are just boggling.

UPDATE - The attached video was taken at 310AM....