Camping at Lake Wynoochee

On July 24th we headed out to Lake Wynoochee camping area in the Olympic National Forest. The campground is right next to a lake, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to drop the boat in and do a little fishing.


We departed the house at 10:30am thinking it would take 2 hours to get there. It took us 4 1/2 hours after running into some bad directions and road construction. The road leading directly to Lake Wynoochee from Montesano (Hwy 12 towards Aberdeen) was closed for road work. The other back roads put us on a logging and single-lane road. We decided to take the last possible route to Lake Wynoochee we could find on the map. This was via Highway 101 on the western side of the peninsula. When we found the Donkey Creek road, we discovered we could get to the campground and the closed part of the oringially planned route was before the campground.


We arrived and found a wonderful spot. Space 27 was big enough for a few more tents, but also had open space for the dogs to run and not get into trouble (well that was our hope anyway!). We were taking one of 5 spots that were occupied in the campground. Because we arrived on Tuesday, all the other spots were available and we enjoyed the quiet for a while.


While at the campground, we enjoyed fishing, hiking and general exploring. The campground is above a dam, and there is a recreation area for swimming, including a swim platform. The weather was a little to cold for us to go swimming, but it was a beautiful place to be if it was warmer.



Josephine was great while camping, she helped Doug set up the tent.



Josephine checking out all the camping supplies.



Cub Scout Dinner!


Time for a cocktail!

Josephine gets a bath.


Josephine helps put wood on the fire.



Wynoochee Dam (upper side) and swim area.


Sunshine holding on to "the beast."


Josephine and Sunshine on a hike.



The campground name is "Coho" and like all of the Olympic National Forest it is first come, first served. Thursday night before we left, the campground was full! By the time we left Friday morning, we had 3 people wanting our spot. One person left chairs before we left and another person paid for the spot before we left. We decided to let them duke it out and left to go home.

For reference, here is the map of the Olympic National Forest Campgrounds.