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Submission
Charbonneau Park in Eastern Washington was named one of America's Top 100 Family Campgrounds. It is located on Lake Sacajawea, formed by Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on the Lower Snake River. The park was named for Toussaint Charbonneau, an interpreter for Lewis and Clark and husband of Sacajawea, the famous Shoshone interpreter on the Corps of Discovery. The park provides excellent recreational opportunities for boaters, campers, upland and waterfowl hunters and anglers.
The lake provides great boating and swimming opportunities, and a boat ramp is provided for guests. Fishing is also a popular pastime, and anglers will find excellent salmon and steelhead fishing on the lake.
The park offers 52 family sites and two day-use group picnic shelters, all with electric hookups.
The campground is situated on the banks of Lake Sacajawea, and several of its waterfront sites have scenic views of the lake. The park is characterized by its open grassy areas dotted with a few large shade trees.
From Pasco, Washington, take Highway 12 east. After crossing the Snake River Bridge, take the first exit and proceed to Highway 124. Continue east through Burbank, Washington. Turn north on Sun Harbor Drive and follow for 1.5 miles, then take a left on Charbonneau Road. Campground is on the right.
The camp ground is well taken care of and has lots of shade trees. The beach/swimming area was lots of fun! The bathroom and shower area is fairly well maintained and didn't make me feel gross after using. The people who work/volunteer there are helpful and kind. We enjoyed our trip.
Pretty nice day-use area with several different covered picnic places. Lots of trees, well maintained grass. Decent birding, especially if you have a scope. There's a small playground and a small swimming section. Lots of standing grills, lots of picnic tables.
Stayed here for a night of camping. I had high expectation given its remote location closer to a river but I was a bit disappointed. The campground entrance sign asks that everyone must register first even if they had reservation. There was no host at the office and it was had a sign that said "closed". We headed straight to our site but before setting up our tent, decided to head out for some boating. When we returned another party had started to set up tent at our site. I had to show them the reservation confirmation and they packed up and left. They couldn't find their site number and it appears that there was no one to help them.
As others have noted, this place has a lot of spiders so be aware because the spiders will be crawling all of the table as you eat. In addition to spiders there are lots of mosquitoes and tiny flies that are attracted to light. They flood your tent at dawn unless you keep it closed. This should not be an issue because camping is all about being in nature and with nature comes insects and spiders too. I'm just giving fair warning to people planning to camp here.
Lastly, we were anticipating but didn't really hear much of train noise as others mentioned. Our camp site was #30, closer to the lake so it's possible that we didn't hear the trains. Trains do pass by every hour or so. I think we also didn't hear the train because the party right next to us was blasting loud Spanish music well past 10 PM.
There is a trail going along the river but it’s really not interesting enough for hiking. The same goes for biking; there are far better places for boating, kayaking, hiking or biking than this area.
We don't plan to visit this campground again as it was definitely not worth the long drive from Seattle, given that there are so many camping options available that are far better.
Beautiful campground. My friend and I were in the "best spot in the park" (according to the gentleman who checked us in). If you're in a camper, it would be the best for sure, but as tent campers, we were farthest away from the centrally located bathroom facility. That's the only reason why I'm giving my rating 4 stars.
I definitely recommend this park. We have an 18-foot tow truck trailer, and my family and I stayed during a weekend. Pros: It is a nice park, plenty of spaces between camping sites. There are public restrooms and showers. There are plenty of shallow areas for swimming. Cons: Unfortunately, during our stay, the river water was really dirty☹️. There were a lot of bugs during the night, and restrooms were clean only in the early morning; but we still had fun canoeing and wading. It was a refreshing weekend, and it was a nice little get-away 😊.
