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Submission
From Cougar, WA take State Rt. east 3.1 miles where it becomes Forest Rt. 90. Continue on Forest Rt. 90 for 18.4 miles to an intersection. Turn right, staying on Forest Rt. 90, and go 14.1 miles to Lower Falls Recreation Area sign. Turn right into campground. NOTE: There is a 0.5 mile stretch of rough, gravel road with a roller coaster profile about a mile west of campground.
Now that reservations are required for the entire area it is fabulously special. Quiet, personal, absolutely beautiful, and spectacularly uncrowded. Dry camping forest service campground with size limits and vault toilets, one hand pump for water, so it's not physically luxurious, but definitely mentally stupendous.
I like the beauty of this campground but the bathrooms are one of the worst vaulted toilet bathrooms I have ever been in as the smell was so bad that I almost got sick. They are also lacking in cleanliness. The drive up to this campground is grueling as there are many potholes, dips and scary cracks off the side of the road that go way down. There is a very easy trail down to the falls view point and it's not far from the parking area. Not a bad place to spend a day trip.
My boyfriend and I visited here last year for the first time as a day trip and knew we would need to plan a camping trip here the following summer. We spent two nights here in late July in the lower loop portion of the campground. The area is beautiful and definitely worth a trip. If you make a reservation (we made one online) you can just pull into your campsite no check in necessary. The campsites themselves are pretty standard. There's space for your tent, a picnic table, and a fire pit. It's just a short walk to the river and the lower falls. None of the campsites have direct access to the river so I wouldn't say any are particularly better than others. The bathrooms are smelly, have no light, no sink, and are often filled with flies. It's camping though so I can look past that. The water source they have is not drinkable. I thought it was, and maybe it technically is, but the water tastes so strongly metallic that there is no way I could drink it and I'm not typically finicky about water. Luckily there is a small store about a half hour away that we were able to purchase water from. The river was flowing pretty strong and was way to cold when we went in late July to do any swimming in. If you want to spend time in the water I would recommend going mid to late August into September when the water level goes down and warms up a bit. There's also a hiking trail that will take you up to the middle and upper falls that is definitely worth it. If you don't think you can handle the full hike you can cheat a little and drive up the road a bit where there is a parking lot that the trail cuts through.
It is hard to get reservations you got a buck a year in advance roughly but it is worth every bit of planning, you got no service out here so download your maps offline and get ready to be one with nature for the weekends and my girlfriend had an absolute blast over here hiking and swimming in the crystal clear blue water it's so far away that it's not overpopulated absolutely breathtaking and Mount Saint Helens is nearby for extra things to do
This campground is large and well maintained, with a hiking trail that has multiple access points from the campground itself. It would be a great spot for families or a person by themselves. The bathrooms are not plumbed. Some folks did not have their dogs on leashes, so something to watch out for if bringing your own dog.
