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Great price and mostly quiet...except when the Navy jets are doing night training. Vault toilets are average in cleanliness. Several large, spacious sites mixed in with more average-sized ones.
I was very excited to find this primitive, quiet and mostly empty campground in the woods. $15. Seemed like a great price. That was until about 1pm the following day when the silence was shattered by navy fighter jets breaking the sound barrier (and my eardrums) repeatedly in circles barely over the tops of the trees. To say it shook the forest on every loop (about 40 seconds)would be a gross understatement , I could feel the sound in my soul! So the mystery of the empty campground is solved. Im curious why its not mentioned anywhere. Thankfully my dog was undisturbed, some would definitely be scared to death. It a great place, navy jets and eardrum shattering aside.
I have mixed feelings about camping at Rhododendron Park. It's not the greatest place to camp but it's cheap and rustic and relatively comfortable.
On the plus side:
-The sites are pretty decent sized; most of them you can set up two mid-sized tents and park two cars.
-Each site has a fire pit with grate for cooking and a picnic table.
-It's only $15 a night (cash only) self register first come first served.
-There isn't a ton of people (which is nice) because there are only 15 sites and there is no electric hook-ups or running water at the sites.
-Beautiful rhododendrons growing everywhere under the dense forest cover above which makes it feel almost otherworldly.
-No onsite management so very few annoying rangers to bug the campers.
The flipside:
-There are no bathrooms, no showers, no sink to wash hands or anything!
-There is a water spicket available in the center of the campground to fill up water jugs but I wouldn't drink the water.
-ONLY PORT-O-POTTYS! There are a total of maybe 5 for the whole campground. They get serviced regularly but only once a week or less.**
-If you value a good night's sleep then this probably isn't the place for you. ***
**Once a kid decided to paint inside the port-o-potty with his own feces! His parents just ignored it and packed up camp and left. We obviously didn't use it after that and had to walk about 4 times farther to the next one. We stayed 3 more days and it was still covered when we left.
***The first time I camped here the navy jets were flying overhead from about 11pm to 1am the first night. The second night, a huge group had set up camp next to our site and they stayed up drinking and partying until about 3am. Also, they kept losing kids over the next couple of days. Nobody was in any real danger, they just couldn't keep track of all the kids and would be too drunk to know who was where.
There is also an animal shelter very close and therefore dogs barking and howling isn't uncommon either.
Great campsite that is easy to miss. Was recommended as an alternative to Fort Ebey when it was full. Most sites are spacious and all that I saw had a fire ring. Like all campsites on the south side of the island there is an advisory for the Navy jets training in the area at any given time of day. You can hear the road from the sites but the traffic wasn't too busy when I stayed. I'm definitely adding this to my list for sites to stop by on any return trip though.
Great place to camp for $15 a night and trails to walk and some camp sites are spacious they're only a couple that are pretty small but those are just for someone just need a place to camp for a night The rest of them are pretty good size i have been going back for last three years and will continue to go I enjoy it and my family enjoys it
