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Takhlakh Lake Campground sits at an elevation of 4,400 feet in a well-shaded location next to its namesake lake. The campground sits at the base of Mt. Adams, providing visitors with incredible views in every direction. The campground has a short season, but it's a particularly popular destination for hikers exploring the trails around Mt. Adams.
The campsite offers access to the Takhlakh Loop, an accessible trail suitable for all ages and skill levels and the Takhlakh Meadow Trail.
The lake provides an ideal spot for anglers to cast for rainbow trout and for boaters looking to kayak or canoe. The lake is reserved for non-motorized use only.
The campground consists of 54 back-in sites with unpaved parking spurs that vary in length from 15 to 40 feet. Some sites are tent only.
No drinking water is provided at this campground, but other amenities include vault toilets, picnic tables and campfire rings.
Takhlakh Lake Campground offers accessible sites and activities and amenities that support current accessibility standards.
Takhlakh Lake is part of the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District, which is located in the northernmost portion of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
This location offers breathtaking views of not only Mt. Adams, but also Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Saint Helens.
Near the campground, hikers can access trailheads for the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail. This leads to the Highline Trail, which attracts experienced hikers and backpackers for its views of Mt. Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Oregon's Mt. Hood.
This location has limited staffing. Please call (360) 686-3008 for general information.
Cancellations
Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee.
A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite.
Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee.
No-Shows
A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date.
No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite.
Refunds
Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended.
Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay.
For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive.
In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
From I-5: Take exit 68 and head east on US Highway 12 to Randle, Washington. Turn south onto State Highway 131 and travel 1 mile, stay left at the Y and continue southeast on Forest Road 23 for 30 miles to Forest Road 2329. Turn left onto Forest Road 2329 and follow it through the junction with Forest Road 5601. Proceed on Forest Road 2329 for 3/4-mile to the campground.
The last 7 miles of Forest Road 23 are gravel surfaced.
Extra Vehicle Fee $8.00
Nice quiet calm peaceful and scenic with a beautiful south side view of Mount Adams!!!
Day use Park launch and campground!!! National Forest pass required...
Camp site was clean, vault toilets were vault toilets but one in particular seemed quite odorous. Camp Hosts were friendly.
The view was amazing, the lake was perfect temp, not too cold, very refreshing for a PNW summer day. Hike around the lake is nice.
I cant say enough about this absolutely incredible, breathtaking spot. Ive traveled all over the PNW exploring some of our most beautiful locations over the last 15mos and this place easily blew most of them out of the water and made it up to my top 3 🤯
first thing to mention .. it is NOT easy to get to. It's pretty far into the forest, about an hour. the last 30mins is pretty rough, all uphill, winding diry/rocky roads with big dips, potholes ect .. I have a Range Rover Sport on those silly fancy 22s so I took it very slow as i didn't wanna accidentally pop another tire like ive done previously 🤦♀️🤣 Please be careful and watch out for deer. i lost count how many i saw darting across the roads, drinking from the roadside puddles, stream and waterfalls ..
next, I was fortunate to be there the weekend before the campground officially opened on 7/1. I basically had the place to myself and it was fabulous, not to mention free to stay and the bugs that I hear are normally really bad, weren't an issue at all yet.
there are some fantastic campsites, i drove around to check em out, but the ones nearest the boatramp, where I stayed, had the best unobstructed views.
there is a very loud, extremely verbal eagle nesting right above the boat ramp. not sure if it was an adult or young one or there was a young one up there, causing all the screeching, but it was cool nonetheless. fish are jumping like crazy at sunset.. a man i met had caught 28 early that day. the frogs at night are outrageous too 😆 sounded like thousands of them congregate at the bridge and put on quite a show throughout the night. I stayed up most the night to work on my night and astrophotography. it was a night ill never forget! the stars and constellations are mesmerizing. its like you can see every single star in our galaxy 🤩🤯
walk the trail around the lake to take in all the great views. bring a paddle board or small non motorized boat to get out and cut through the glass like surface. there are also a ton of great hiking spots and other lakes to explore nearby. the challenging Blue Lake trail is worth the effort.
the reflective photographs of handsome Mt Adams are what Ive always dreamed of.. this place did not disappoint. i highly recommend checking it out.
Beautiful, quiet, clean camp. We were in spot 49 and had a great route to the lake. The water felt pretty warm and water was clean. Bathrooms look great too! All the camp sites near 49 were awesome.
It's a campground for sure (lots of screaming children) but the location is worth it. Loved the little trails around the lake and up to the meadow. Loved paddleboarding on the quiet lake. Saw lots of fish despite other reviews. Down a star for the camp host bc bathrooms were not maintained the entire time we were there. Trash piling up in the bins and no tp. Our campsite (47) was nice and had the perfect access trail to the lake, but that means other campers found that access too and wanted to keep walking through our site. Never experienced that while camping, walking through other people's sites is just bad etiquette. Mosquitoes weren't bad despite other reviews, it was the biting flies that were annoying. Brought plenty of bug spray and our citronella candles worked well. Road up to takhlakh is rough, rest of 2329 up to Packwood is rough as well
