Mrs Walter inspired me to buy a trailer for camping with our little one in the Pacific NW.

I live in the TriCities, WA area.

Looking for recommendations on places to take this for weekends this summer.

It's a big trailer, so I'm looking for both remote locations and for paved campgrounds with swimming, etc. for our 12 year old daughter.

Thanks in advance.

Go take a run run for summer steelhead on the olympic peninsula! Or over to hood canal for some shellfish.

Do you just want to be away from things? For semi remote and primitive, take I-84 to exit 248 in Oregon. Go south about 1.5 miles to the Spring Creek FS campground. It's very primitive and small, only 4 spaces. It's free, too. You can also just pull off the road anywhere along there. It's very pretty and hardly anyone uses it. We travel from so. Idaho to Portland a couple times a year and we always camp there in warm weather. Usually we'll have it to ourselves. You can hear the freeway from there but it's not obnoxious.
The FS doesn't have it listed on their web site that I've found. We found it by accident 5 or 6 years ago.

A bit of a drive I think for you but about 17 miles south of Baker City you will be at Phillips Reservoir. Nice campground, great fishing and you can check out Sumpter which is down the road a bit. Or any of the other lakes in the area, super trout fishing in many of them!!

Palouse Falls State Park should be a good choice

The various Olympic Park camping areas on the north side. I live about 3 miles from the north boundary of the park.

If the road is open, up the Elwa river road, there are two campgrounds near the Ranger station.

Klaloch out on the coast. Cool place for the kids, right on the beach.

Klahoya on 101 just west of Lake Crescent. Right on the Solduc river, a neat place.

Hoh river campground way up the Hoh river road, A neat place! Right on the river. Elk herds around.

Do a little googling!

That's perfect. We're looking for the road less traveled, and close enough to get there often.

Went backpacking there. That's a good idea!

Found info here: https://www.go-oregon.com/Phillips-Reservoir/#

It looks like a great place to try!

All the area in NE Oregon is God's Country. Joseph Oregon is beautiful and Wallowa lake is popular, so maybe too many people there. I used to drive along all the rural roads within 100 miles of that corner of the state and find little campgrounds all over the place that were almost empty. Most along creeks or rivers of one size or another. One of my favorite places was along Hwy 395 north of Mt. Vernon Oregon. Little "town" called Ritter Hot Springs. Not much there. Camped along the river east of there a few miles and had bear come in at night to fish for the salmon that ran in the creek. Like I said, you really can't go wrong just hooking onto the trailer and driving NE Oregon. It's beautiful everywhere there.

There's several campgrounds on the drive from Joseph Oregon south to Baker City, plus the Oregon Trail interpretive center. Lots of creeks, fishing, views, game, quiet.

spring creek is nice, lots of spur roads off that are good for exploring or camping as well. pm me for more ideas if you like

Status pass has a nice state park. It tends to receive very little use. It's only about 90 minutes from Kennewick.

Cape Blanco near Port Orford OR, just off hwy 101. Light house and beach are a walk away. Well cared for camp ground. Not an off the beaten path place just a nice area to spend a few nights.

Based on your location and for short trips that don’t require hauling over the pass I’d look at Banks Lake Lake Chelan or Sun Lakes. Have fun making priceless memories. 👍

A weekend at Unity Reservoir in Oregon might fit, State rec. area, nice campground, nice area.

If you're going to drive as far as Baker, it's only 30 or 40 more miles to the big lakes in Idaho, Couer d'Alene and Pend Oreille.

The Wallowas suggestion is good advice, if you don't mind some miles. (3 hours away).
It will be worth it. Maybe on a long weekend too, to gain another day.

Maybe go up the Tuccannon toward the Blues.
Or up the Touchet toward Bluewood.

(Trying to keep you somewhat close so the drive out and back isn't a killer.)

There are lots of paved campgrounds along the Columbia, Snake, etc.
but they are going to be just as hot and crowded (in my opinion) as camping in Tri-Cities.

Have fun.

True, and good advice here also. It will be a lot cooler than Baker too.
(Although I love Baker/Sumptner in the spring.)

If you are wanting to travel 6 hrs or less head east past Lewiston and from there you can go to Orofino to Dworshak dam, or travel up to Kooskia turn south onto highway 13 until you get to highway 14 and proceed to Elk City. Or you can leave Lewiston and turn south on 95 and go to Riggins or McCall. There are tons of camping opportunities in the central Idaho area and panhandle that put you in the mountains and can handle big trailers. Short hops outside of Dayton is the Tucannon area and outside of Pomeroy to the south you can access the rest of the blues. From your location there are tons of areas that you can camp at with your trailer. PM me if you want to know more. Just saw your post Wageslave, good job. The Wallowas are awesome and I get there often but camping if you have not made reservations by Jan. you don't get in unless you can find a RV spot in Joseph.

The problem with the north west is that there are just too many choices! I'm sure I can access fifty, free or nearly free, campsites within four hours of home. I will probably not live long enough to make a dent in the possibilities. In addition, there are all of the places which need to be re-visited. Throw in some long trips and I figure to be pretty busy for the duration. GD

I haven't been to Dworshak in many years. That time my son and I were canoe camping along the shore a few miles from the boat dock. We got visited by the camping cops who said that camping was restricted to established campgrounds...of which there were only 2 at that time. 175 miles of shoreline and Bureau of Rec had closed 174.8 miles of it to camping.
I haven't been back since and don't know what the current situation is.

As a boy, I fished in the North Fork of the Clearwater for young steelhead. Dworshak dam ended that and I've never been back. Maybe this summer, I'll get a chance to spend a couple days up at Kelly Forks. The young steelhead are a thing of the past but the river is still there. GD

Dworshak also totally screwed up a major elk migration route.

Tri Cities is a good base of operations, the Blue Mountains along the 395 line, even along the interstate, have gobs of potential and a good road network. Northeastern Oregon is pretty much "real" and not a tourist magnet, but the welcome mat is out for the adventurous. Only concern I would have is, there's a lot of up and down, and some highways pose a challenge for trailering.
You're sure to find what you'll like.

Go.
The North Fork and/or Kelly, Cayuse, Ruby, Black Canyon are world class cutthroat on a fly.

Slave

P.S. Rock Chuck, again, there are hundreds of nice campsites on the reservoir and have been for years.

Elk adapt.

That said, I used to go up the lower North Fork with my Grandpa. The dam broke his heart. I've adapted.
In fact, I am going to fish for bass up there Sunday.

This was only a few years after the dam was completed in '73. They only had the 2 campgrounds at the time. I can't figure out why they prohibited tent camping along the shoreline, miles from anything.

HWy 204 from Weston to Elgin Oregon might have some places for you.
Only been across it once on a motorcycle, it is thru the Blues and close enough to the Tri-Cities for a day ride.

I'd live in Elgin in a heartbeat.

You don't want to live in Elgin, TRUST ME when I say this. There are some nice campsites off of 204 though, check out Jubilee lake off the USFS 64 road

Why not? I had seriously considered it...

Hit the Blues before they dry up. We were there this weekend, and the wildflowers were beautiful.

It seemed nice years ago, not much work outside logging or the mill I imagine.Healthcare might be a challenge in the area, Pendelton might be the closest hospital.

I'd hit the gorge and/or light up the Gifford Pinchot close to Mt Adams.

Fishook Creek on the St. Joe and drive over to the Little N. Fork of the Clearwater bridge and there's a perfect campsite for your trailer.

There's just so many good places to go within 1/2 day of your location. It's amazing the amount of choices you have in the NW quad of the nation.

The big problem, if you like green, is that huge chunk of desert in eastern WA and OR. It continues across so. Idaho. However, if you like rugged landscape with few trees, that's the place to go. The mountains and rocks can be spectacular, trees or not.

Looks like the campsite we chose for the weekend has no utilities.

We just purchased a 2018 FOREST RIVER VIBE 268RKS.

Do you know what size generator is needed to run this RV's air conditioning, microwave, etc.? would a 3500 Watt generator suffice? 4500?

I tried looking up the info on the Forest River site, but nothing.

You'd think they'd post something like that.

There should be something in the a/c manual on the minimum generator size. If not, a quick call to the RV dealer should get you the info you need.

It doesn’t take much of a generator to sustain even a 13.5 a/c unit. The issue is the draw at start up. I use dual 2000 watt Honda’s paralleled on mine. For an easy quick weekend away the Tucannon valley has a primitive state campground, several state pull out type campgrounds and the Last Resort campground has full hook ups and are good folks.

I'm in the same boat, or trailer, as it would seem. Looking to get out in the PNW with my two little guys. Will be pulling a trailer.

Thinking some where on Chelan, which I'm sure is booked through mid Sept, or even up to Roosevelt, for some lake side camping. Haven't spent anytime on either lake. Gonna head to the coast soon as well. Loads of options!

Shoot me a PM if you want to try and meet up for a weekend.

I spent some time on the Tucannon years ago; there used to be a joint called the Tucannon Fireside where we got seriously good burgers! Wonder if it is still there?

The thing on gensets, the watt/horsepower is based on altitude.
May work fine in the Tri Cities but when you're in the Tetons it won't work so well.
Go as big as you can afford. 5kw mom.