Wish-Poosh Campground, Wenatchee National Forest and Salmon Le Sac

Of the camping trips Mike and I have been on already this summer, (Osoyoos Lake and Lake Entiat), we've yet to bring Caden along with us. After taking him on our camping trip to Yakima Statesman Park last summer, all he talked about during the winter was going camping. Our friends, Kristen and Emery were dying to go camping too, so we decided to go along with them and take Caden for his first trip of the summer. Because we had driven long distances two times in three weeks, we wanted to choose a place that was closer to Seattle, yet still in Eastern Washington so we could chase the sun.

Caden loves sleeping in his own tent!

We did something we've yet to do - instead of searching frantically for a free spot at a state park, we pulled out Mike's copy of Inside Out Washington | A Best Places Guide to the Outdoors: Camping, Biking, Lodging, Hiking... and all outdoor activities by Ron C. Judd (phew, that's some title!) Wow. I recommend this book 100 times over. I think we've abandoned our use of state parks for good. Well, maybe not for good... but it was great to find a ton of campsites that we never even heard of, and some of them were even free!

We headed to the area of Washington accessible by Highway 903/Salmon Le Sac road. If you take exit 80 off I-90, toward the tiny town of Roslyn, there's a whole slew of beautiful, woodsy campsites in the Wenatchee National Forest, along lakes and rivers - and it's only an hour and a half away from Seattle! We chose the first campsite that came along, Wish Poosh, after driving through and loving the spacious campsites. This place is perfect if you want a little privacy. The sites are large, and include picnic tables, a fire pit and even a BBQ grill! The bathrooms are clean, a little bit primitave without a shower, but it's still nice to have bathroom facilities. The campground is super woodsy, which was a change for us because we usually find ourselves in deep Eastern Washington where the trees are scarce and you're always left waking up at 5 a.m. to the blazing sun. It was nice to have the shade of the trees, to say the least. The campground has 17 tent sites and 22 RV sites that aren't reservable, but we didn't have a problem when we arrived around 8 p.m. on Friday night; plenty of sites were still available. The campground is located along Cle Elum Lake, a reservoir that was full to the brim and hard to float or swim in. Apparently it drains as the summer goes on, and there's a great big sandy beach along the shore. We were sad to miss it because the lake was a little unusable without a boat.

The next morning, the weather was a little cool (the area is not as warm as Lake Chelan, Wenatchee, or further down Highway 2 and I-90) so we went on an adventure drive, further down Salmon Le Sac Road to check out the handful of other campsites that the book mentioned. The drive is gorgeous.

A little further up the road is Cle Elum River campsite and Red Mountain campsite (free!) along the Cle Elum River. Both of these are approximately 12 miles north of Roslyn. We also drove approximately 10 miles down a road to Cooper River, and Owhi campsite, which was gorgeous, and even further past Salmon Le Sac to Scatter Creek and Fish Lake. The road to these campsites is super rough and the area is really primitive. There is the occasional bathroom, but the road is steep, rocky and hard to drive if you don't have a SUV, Subaru, etc. (All campsites are free, and it's approximately 30 miles north of downtown Roslyn).

An outhouse we found out there - complete with the crescent moon!

We were shocked to see the occasional houses out there - talk about a remote cabin! The scenery is really breathtaking, however. Mountains, streams, waterfalls down the side of the hills, little purple and yellow mountain flowers. We couldn't stop taking pictures!

All of these campsites are so private and remote, they'd be great for big camping parties with friends that are often inappropriate at state parks because of the families and park rangers that don't tolerate the noise. We kept seeing signs everywhere with posted paper plates of people having big camp parties. SO fun!

After our drive and a late lunch, the weather turned for the worse, and we were caught in a torrential downpour and thunder/lightning storm! It sort of sucked. I haven't been camping in the rain in forever. All the more reason to wait to camp in this area until the dead middle of summer. We all tried to make the best of it...

Jiffy popcorn and marshmallows, oh my God!

Hiding out underneath the tarp...

We put up tarps and the boys were frantically digging moats to keep the water out of the campfire, but once the campfire was flooded, the campsite muddy and the rain relentless, we decided to pack up early and head back.

Final Verdict: Most definitely go back. This camping area is too close to Seattle and offers too many options to explore to not head back again! Plus, it was a welcome change to camp in the woods with the shade of the Evergreen trees. Next time, we'll wait until the weather guarantees summer heat, and we can enjoy the water!