Kittitas County puts its own best planning advice right in its tagline: "From the cascades to the columbia." The county's own numbers are 2,315 square miles running from 478 feet of elevation to 7,881 feet, which is a bigger vertical spread than most people expect from a single county line.
That spread is the whole story for camping here. In mid-October, a campground at the east end of the county is having one of its best weekends of the year while a campground 70 miles west is gated shut for the winter. Search "Kittitas County camping" and you get a list of names with no way to tell which half of the county you're looking at.
We're in Easton, at the western end, so we field this question a lot — usually from someone who just found out their reservation is at a campground that doesn't open until June. Here's the county sorted by the thing that actually decides your trip.
The mountain side: the Cle Elum River and Kachess corridor
This is the postcard half — reservoirs, big timber, Forest Service campgrounds up Highway 903 north of Cle Elum. It's also the half with a ten-to-fifteen-week season. Everything here sits between 2,250 and 2,400 feet and opens late because of snowmelt and road conditions, not because of demand.
- Wish Poosh — 34 campsites at 2,250 feet, about 10 miles northwest of Cle Elum on Highway 903. Memorial Day to mid-September. $22 single, $43 double, $11 per additional vehicle. Potable water is not available; the Forest Service provides portable toilets. Worth knowing before you plan a boating trip: "the boat ramp is typically closed by early July due to low water," because Lake Cle Elum is an irrigation reservoir and gets drawn down through the summer.
- Cle Elum River — 14 trailer/tent sites plus a reservable group site with a capacity of 100 people, at 2,250 feet, 15 miles north of Cle Elum. Late May to mid-September, $24 a night, $158 for the group site. Vault toilets and potable water.
- Salmon La Sac — the big one at the top of the road, 19 miles north of Cle Elum at 2,400 feet. 69 sites, roughly 40 reservable and almost 30 first-come, first-served. Late May to mid-September, $27 single, $54 double. Potable water, vault toilets.
- Kachess — over 100 campsites and one group site at 2,250 feet, at 8000 Lake Kachess Road in Easton, which makes it our nearest Forest Service neighbor. From I-90 Exit 62 it's 5.5 miles up Kachess Lake Road. Early June to mid-September. $27 single, $54 double, $158 group. This is the one with flush toilets and potable water, which is why it fills first.
Every one of those four is closed right now
This matters more than any of the details above, and it is the reason we wrote this guide in September rather than in May.
The Cle Elum Ranger District has three active closure orders, per the Okanogan-Wenatchee alerts page. The largest is the Three Queens Fire closure, order #06-17-03-2026-36, effective August 24, 2026, which "prohibits entry or use of roads, recreation sites, campgrounds and trails" inside a defined area covering the Three Queens, King, and Goat fires. On top of that there's a Cle Elum River Restoration Area closure (#06-17-03-2026-10, effective July 6, 2026) south of the Cooper River Bridge, and a Gold Creek Restoration Project closure (#06-17-03-2026-12, effective June 23, 2026) around Gold Creek Pond.
Wish Poosh, Cle Elum River, Salmon La Sac, and Kachess all currently carry a "Site Closed — 2026 Three Queens Fire" alert on their own Forest Service pages. If a third-party booking site still shows them as available, believe the Forest Service.
Lake Easton State Park closes in the season people assume it's open
The closest public campground to us is Lake Easton State Park, a 697-acre park with 24,000 feet of freshwater access, about five minutes from our gate. State Parks says campsites "range from full to non-hookup sites" and that "some sites accommodate up to 60-foot RV units," plus a walk-in, tent-only group camp for up to 50 people.
The line to plan around: "Campground is closed November 1 through May 1." Day use stays open, and winter camping is allowed in the day-use and boat launch parking areas during the closure, but the campground itself is shut for six months. If you're trying to camp near Snoqualmie Pass in April, this is the reservation that quietly isn't there. We cover the wider version of this problem in our guide to RV parks open year-round in Washington.
The Teanaway: 50,241 acres with strict rules
North of Cle Elum, the Teanaway Community Forest is a 50,241-acre DNR landscape with three designated camping areas: 29 Pines (59 campsites with fire rings and toilets, currently running a reduced number of sites in the south half), Indian Camp on the middle fork (eleven campsites plus two group sites and a toilet), and the Teanaway Camping Area on the west fork (55 campsites and two ADA-accessible toilets).
Two rules catch people out. First, "no dispersed camping, or camping outside of a designated campground, allowed" — this is not the place to pull off a forest road and set up. Second, "stays are limited to seven days in a 30-day period." Sites are first-come, first-served at no additional cost with a Discover Pass, which makes this the cheapest legitimate camping in the county.
Down in the canyon, camping runs all year
Drop east and south toward Ellensburg and the season problem disappears. The BLM's Yakima River Canyon sites along Highway 821 are open year-round — a genuine rarity in central Washington. Umtanum, the northernmost, is in Kittitas County; the canyon crosses into Yakima County toward its south end.
- Umtanum — 18 campsites (6 in the main loop, 12 walk-in at the south end), plus the historic river footbridge
- Big Pines — 42 campsites, the largest of the four, with a boat launch
- Lmuma Creek — 7 campsites
- Roza — 6 shaded sites and picnic shelters
Fees are $15 overnight and $5 for day use, with a 7-day stay limit. Reservations run May 1 to September 30; October 1 through April 30 is first come, first served. The catch is real and applies to all four: no drinking water and no hookups anywhere. Bring every gallon you'll need.
The far east end: Vantage and the Columbia
At the county's Columbia River edge, Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park at 4511 Huntzinger Road is a day-use park — the Trees of Stone Interpretive Trail is 1.25 miles through petrified logs in their original setting, part of about three miles of trail. Camping is down the road at the Wanapum Recreation Area, which offers full-hookup or hiker/biker sites spring through fall, with a maximum site length of 60 feet and limited availability.
Two warnings from the park's own page. "Tents are strongly not recommended. High winds are frequent, especially in the evening." And "the park is heavily used during The Gorge Amphitheatre concert season. Facilities fill early on weekends." Check the concert calendar before you assume a summer Saturday is bookable.
Which pass you need where
Four different land managers, four different systems, and none of them honor each other:
- National forest (Wish Poosh, Kachess, Salmon La Sac, Cle Elum River): the campground fee is paid through Recreation.gov. Trailhead parking is separate and needs a Northwest Forest Pass, $5 per day or $30 per year.
- State parks (Lake Easton, Ginkgo/Wanapum): a Discover Pass at $10 daily or $45 annually covers day-use parking. You don't need one while you're a registered overnight camper at that park — the camping fee covers it.
- DNR (Teanaway): the Discover Pass is the camping fee. No separate site charge.
- BLM (Yakima River Canyon): its own $15/$5 fee structure. Neither a Discover Pass nor a Northwest Forest Pass applies.
Where we fit, and where we don't
We're a private property in Easton, in the western, higher, snowier half of the county — and we stay open year-round, which is the one thing none of the public campgrounds above can say. Our 54 acres have 22 RV sites with 30/50-amp electric and water hookups and a dump station, tent sites among forest and meadows, cabins, tiny homes, and a 14-person lodge. The four lakes are private, so fishing needs no license, and kayaks and paddle boats are included.
What we are not: public land, and not cheap the way a $15 canyon site or a Discover Pass Teanaway site is cheap. There's no sewer at the individual RV site — the dump station is on the property. Motorized boats aren't permitted on our lakes. If what you want is a remote Forest Service site at 2,400 feet with a river running past it, Salmon La Sac is the right answer in a year when it's open, and we'd rather you had a good trip than a booking.
For the rest of the area, see our guides to Cle Elum and Roslyn, the best camping near Seattle if you're comparing across the pass, and when Snoqualmie Pass gets snow if you're trying to time a shoulder-season trip.
Conditions as of September 18, 2026
- The Cle Elum River corridor is closed. Three active Cle Elum Ranger District orders, listed above. Wish Poosh, Cle Elum River, Salmon La Sac, and Kachess all show "Site Closed" on their Forest Service pages. Check the alerts page before driving up Highway 903 or Kachess Lake Road.
- Campfires are not currently allowed on DNR-managed lands, including the Teanaway, per DNR's active alert. Propane stoves with shut-off valves are still permitted.
- Lake Easton State Park's campground closes November 1.
- Fees, season dates, and closure orders change without much notice. The linked official pages are the authority, not this one.