Considering that we bring our own tents, shelter, furniture, cookers and kitchens camping is not always cheap. If you are on a tight budget you might like to consider one or 2 of these campsites which provide free camping in Washington and Oregon. This article from ThriftyNorthWestMom.com not only lists a number of great, free campsites - it also shows you how you can cost efficiently add to your camping gear.
Please be warned - there are affiliate sales link in the article. These all belong to ThriftyNorthWestMom.com. CampingSage has no influence or control over these links.
That said, lets take a look at the campsites…
Free Camping – Washington and Oregon Sites You Can Stay at for FREE!
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Free Camping Sites – Washington and Oregon
Camping is so popular for families here in the Northwest, and generally a very affordable way to visit new places. If you are looking for something very budget-friendly & affordable, did you know that there are actually a number of places that you can camp for FREE around the Northwest? There are a number of public lands that do offer camping at no cost – they may not have many services like water or flush toilets, but if you can rough it a bit, you can find some great, out of the way spots. Most of these are available on a first come, first serve basis, but if you are a bit adventurous, it does not get more affordable then free.
Also, here in the Northwest, the most popular time for camping is of course in the summertime, but many locations will open up their sites with free or reduced rates once the busy season has passed, so those are great options as well.
We will be sharing low-cost campsites ($20 & under/night) around the Northwest in just a few days, so check back for those ideas as well if you don’t mind spending a little bit of money to have more amenities at your campsite.
We’d love to hear all of your suggestions & tips on where you’ve found great free campsites & if you have any reviews or tips to share about any of these locations we’ve found.
(If you need tents or supplies, now is not a bad time to buy them too. You can often find them on sale in the stores, or Amazon has some good tents marked down right now as well)!
Resources for Free Campsites:
We have just featured a highlight of free campsites that are found across the Northwest in Washington & Oregon, but there are many more that are available. Here are some of the resources we found for finding free campsites in the Northwest for you to see if there are more options in an area you want to check out.
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Lands – This is a great resource as it’s an official state resource with information about a variety of lands, including areas that are available for camping. Just pick a region, county or area to start checking out what’s available in those areas. (I did not find a similar section on the OR Fish & Wildlife website)
Bureau of Land Management Website– This is another official resource for BLM lands. You can select camping as an option to search & then the area & it will give you a list of places to camp – you will then need to go thru & find which ones are free.
Campendium Website – features free campsites for across the country including listings for Washington & Oregon plus reviews from readers who have gone to these campsites. This is more of a community -driven website, so you may want to try to confirm these locations with another website such as the WDFW Lands website.
Free Campsites.Net– This is another site that is community driven, with reader reports & reviews, but I’d encourage you to also try to confirm these with another website such as the WDFW Lands website.
We found it worked best to use a combination of these websites (starting with the Campendium & FreeCampsites) websites to get names of free camp locations & then we looked them up on the official sites.
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