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Camp on the Sunny Side: 8 Eastern Washington Camping Adventures

Seattle-area families: Head over the mountains for sun and fun

Lauren Braden
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Published on: February 07, 2023

Camp on the Sunny Side: 8 Eastern Washington Camping Adventures

Columbia Hills State Park she who watches pictograph
Photo:
“She Who Watches” pictograph. Credit: Rooftop65/Flickr CC

Columbia Hills Historical State Park, Dallesport

Don your buckskin hats — you’ve joined the Corps of Discovery! Columbia Hills Historical State Park sits in the sunny part of the Columbia River Gorge. It’s also a stop on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail at the site of a former Native American village whose people received the explorers with kindness during a dangerous stretch of their journey down the river.

Today, the park is one of the most stunning in the gorge for its fields of wildflowers, oak-bottomed canyons and basalt rock formations. A famous pictograph titled “She Who Watches” is located in the park, though visitors can view the pictograph only via guided tour.

Camping options include four standard sites and eight utility sites, plus two primitive tent sites. There is also a handful of platform-tent cabins to rent.

Do: Take a hike. The trail system on Dalles Mountain within the park takes hikers up to 12 miles through meadows of balsamroot to the summit of Stacker Butte.

Reservations: Book online.

More camping info for families:

Editor’s notes: Image credit this page: rooftop65/Flickr CC. This article was originally published several years ago and updated most recently for sunny camping in 2023.

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