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Seaquest State Park yurts (near Mount St. Helens)

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  • Seaquest State Park yurts (near Mount St. Helens)

    This past weekend we stayed in a yurt in Seaquest State Park and it was a fantastic experience that I wanted to pass along. Although the name of the park would suggest a seaside location, this park is actually located on the way to Mount St. Helens; it's nowhere near the ocean although Silver Lake is nearby.

    The campground has 55 tent sites, 33 utility RV sites and 5 yurts. If you are planning to camp in a tent I would suggest avoiding the south loop as the proximity to the highway (which leads up to the mountain) makes it quite noisy. The sites furthest from the road on the north end of the north loop are far enough from the highway that traffic noise is not an issue. The sites that I saw on a walk through the campground seemed spacious enough (I saw some which had at least 4 tents on them). The campground is wooded, but some of the sites are not particularly private.

    The "yurt village" is segregated from the tent/RV loops and the 5 yurts are spaced out nicely in a heavily wooded area. There is an open field nearby with a sand volleyball court and two horseshoe pits (bring your own shoes). A restroom (with running water and flush toilets) is nearby and just past that there's a small kids' playground.

    The yurt village is nicely laid out. Each yurt has a small deck, a firepit and a picnic table. Between yurts 1 & 2 (which face the other three yurts in the village) there is a covered picnic area with two raised braziers. Since we were with friends and had rented both 1 & 2, we appropriated this covered area as our main cooking/eating/congregating spot. Although the temperatures were in the high 80's the shade in the campground really kept things comfortable. The only real downside was the mosquitos...if you go (at least in late July/early August) be sure to bring some bug repellent.

    The yurts themselves were nice and clean. Each contains a bunkbed with a double on bottom and a single on top as well as a queen-size futon. The beds were comfortable, although I would recommend bringing along fitted sheets to cover them as the plastic mattresses and naugahyde futon are not particularly comfortable sleeping surfaces should you roll out of your sleeping bag. The yurts have lights, electrical outlets and even heaters. At least one of the yurts accepts pets and at least one is handicapped accessible.

    The first of three(!) Mount St. Helens visitor centers is right across the highway from the campground and is accessible by a tunnel under the roadway. The volcano is the main attraction in the area and it is about 50 miles up the highway from Seaquest. It's definitely worth the drive up, particularly if the weather is clear.

    Although Silver Lake is located adjacent to the visitors center, there is no access to the lake from the campground area that we could discern. The area of the lake nearest the campground is really more wetland than lake; there's a boardwalk trail from the visitors center which loops through the wetland area. There is a boat launch a mile or two up the road from the campground, but there doesn't appear to be a swimming beach. One can swim in the boat launch area, but depending on how busy it is, it's less than ideal. We spoke with some locals who suggested the best way to swim on the lake is to visit one of the RV resorts on the lake and pay a day-use fee for access to the lakefront. The ones they suggested were Silver Cove or Streeters Resort, although we did not check these out.

    Due to the unseasonably hot temperatures we sought out some relief by checking out another swimming spot which was recommended. This was at a state park (I don't recall the name of it) which was located a few miles from the campground where Tower Road crosses the Toutle River. The river itself was refreshing but the "park" left much to be desired. This is obviously a place where locals congregate to float the river and party. The riverfront was littered with lots of empty cans and trash. The river was moving fairly swiftly, so this would not be a place I would recommend for small children.

    All in all, Seaquest was a very nice campground and a fun place to spend a weekend.

  • #2
    Re: Seaquest State Park yurts (near Mount St. Helens)

    This sounds like a wonderful time! I've been looking into local area yurt campgrounds and Seaquest State Park came up. I also found this handy yurt campground guide and was able to see most of the yurts around the Pacific Northwest.

    Thanks for sharing DeeJayK!

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    • #3
      Re: Seaquest State Park yurts (near Mount St. Helens)

      Sounds like a beautiful trip. Maybe camping in the spring or fall will be cooler.
      Visit me at Campward Bound for more camping information.
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