We noticed that you're using an unsupported browser. The Tripadvisor website may not display properly.We support the following browsers: Windows: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome. Mac: Safari.
Motorcycle camping trip from Dallas, Texas. It took almost 4 full days of long riding to get there. But, it was to be an epic trip of a lifetime. I'd only seen Mount Rainier from the air and was very anxious to actually visit and camp there. OK about the campground: We made our reservations as soon as they were open for reserving; I think 6 months in advance. I don't exactly remember. But snagging 5 campsites was easy. Much easier than other popular campground reservations. The forests are thick and dark. I've never seen forests like this before. They were also very quiet. I loved it. The sites seemed small, but plenty large for my 8 x 8 tent, the picnic table, the fire ring, and with ample room to lounge. The potty rooms were apparently plentiful. Mine was only about 200 feet away, tent to door. There are no showers in Mount Rainier National Park. So we had two nights of stinky. Our next night at Seacrest State Park at Mt St Helens had great showers and I made up for no shower for 2 nights at Rainier. The site was acceptably level. One of our group's site was in a gulley about 5 feet deep. However, they found room for their tent and just dealt with climbing in and out off the campsite to the road level. We wondered what would happen in a heavy rain. But the weather was perfect. The ground was hard-sandy, perfect for tent stakes. I was able to park my heavy motorcycle parallel between my tent and the road making an easy-in and easy-out. There was just enough room. I'll admit, we usually get lost trying to find our campsites; end up driving round and round before finally seeing the right loop and campsite sign. We found our sites first try at Cougar Rock. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, we only had two nights and one full day in the park scheduled before heading to Mt St Helens and then down the PCH. I could have used 3 full days. I like to hike. The sites were available when we reserved if we could have taken another day there. It was a glorious ride to Paradise! Don't let the "Parking Full" get in your way. It's always full; but not for motorcycles. The parking lot has specific Motorcycle-Only spaces and there were plenty of them. We had breakfast at the Paradise Inn. We won't do that again. At almost $50 each, it was a bit too steep. Packaged food from the grocery store would have sufficed at a fraction of the cost. So instead of a fine dinner at the Paradise, we bought food at the grocery and cooked over the campfire. Everything is expensive up there. Even a self-cooked meal cost about $14 each. Not horrible, just maybe 25 percent more than expected. We didn't tip ourselves so it was a wash. It was cool in July but not cold. The weather was perfect. Our camping experience was supreme. I want to go back. I'd stay in Cougar Rock again. …
Read more
Date of stay: July 2023
Value
Location
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:Reserve early. We did. It was filled when we arrived; but we had reservations.
See more room tips
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The communal fill and dump station is/was currently closed, and the next closest ones are 30 miles away. Since we paid for these facilities, we should get them — or someone should at least notify people so they can make arrangements. We pulled in with a full tank of kitchen water, so had to borrow a bucket from a neighboring camper to empty our tank some. Fortunately, we had already planned on staying here only one night. Our particular treeless site had no privacy at all, it was next to a toilet, and other campers walked through our site to get to it. Also our site had a large rock quizzically located right in the middle of the site, so we didn’t have level ground to park on. Again the closed dump station was a real disappointment, but the other quirks didn’t help our experience.…
Read more
Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Dump and fill before you get here.
See more room tips
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Most of the campsites had plenty of room between each other but the one we were assigned was uncomfortably close to our neighbors. We could hear each other's conversations and smell each other's dinners.
Read more
Date of stay: July 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Nice campground close to hikes in the paradise. If you plan to do a first come first site be aware that over 1/2 are closed for unsafe trees. We felt lucky to find a site. Has flushing toilets. Nice area to walk around as it’s really big
Read more
Date of stay: August 2020Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
My first ever US campsite and I loved it! Very clean, super close to some amazing trails and just a beautiful place in general to be. I stayed here as part of a tour group and think that the pitch was very well suited to a group
Read more
Date of stay: August 2019
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We had a beautiful pull-thru site for our 27ft RV, which we easily levelled thanks to two big rocks. There are mostly tent campers here, which made the atmosphere very peaceful....the tent sites are wonderfully set up. Our site had a lovely fire pit and picnic table next to spacious part of woods. Aside from a tent on one side, it really felt isolated. The vibe here is ideal before embarking on a day of Mount Rainer hikes.....definitely one of the fav campgrounds!
Read more
Date of stay: August 2019Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Staying within the national parks we visit gives us a stronger sense of truly experiencing them, and Cougar Rock was no exception. Well on the way to Paradise, we were able to get up to the mountain early (before the parking lots filled up) - and glorious beauty awaited us. The subalpine meadows full of wildflowers, glacier views, waterfalls and hiking trails will always be favorite memories - and we were even fortunate enough to see Mt. Rainier reveal her peak. The evening ranger programs were fun and informative - we loved our stay at Cougar Rock!
Read more
Date of stay: August 2019Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello to all the people with fancy-schmancy RV's. My review is this: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR EXTERIOR LIGHTS ON AT NIGHT. It is so rude. Like so incredibly rude. We had a dream campsite at this campground after booking the minute we were able to in the park's reservations system. It had tall trees framing a view of the stars right above the fairly level tent area. The first night there was perfect. Pitch dark and peaceful. We stargazed and fell asleep with our rain fly off. In other words: dream camping. Then, on the second day, a German family rolled up right behind us in a massive rental RV that was ringed with extremely bright exterior LED lights. They left them on all night. ALL NIGHT. It was like trying to doze off in a fully lit room. Not only could we not see any stars, we couldn't get any decent sleep and ended up cutting our vacation short by a day because neither of us were in any shape to do the hard hike we had planned. Be considerate. This is a fantastic campground and people want to enjoy nature. Your ridiculously large RV is already out of place in such an environment. Don't make it worse.…
Read more
Date of stay: July 2019Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
National Park campsites, in my opinion, are by-and-large nicer than a lot of private campgrounds and this was true of Cougar Rock. The sites, though close together, seemed private because of the trees and the tiered nature of the sites. The bathrooms have flush toilets, but no showers. We didn't do any hiking from the campground, though I believe there is access to trails. It is a 15ish min drive up to Paradise Visitor Center, which makes it easy to get up and hike!
Read more
Date of stay: July 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Spent one night here before embarking on Wonderland backpacking trip. The campground is nearby the Longmire wilderness center and close to all the trails. The campground is big and spacious, with several tent and RV sites. Bathrooms are clean and warm. Lots of options, sites are big with space for tents and fire ring and picnic table and chairs. Pricing is on the cheaper side, about $20 per site per nights. Definitely would stay again.
Read more
Date of stay: August 2018
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
cougar rock campground hotel mount rainier national park
LOCATION
United StatesWashingtonMount Rainier National Park
NUMBER OF ROOMS
200
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.