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Cougar Rock Campground

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#1 of 2 campsites in Mount Rainier National Park
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Offers 200 campsites.
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65Reviews13Q+A10Room tips
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UltraLimitedTraveler wrote a review Sept 2023
Dallas, Texas252 contributions108 helpful votes
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.
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Date of stay: July 2023
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip: Reserve early. We did. It was filled when we arrived; but we had reservations.
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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.
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Yoritomo wrote a review Jul 2023
Sleepy Hollow, New York395 contributions93 helpful votes
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.
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip: Dump and fill before you get here.
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40_countries_2014 wrote a review Sept 2020
Washington DC, District of Columbia77 contributions71 helpful votes
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.
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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.
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Swimmy128 wrote a review Aug 2020
Mill Creek, Washington1396 contributions209 helpful votes
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
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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.
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Rachel B wrote a review May 2020
Weymouth, United Kingdom737 contributions82 helpful votes
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
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Date of stay: August 2019
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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.
1 Helpful vote
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Violin-Mel wrote a review Aug 2019
Bonn107 contributions96 helpful votes
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!
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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.
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Annabell O wrote a review Aug 2019
California415 contributions66 helpful votes
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!
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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.
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AnnaMaria S wrote a review Jul 2019
5 contributions3 helpful votes
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.
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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.
3 Helpful votes
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Alli wrote a review Oct 2018
Seattle, Washington68 contributions25 helpful votes
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!
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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.
1 Helpful vote
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Lucyan wrote a review Aug 2018
Seattle, Washington1004 contributions237 helpful votes
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.
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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.
1 Helpful vote
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cougar rock campground hotel mount rainier national park
LOCATION
United StatesWashingtonMount Rainier National Park
NUMBER OF ROOMS
200
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COUGAR ROCK CAMPGROUND: UPDATED 2023 Hotel Reviews and 12 Photos (Mount Rainier National Park, WA) - Tripadvisor

Frequently Asked Questions about Cougar Rock Campground
Which popular attractions are close to Cougar Rock Campground?
Nearby attractions include Skyline Trail (6.0 km), Narada Falls (3.0 km), and Paradise Valley (4.6 km).
Are pets allowed at Cougar Rock Campground?
Yes, pets are typically allowed, but it's always best to call ahead to confirm.