June 19, 2018

Camping at Alta Lake

Camping is a PNW staple.

I love camping near a body of water. The ocean, a lake, a river, a stream – I’ll take them all. I also like camping near a bathroom, I’m not going to lie. When we took our dogs camping a couple years ago, we chose Alta Lake State Park, because it had both of these.

Located just outside of Pateros, WA, the state park was just what we were looking for as we planned our last minute camping trip. We stayed just one night, and it was one of the only spots in central Washington that had an available campsite on a Friday night. (PNWers LOVE to camp!)

A large fire had swept through the park in 2014, so I was prepared to see lot of the damage it had done. I was pleasantly surprised – while some trees were charred, it was nothing like the image I’d worked up in my mind. Our campsite was large, and had a picnic table and a partial view of the lake. The park itself has a swimming area, a small store, and clean restrooms.

We had a great camping trip. Our dogs loved getting in the lake and walking through the park. A highlight for me was definitely having wine (Jones of WA) at our campsite with a view of the lake, and playing cribbage by the light of the lantern. Now that we have a daughter, I would love to go back and take her!

(Also, we left with no mosquito bites which is AWESOME. I’m not sure if we just got lucky, or if the mosquitos weren’t out while we were there, but I figured I’d note it either way.)