Nearby Campgrounds Offer Seclusion

With gasoline prices surging, many RVers are looking for campgrounds that are not far away, yet provide a secluded setting. The following four campgrounds in the Puget Sound area are near population centers, but offer an abundance of recreational opportunities and scenic views.

La Conner Preserve
A half-mile of saltwater beach frontage is one of the key attractions at La Conner Preserve, a 111-acre campground in La Conner, Washington, that is part of the Thousand Trails system. Thousand Trails calls its campgrounds “preserves” because the environment and natural beauty of the property is protected.

La Conner Preserve lies in the heart of Skagit Valley, famous for its annual tulip festival. To the west lie the San Juan Islands, which are accessible by boat or ferry from nearby Anacortes. Five minutes to the east is the old fishing village of La Conner, which has historic buildings and a collection of shops with arts, crafts and antiques.

The campground offers a long beach to explore and includes a boat launch There is an abundance of recreational activities, with a miniature golf course, playgrounds, horseshoe pits, a basketball/sports court, shuffleboard courts, a volleyball court and a spa.

The campground has 59 campsites with full hookups and 234 with power and water hookups. Also available are 17 cabins and 18 rental trailers.

Like all Thousand Trails campgrounds, La Conner has a lodge where campers are invited to relax and socialize. It also has a trading post and other conveniences, including laundry facilities.

Thousand Trails is a private camping club that operates more than 50 membership-based campgrounds. For information, call (800) 205-0606 or see www.1000trails.com.

Lake Sawyer Resort
It’s getting harder to find attractive RV resorts near population centers, but Lake Sawyer Resort in Black Diamond, Washington, offers a lakeside setting that is conveniently near Seattle and Tacoma.

The year-round resort occupies spacious grounds amid tall fir trees and has more than 1,000 feet of frontage on Lake Sawyer, one of the area’s largest natural lakes. The lake offers fishing for bass and trout, boating, jet skiing, water skiing, canoeing and swimming.

The resort is situated on a cove and has its own boat dock and boat rentals. The park-like grounds are ideal for picnics. Beach access is nearby.

Lark Sawyer Resort has 110 RV sites, plus eight rental units. Facilities include a clubhouse, playground, game room, sports court, store and snack bar.

The setting offers scenic views of Mt. Rainier, and ready access to three state parks—Kanaskat, Palmer and Flaming Geyser—that are just a short distance away. Many restaurants and golf courses are nearby.

Lake Sawyer is one of 13 RV destinations in the Sunrise Resorts system. All of the resorts offer lots of amenities, from laundry facilities to organized activity programs, such as crafts, bingo and potlucks. Sunrise has RV resorts in Arizona, Alaska, Nevada and Washington.

For information on Lake Sawyer and other Sunrise resorts in Washington, call (800) 842-7373 or see www.sunriseresorts.com.

Lost Lake Resort
Instead of putting your motorhome in an RV storage lot, why not park it in a campground with a lake, ready for use anytime?

That’s one of the alternatives offered by Lost Lake Resort, a refurbished private RV park in Olympia, Washington, that is selling deeded lots to people who want to park a motorhome there permanently, or place a park-model cabin on the site.

Lost Lake Resort occupies 130 acres of woodland beside a secluded 11-acre lake stocked with rainbow trout.

Owner Jeff Graham and his partners purchased the resort about a year ago and have spent close to a million dollars refurbishing it. The park was originally a membership resort, and continues to serve members and offer camping accommodations through Coast to Coast Resorts and other national membership groups. And while the rental of campsites continues to be a focus of the park, the sale of deeded lots is attracting special attention.

Graham’s wife, Susan, the resort’s director of sales and marketing, said that regulations by cities and homeowners associations are discouraging owners from parking their RVs in their driveways. The alternative of putting a motorhome in a storage lot can be expensive, costing as much as $200 a month.

So, she said, it makes a lot of sense to buy a campsite and store the motorhome there. Lost Lake is a gated park with 24-hour security. Buyers can build a carport on their campsite to protect their motorhome or camper from the weather. Or they can use the site to install a park model. The park models that meet the resort’s architectural regulations favor a log cabin style.

Deeded lots are priced from $25,000, with most ranging from $35,000 to $40,000. Park- model cabins start as low as $22,000.

Purchasers gain access to a resort that has full-service hookups, a recreation center with an indoor/outdoor pool, a game room with a pool table and DVD/VCRs, and a fitness room with treadmills, exercise bikes and weights.

The big attraction, here, however, is the lake. Lost Lake is stocked a couple of times each year with 10- to 24-inch rainbow trout. A dock is available for boat rentals and fishing. The lake is separated from the campsites by trees to preserve seclusion and views.

Lost Lake Resort is about 45 miles from Seattle at 1546 Reservation Road SE, Olympia, WA 98513. For information, call (888) 220-5253 or see www.llrvr.com.

Tall Chief RV Resort
Surrounded by the Cascade Mountains but not far from downtown Seattle, Tall Chief Resort is strategically located for those who want a variety of recreational options during a vacation stay.

Tall Chief is situated in Fall City, Washington, near the towns of Issaquah, Snoqualmie and North Bend.

There is plenty to do right at the resort, which has a lodge-style cedar clubhouse and activity center, rolling lawns, sculpted pool and indoor sauna. You can hike densely wooded hills overlooking the wild Snoqualmie River or lounge at a secluded campsite with the Cascades rising behind you.

Venture farther and you will find all sorts of recreational options. On the road between Fall City and Snoqualmie, you will find Snoqualmie Falls, where water plunges 268 feet—100 feet more than Niagara Falls. You can view the falls from a restaurant above the site, or from the trails and observation deck in the two-acre Snoqualmie Falls Park.

In Snoqualmie, visitors will find a world-class golf course, a historic downtown with antique, flower and gift shops, and the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad, which is operated by the Northwest Railway Museum and runs five miles between Snoqualmie and North Bend.

The mountain scenery around Snoqualmie and North Bend provided the background for the Twin Peaks television series. For spectacular views, visitors can hike a four-mile trail to the summit of Mount Si.

At nearby Issaquah, visitors can browse through the specialty shops in Gilman Village, see historic buildings in the downtown business district, or visit a chocolate factory or the state’s largest family-owned winery.

And, of course, there are endless urban attractions in Seattle, which is just minutes away.

Tall Chief RV Resort is part of the private membership camping system of Western Horizon Resorts, which has more than 5,000 RV sites at 26 locations in 13 states and Mexico. For information about Tall Chief and other Western Horizon resorts, see www.whresorts.com. The phone number at Tall Chief RV Resort is (425) 222-3526.