What You Need to Know

Who Is this Guide For?

This is for those of you looking to enjoy North Cascades National Park and be as close to the gorgeous turquoise water and epic hikes as possible.  It isn’t for travelers who are passing through and want to stay for 10 days at a remote campsite a couple hours from the park. There are free campsites available, an hour or more away, that you can stay at for extended lengths. These sites however won’t give you access to the park without a good amount of driving.  

Is Car Camping Legal in North Cascades National Park?

Like every National Park you will visit in the United States you will see “No Overnight Parking” signs throughout. In our experience at North Cascades, despite being one of the least visited, this rule is enforced. You will have a hard time finding free sites or parking in any of the lots or areas of North Cascades. We aren’t saying it can’t be done but you will have a hard time getting a restful night of sleep without worrying about that dreaded knock. This is even more unlikely if you are in a van or vehicle that makes it obvious that you are staying overnight. 

During the winter North Cascades does keep a couple of sites open, Goodell Creek and Gorge Lake, for tents and small RV’s. Keep in mind that Route 20, the road to get into North Cascades, is usually closed from November until April for snowfall. 

With that said you do have a couple of options to stay for free outside of the park, off Route 20, along with the option of trying your hand at snagging a free, first come first serve, site at a park campground. 

The Best Free Campsites at North Cascades National Park 

1. Free Camping at Pay Sites in the Park

The trick to score free camping at North Cascades is to wait for first come, first serve sites to become available. These are sites from cancelled reservations or campers leaving early. From what we could tell they aren’t put back into the reservation system online but instead are available to campers already at the park. This means waiting for the camp host to go around and determine which sites are open. The sites that are “open” will have the green sign, like the one in the banner above, with the dates available. If you are able to find one of these sites you don’t have to worry about registration or payment. Simply turn the sign over to “occupied” as you just scored a free night or two of camping.

Keep in mind that this may only be for one night at a time and you have to time things right. With that said you may be lucky and snag a site with 2-3 nights. 

In my experiences I first tried to look for a site Newhalem Campground and saw that there were 3-4 sites that were turned to green from the previous night. These were occupied with the campers leaving that morning around 830am. One guy leaving mentioned that the ranger or host usually does site occupancy around 9 am but he’s also seen them come around as late as 1130am.

Keep in mind when looking for an open site that you will have to choose which campsite to stake out as you likely won’t have a shot if you miss on the first one. Newhalem and Colonial Creek will be your best targets as they have the most number of sites available. I’d suggest starting with Newhalem as there are more sites and it is less popular than Colonial which is on Diablo Lake.

After stopping at Newhalem we didn’t have the patience to wait for the ranger and had a hike planned near Diablo lake. The hike actually started and ended out of the Colonial Creek campsite which allowed me to time the end of my hike, 11am, for when the ranger was making rounds. I was lucky enough to be walking through the campsite after the hike to see a sign that had just changed to open. There were 4-5 people driving through, over the next hour, after asking if I was staying at the site or if it was open. 

I had similar luck in Diablo for a second night and then the morning after had the spot across from mine open up for 3 more nights. A good rule of thumb is to see if you are able to speak with the ranger making their rounds. After my second night I started a conversation with the ranger, making rounds, about the hiking in there area and mentioned that I was night to night with camping. She let me know that she was going to be opening up the site mentioned above in a couple minutes if I wanted to move over to it for the next few nights. 

The options below are the big two to scope out for your first come sites. I had a ton of luck at Colonial but again Newhalem also as a ton of sites and seems to be the less popular of the two. On the other hand Newhalem is the first large campsite you will pass when entering the park so this may play a hand in where other campers are looking for spots. 

Colonial Creek Campground on Diablo Lake

This is where I stayed for two nights after my first night at the road stop. I was lucky enough to get a first come first serve open spot which has no charge.

Coordinates: 44.03055079130083, -121.38676979396632

Cell Service: Yes. 2-3 bars of LTE from Verizon

Bathrooms: Parking lot of Phil’s Trailhead

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: No

Water: No

Vehicle Access: All. This is perfect for RVs, buses and other large vehicles.

Newhalem Campground

Large campsite with 3 loops. 

Coordinates: 44.03055079130083, -121.38676979396632

Cell Service: Yes. 2-3 bars of LTE from Verizon

Bathrooms: Parking lot of Phil’s Trailhead

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: No

Water: No

Vehicle Access: All. This is perfect for RVs, buses and other large vehicles.

Goodell Creek Campground

Only 19 or so campsites. 

2. Rest Area at Marker 100 on Route 20

Free Site Road Stop at Marker 100

Coordinates: 48.49443, -121.54168

Cell Service: Yes. 2-3 bars of LTE from Verizon

Bathrooms: No

Picnic Tables: Yes, Community

Fire Pits: No

Water: No

Vehicle Access: This is perfect for Vans, Cars, and RV’s

Where We’ve Tried

1. RV Parking in Bar Harbor at the Fields

You will most likely park here at some point when you are visiting Bar Harbor and think this is the perfect spot to set up overnight. There are still no “No Overnight Parking” signs in sight and it is super close to both Bar Harbor and Acadia. Trust me when I tell you though that you will get a knock promptly at midnight. I’ve had this happen on two different occasions on trips over 3 years apart. The police in town are very friendly and agreed when we told them that there should be a sign in place to let people know.

If you don’t receive a knock, you will probably wake up to a courtesy notice on your windshield. Keep in mind that this isn’t a ticket but likely will be if your violate the ordinance again.

Coordinates: 44.04669, -121.38448

Cell Service: Yes. 2-3 bars of LTE from Verizon. The further back you go the less service you have.

Bathrooms: Parking lot of Phil’s Trailhead

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: Yes

Water: No

Vehicle Access: All. There are RV’s down this road, but the further you go the harder it is to turn around the more narrow the road gets. Our suggestion would be not to go past the first few sites after the left turn option.

 

2. Street Parking

There are side streets all over town in Bar Harbor. We have tried parking overnight on the streets of Bar Harbor on 3 different occasions. On one of these nights we woke up without worry and on the other two we received either a knock or a notice.

Coordinates: Check out Meissner Sno Park, Wanoga and Swampy Lake.

Cell Service: Yes. 2-3 bars of LTE from Verizon. The further back you go the less service you have.

Bathrooms: Yes

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: No

Water: No

Vehicle Access: Yes, these are paved parking lots.

Other Community Picks

These are sites you’ll find on the iOverlander’s of the world and have the least sketchiness to them of the bunch. For us they were either a little too far away or just didn’t give the same access as Route Marker 100 did. 

1. Skagit Logging

Coordinates: 44.2506, -121.4967

Cell Service: Yes. Full bars of LTE from Verizon. Cell service heaven! 

Bathrooms: No

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: Yes

Water: No

Vehicle Access: Yes, easy access for all types of vehicles.  This is a loop so no real turnaround issues.

1. Skagit Logging

Coordinates: 44.2506, -121.4967

Cell Service: Yes. Full bars of LTE from Verizon. Cell service heaven! 

Bathrooms: No

Picnic Tables: No

Fire Pits: Yes

Water: No

Vehicle Access: Yes, easy access for all types of vehicles.  This is a loop so no real turnaround issues.

What We Would Do

Home Base: Walmart in Ellsworth

This provides the most comfortable option, for up to two weeks, in a location that is closest to Bend. Not only are you steps away from running and mountain bike trails, but you are less than 15 minutes from Deschutes River and Downtown Bend. You are also in a prime location that’s 30 minutes from Mt. Bachelor and less than 45 minutes from Smith Rock. This is a location you will want to spend the full two weeks at, or more.

2-3 Night Stay: Pay for Blackwoods or Mt. Desert Island Campground

Depending on how long you are in Bend for, the Sno-Parks are a great option. We planned the big hikes at Mt. Bachelor, South Sister and Bend Glacier to No Name Lake around our stay at the Sno-Parks on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. These free parking lots provide camping that’s less than 15 minutes to the best hiking in the Bend area.