Larrabee State Park is located down a narrow, winding (although paved) road. The camping area is difficult to find if you are traveling south. I drove into the first entrance I saw that was marked “State Park.” This entrance was only for the boat launch. The entrance to the camping area is another mile south down the road. Now I know why Mapquest.com showed two separate locations for this park!
The RV slots, which are designated with a “T,” are both back-in and pull through. The back-in spots are paved, the pull-through’s are gravel/grass. The electricity is 30 amp. The good news is, all of the RV sites have a sewer dump. The bad news is, none of slots are level. The utility sites (some of which will accommodate larger RV’s) all have a picnic table and fire pit, but are pretty close together. Hope you have a decent neighbor (when it’s crowded)! Most of the Standard (tent) camping is closed in winter. The Standard camping sites are quite spacious, except for the ones closest to the RV (utility) sites. Those are adequate, but not as spacious as the other sites. I came here on a rainy Friday just before Veteran’s Day and there were only a few campers here. The camp host slot was vacant, and blocked off to prevent use.
There are hiking trails; and mountain biking is allowed here, along with horse riding. The one downer for this park is train noise all night.
I’m sure this park has good things to offer, but I didn’t like the location, and I was soured on the lack of differentiation on the entrances. It would have been nice if the two separate entrances were clearly marked “State Park – boat launch only” and “State Park – camping only.”
http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Larrabee&pageno=1
Desertthorn, I’m glad you had a good stay! I hope the signs were better marked for you. I wanted to like this park, but when I ended up in the boat launch area instead of the camping area, I took a wrong turn trying to get out of this, and ended up in a precarious situation where I had to drive backwards on a winding road for about a mile. Really soured it for me. But if you get to the right entrance the first time, it should be enjoyable.
We stayed at Larrabee end of October first of November and unlike JJ, we really enjoyed our stay but BUT, you need to get one of the Premium sites which are all back in. The pull-through sites, especially T1 thru T8 are not at all level. The premium sites are wide with lots of space between the rigs. IF YOU COME IN SUMMER get reservations as this campground is very popular and always full. But in off season there is lots of room and your choice of sites. There is a short hike down the the beach and I read they had tidepools. We didn’t see any but we were there at high tide both times.
There is also a 1.9 mile hike up to a small lake. At .9 miles there is an view point I understand. It was pretty muddy so we didn’t get far.
A railroad track runs right thru the park and if train whistles annoy you, stay away, they seemed to go on all night long.
Hwy 11, the road to the park is a designated Scenic Byway called Chuckanut Drive or something like that. Its a twisty road but has some awesome views of Samish Bay. Hubby spotted a deer one early morning in camp and lots of sea birds and chipmunks.