★ Field-verified · Dave's ownNPSFree
North Cascades National Park
Drive-up · National Park Service · Whatcom County, WA · 48.71616, -121.15085
Inside a national park unit
North Cascades National Park sits inside Ross Lake National Recreation Area — a national recreation area run by the National Park Service.
Park rules apply, and they are stricter than dispersed camping: inside a National Park Service unit you camp in a designated campground or on a backcountry permit, not wherever you find a flat spot. Check the park before you go: nps.gov/rola ↗
Placed by point-in-polygon against the National Park Service’s own boundary layer (NPS Land Resources Division, 442 units, fetched 18 Sep 2026; this unit’s polygon edited 2018-01-18). Nothing about the price or the legal status on this page was changed by it.
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on National Park Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Nice! A free (for now) campground below the emerald-colored Lake Diablo in North Cascades National Park. Vault toilet, fire rings, and picnic tables. Next to emerald Gorge Lake. Boat ramp. Enough room for one or two vehicles at each site. No cell service. Strongly recommended if visiting the North Cascades.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 10 July 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at North Cascades National Park
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 897 ft.
Fire & smoke — around North Cascades National ParkNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from North Cascades National Park · National Park Service · WA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater3 mi
- DDump3 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- EVEV fast charger5 mi
- FFuel18 mi
- @Mail18 mi
- ShShower26 mi
- MMechanic29 mi
- HHardware30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- OOutfitter35 mi
- LLaundry36 mi
- PPropane44 mi
- +Urgent care53 mi
- AAir-up57 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 5 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — North Cascades National Park
Access
Drive-up
Land
National Park Service
Elevation
897 ft
Ground slope
29.7% · steep
County
Whatcom County, WA
Coordinates
48.71616, -121.15085
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around North Cascades National Park · National Park Service · WA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureGorge Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Skagit River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townDiablo · ~0.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~2.8 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~3.1 mi
- GroceriesSkagit General Store · ~5.3 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from North Cascades National Park · National Park Service · WA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger5.4 mi straight-line SW — WCEH Seattle City Light, Newhalem, WA · EVCS · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 236 within 100 · 374 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)56.1 mi — Burlington, WA - Old Highway 99 North - Tesla Supercharger, Burlington
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)5.4 mi — WCEH Seattle City Light, Newhalem, WA · EVCS · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 333299 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around North Cascades National Park · National Park Service · WA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomSKA Gorge Camp Double Romtec toilet · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomSKA Buster Brown Boat-in Campground Romtec Toilet · ~2.2 mi E · NPS
- RestroomSKA Hidden Cove Campground Romtec Toilet · ~2.3 mi E · NPS
- RestroomSKA Diablo Lake Overlook Double Romtec West · ~2.5 mi E · NPS
Coming out here — North Cascades National Park · National Park Service · WA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Gorge Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 29.7% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open North Cascades National Park elsewhere
Other camps near North Cascades National Park
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Marble Creek Campground~14.1 mi · fee
- Mineral Park~17.5 mi · fee
- Bridge Creek~20.2 mi
- Shannon Creek~20.5 mi · fee
How we know this — North Cascades National Park
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Whatcom County, WA). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record. | Land manager filled 2026-09-24: this point falls inside Ross Lake National Recreation Area (National Recreation Areas), a unit of the National Park Service, by point-in-polygon against the NPS Land Resources Division boundary layer. No other agency record names a manager for it.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 10 July 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about North Cascades National Park
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — North Cascades National Park
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading your camp page →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →