Agency-listedUSFSFree
Summit Lake Camping Area
Hike-in · U.S. Forest Service · WA · 47.04052, -121.83184
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 →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
No MVUM road within a quarter mile of the pin; the nearest mapped segment is FR 7810000 (Cayada Creek), 0.5 mi away. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
What the record says about the site — Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
- First come, first served
- Tent camping
- No trailers or RVs
- No campfires
- No drinking water — carry your own
- No showers
- Listed as a backcountry site
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Summit Lake Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,384 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Summit Lake Camping AreaNIFC · 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 Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater9 mi
- @Mail11 mi
- GGrocery11 mi
- MMechanic11 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- RxPharmacy12 mi
- +Urgent care12 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- LLaundry13 mi
- AAir-up13 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- EVEV fast charger18 mi
- DDump19 mi
- PPropane22 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 11 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 — Summit Lake Camping Area
Access
Hike-in
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
5,384 ft
Ground slope
under 0.1% · flat
State
WA
Coordinates
47.04052, -121.83184
Cost
Free · OpenStreetMap fee tag: no
Getting in
Park at Summit Lake Trailhead · ~0.68 mi in a straight line (trail will be longer)
Nearby & resupply — around Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSummit Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Drinking waterWater · ~8.6 mi
- FuelGull · ~11.5 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~22.4 mi
- Dump station~19.0 mi
- GroceriesWilkeson Grocery · ~11.0 mi
- PharmacyChuck's Drug · ~12.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicRainier Natural Health Clinic · ~12.5 mi
- HardwarePraxxair · ~12.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger18.2 mi straight-line NW — Walmart EV Charging, Bonney Lake, WA (at a shopping center) · WALMART · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach11 within 25 mi · 177 within 50 · 392 within 100 · 620 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO20.7 mi — WinCo Foods - Sumner #74, Sumner
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.0 mi — Outpost EV, Enumclaw, WA (at a public site) · RED_E · J1772 · 3 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.52 Peak / $0.31 Off-Peak per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- 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 466565 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSummit Lake · ~0.7 mi SE · USFS
- RestroomBLDG C120 Carbon River (Vault Toilet @ Entrance) · ~5.1 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomCarbon River Ranger Station · ~7.1 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomBLDG C130 Carbon River (Mowich Lake Vault Toilet) · ~7.6 mi S · NPS
Coming out here — Summit Lake Camping Area · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Summit 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: under 0.1% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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 Summit Lake Camping Area elsewhere
Other camps near Summit Lake Camping Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Twin Lake Backcountry Camp~0.8 mi
- Cayada Creek Road Dispersed Camping~2.9 mi
- Carbon River Dispersed Roadside Camping~5.3 mi
- Pierce County~8.3 mi
The unit that manages Summit Lake Camping Area
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Summit Lake Camping Area are set by Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Summit Lake Camping Area
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
auto: hike (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Summit Lake Camping Area
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Summit Lake Camping Area
Camping near a reservoir →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Getting unstuck →All field notes →