Ozette Campground

Ozette Campground is a 15-site National Park Service campground beside Lake Ozette in the northwest part of Olympic National Park. It is a quiet forest stay by the water and a useful base for the Cape Alava and Sand Point routes. Some sites face the lake, though the view is not part of every site.

All 15 sites are first-come, first-served, with self-registration. The campground has pit toilets and potable water in its regular operating conditions. Winter flooding can leave it primitive, with water unavailable, and can sometimes close the campground, so check conditions before traveling. There are no RV hookups, and the National Park Service lists space for RVs up to 21 feet. With only 15 sites, arriving early improves your odds. Pets are not permitted on park trails or in backcountry areas.

The campground is a base for the nearby Cape Alava and Sand Point trailheads, which begin behind the Ozette Ranger Station. The Cape Alava route crosses prairie and coastal forest to a rocky shore; the Sand Point route leads through forest to a wide sandy beach. They offer the bigger coastal walks from this lakeside corner of the park.

The lake once supported as many as 130 homestead families in the early 1890s, with a school, post office, stores and a church. Most left after the area became part of the Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897. The area later became part of Olympic National Park in 1940; that settlement history belongs to the wider lake region, not to surviving structures at the campground.