Campgrounds and RV parks near McChord Air Force Base, WA

Dash Point State Park anchors most beach-day plans. The park has over 3,300 feet of shoreline and 11 miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking, and the sandy beach at low tide is a regional hotspot for skimboarding, with an annual competition held by Dash Boards each summer. Tacoma proper adds urban options. Point Defiance Park offers gardens, a zoo and aquarium, hiking trails, and Puget Sound viewpoints, and the Washington State History Museum sits downtown. Gig Harbor, just across the Narrows Bridge, is a walkable waterfront town with marinas and restaurants. Mount Rainier is the marquee day trip. The main attraction is a massive glacier-clad volcano peaking at 14,411 feet, with old-growth forests, waterfalls, and sub-alpine meadows where wildflower displays bloom through July and August.

The lowland Puget Sound climate is mild year-round but strongly seasonal in rainfall. Summers in the Tacoma area are short, warm, dry, and partly cloudy, while winters are cool, wet, and mostly cloudy. Late spring through early fall is the comfortable window for RV travel, with the driest stretch falling roughly from July into early September. Dash Point State Park stays open year-round, but mountain campgrounds run on a much shorter window. The campground season at Mount Rainier generally runs from late May to early October depending on snow conditions. Ohanapecosh Campground is closed for the 2026 season due to a rehabilitation project, so Cougar Rock and White River carry the load for in-park camping. Fall brings rapidly increasing rain and shorter days, with November typically the wettest month around Tacoma. Winter trips are workable at lowland sites like Dash Point and the private RV parks around Tacoma, but expect frequent rain, occasional lowland snow, and chain requirements on routes toward Rainier and the Cascades.

Lowland sites near the base are forested, often with tall conifers overhead. Expect filtered light, soft ground after rain, and limited satellite TV reception at heavily wooded parks. Cell coverage is generally good in the Tacoma metro and degrades quickly as you head toward Rainier. Dash Point campsites are spaced within second-growth forest, with the beach a short drive or walk from the loops. The park has standard tent sites and utility sites with hookups, plus cabins, with restrooms, showers, drinking water, and a trailer dump station on site. Inside Mount Rainier, plan for dry camping. Park campgrounds do not offer electric hookups, and the Cougar Rock RV dump and fill station is closed for the 2026 season. At Cougar Rock, motor homes over 35 feet and trailers over 27 feet are not allowed to enter the campground, so confirm rig length before booking.