Peterson Prairie Campground

Nice spacious campgrounds, walking distance to some cool sites

Late summer camping once the schools have started is the best. The campground was nearly empty. Very quiet except for some ATV campers across the ravine from us who talked really loud, but they followed the quiet hours. It’s a very, very dusty campground but close to trails

The campground is exactly as it is advertised. We had some trouble with bees around meal times but were pleasantly surprised to not have any mosquitoes. There are so many great things to do in the local area, from really challenging hikes to easier ones, such as the Ice Cave and Natural Bridges, which are so close to the campground. The camp hosts did a great job of keeping the toilets clean and stocked with toilet paper.

Mount Adams, known by some Native American tribes as Pahto or Klickitat, is the second tallest peak in Washington, standing at 12.3 ft.

I started the expedition to the summit on Friday May 19 at 7PM and finished on Saturday May 20 at 4PM. The trip took about 21 hours total. At this time, the access road was still snow-packed, so I had to park several miles from the South Climb trailhead at around 4.5 ft. With that said, the sun seemed to be actively melting the snow during the day.

I left the parking lot at 7PM and walked about 10 mi up to 7.9 ft. At around 2 AM, I noticed a significant lighting storm + some potential UFO activity higher up on the mountain and decided to rest on some lava rocks until 4 AM. I resumed my journey and arrived at the "lunch counter" area around 6 AM, as the sun was rising. The "lunch counter" is a lava rock field at approximately 9.5 ft, which is a good spot to rest and have a snack.

From there, I continued up the mountain to Pikers Peak around 11.6 ft. This was another good spot to take a break before ascending to the true summit at 12.4 ft. I spent roughly 15 minutes at the summit before descending down the mountain. The weather made for some good glissading conditions. There were nice opportunities to glissade from the true summit and from Pikers Peak.

Although I ended up glissading a bit too far down the western face of the mountain, this made for an awesome and exhausting experience. I had to hike through some wilderness and do some rogue climbing to get back on to the path around the South Climb trailhead and access road.

On Saturday, I clocked about 22 mi of hiking, and according to my Apple Health data, the total distance of the hike was roughly 32 mi over the course of two days.

Even with the challenging weather conditions and the long distance of the hike, climbing Mount Adams was an amazing experience!

The camp hosts were so friendly and the camp facilities were so clean.

Great location. Close to places to travel to and campsites are well positioned. Would happily go back!

The campground was well maintained as well as quiet.

Kind of dusty. Otherwise, a perfect stay! The camp host was very friendly and all the other guests were quiet and respectful. Bathrooms were spotless. We had a great time.

The host were no hospitable and frankly very rude and we felt like they were harassing us because we are from California. I have been going camping with my family there for the past 4 years and have never been treated this poorly!

Camp host were excellent and kept the grounds and vaults clean and supplied