Cama Beach State Park

This was a nice little getaway for our anniversary. The beach was lovely. The water especially was beautiful in the morning. I’ve heard you can see whales, but unfortunately I didn’t see any. I enjoyed the native animals and plants guide in the room. Sadly the café and gift shop were closed when we were there, but we did enjoy the giant chess board outside. We cooked our dinner in one of the provided BBQ pits, which was nice. In the busy season, however, it might be hard to get your own pit, although there are many.
I can only speak for the regular cabins, not the deluxe. Be aware that it isn’t luxury. This is basically camping with some of the comforts of home, like a sink, microwave and fridge. The beds were creaky and uncomfortable. You have to park far away. There’s a shuttle that makes it easy to take luggage down to the cabins, but we had a problem getting them back up to the car. You get a number to call the shuttle but our cell phones didn’t work! We had to run around trying to track someone down and it was starting to rain. What they should have is another phone near the cabins to call the shuttle to go back up.
The bathrooms are quite a ways away, in a separate building. That was annoying in the middle of the night. To take a shower, it will cost you extra and you have to have some change on hand. You must clean the cabin after using it, which means disinfecting the counters and mopping the floors. Luckily, they have the needed supplies in the cupboard, but we were unsure about how exactly to mop the floor.
Another thing I was surprised about when I got there was that, despite the fact that you pay extra for «waterfront cabins,» the non-​waterfront cabins are directly behind the waterfront ones. The only difference is that you probably can’t see the water as well from those cabin windows and porches. Everything here is pretty much waterfront, so I’m not sure that it’s worth paying more.
Overall, it’s a nice place to stay!

Excellent! Paradise in washington .
The cabins are heated witch was an added bonus in November. Microwaves. fridge.sink.all thr comforts needed for a short get away. People that work at the park are fantastic. There’s bbq pits scattered about ans community fire pits and the wood is supplied. My boyfriend and I went for my birthday and we plan on making it a yearly thing.
If you like camping this is the thing for you

STUFF YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW
The park is open all year. Check-​in is at 3 p.m., but you can often move in earlier if your cabin’s ready.
Get keys at the Welcome Center just inside the park entrance. When the office closes in the evening hours, park staff leave cabin keys in envelopes with guests’ names on them inside a brown metal box along the road just outside the Welcome Center.
The beach and cabin area is vehicle-​free. Visitors’ and cabin guests’ cars are never allowed on the waterfront gravel pedestrian and bicycle path that runs through the shoreline resort. Guests are instead driven to cabins with their luggage, food, and gear in vans or a mini-​bus. The shuttles run every day 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., later on Friday nights and later during special events such as weddings and festivals. Visitors and guests can call shuttles from a phone in a yellow box at the Drop-​off Shelter, located down the hill from the Welcome Center. Or you can add the shuttle phone number, (360) 913‑0250, to your cell phone contacts and call as soon as you arrive.
The park provides wagons at the Drop-​off Shelter for late night arrivals to wheel some of their gear down to the beach on a lighted path.
The cabins have heaters, lights, refrigerator, microwave oven, coffee pot and hot running water. Custom-​made quilts are on beds but no other bedding is provided. Most people bring sleeping bags. A camp stove, towels, flashlights, food, lounge chairs are all good. Think of it as camping in a cabin. Some people call it «glamping» as in «glamour camping.» Bring bikes for the kids.
Boats are available for rent. Cama Café serves breakfast and lunch daily in summer and weekends during off-​season. Both are on-​site.
Check-​out is at 11 a.m. Guests are asked to clean their cabins before leaving, following the national park ethic: «Leave Your Campsite Better Than You Found It.»

The location is amazing. We got a waterfront cabin and from our front deck, we saw porpoises jumping in the waves!
The cabins are rustic, and very close together. Everything was clean, functional, and the sense of history is nice. If you are seeking quiet solitude, this is probably not a good destination for you. There is very little privacy, and it’s a free-​for-​all for kids. It’s billed as a family resort, so take that literally.
The staff are wonderful. Very helpful, friendly and accommodating.

The cabins are right on the water. The view is amazing. They are very cute and cozy inside. The staff is super friendly and there was a microwave and coffee maker. I had a wonderful time there and highly recommend it!

I read a very negative review here and while I don’t agree I do understand. It’s important that your expectations match the reality of the cabin situation. Fortunately this is easy to do — currently you cannot reserve a cabin online. A phone call to the park is required — (360) 387‑1550.
The standard cabins are «rustic». They are conveniently close to the beach and will keep you dry and they have electricity, but they are definitely not for everyone. The idea of arriving with little ones after the shuttle closes for the night brings to mind a variety of scenarios. The road to the cabins is paved, but the road is steep. If you don’t take the shuttle you will be walking it. I don’t mind it but in situations such as– in the dark, without a headlamp or flashlight and in the rain with little ones and lots of camping supplies — the situation would not be fun even when using one of the many wheel barrows they make available to guests.
The beach is beautiful and the views can be amazing. I’ve even seen a river otter swimming along about 10′ from the shore. Personally, I think the cabins are priced fairly. I spent a half hour talking with a ranger the other day about pricing, location, preparations, etc. because my son and family will be visiting.
I currently live here on Camano Island and remember when I first learned about the cabins — they were around $ 20 a night! They finally raised the rates to a fair price. While I have not stayed in the cabins I’ve spent many days hiking around Cama Beach, hiking to the beach from the surrounding beaches and have become quite interested in the Center for Wooden Boats.
The Center for Wooden Boats is a unique museum that «checks out» their exhibits. You can rent a boat, talk with the staff or if you are really into it you can sign up for a week long class, live at Cama and build your own boat. The other Center for Wooden Boats is in Seattle. I think it’s on Lake Union and offers free boat rides every Sunday afternoon.
Camano Island has many vacation homes to rent for a day to a month. If you really enjoy camping and don’t mind carrying your gear and walking next door to use the bathroom and shower then the waterfront cabins or second row cabins might be a really good fit for you. Think of this like camping even though you’ll be in a cabin — bring flashlights, warm clothes, bug repellent and sense of adventure.
Another option for enjoying Cama Beach is to rent a vacation «cabin», «house», «condo» somewhere else on the Island and visit Cama during the day. You’ll need the Discovery Pass which you can use at the other State Parks for the year and then you are in. You can walk the steep hill down to the beach or take the shuttle. There are many easy to moderate shorter trails above the beach. The madrona trees are beautiful. Across the street from Cama Beach entrance you will find a trail system that will keep you busy for hours. It can be a little buggy depending on the time of year. All of the trails are well maintained by a generous group of volunteers on the Island.
With a Discovery Pass you can also drive over to Camano Island State Park. It is next to Cama Beach and offers several madrona lined trails overlooking the water.

Don’t go if you want peace and quiet before midnight or bring a really good set of earplugs. There is no one to enforce the 10 am quiet hour. Groups of kids running wild until 11 and the adjacent cabin filled with rowdy adults until midnight. To be fair the walls are so thin and the cabins so close that you can hear a chair sliding across the floor of the adjacent cabin. The camp host is located up an extremely steep climb on a pitch black trail and nowhere in the tabletop information notebook does it state the shuttle driver can be contacted after 7:30 pm. I stayed in a deluxe cabin that smelled of kerosene. All but two windows were screwed shut so was able to get air through only by opening the door. No place to cook inside unless you consider a microwave cooking. The outdoor grills were a mess. Trundle bed in front room was hard as a rock. The back room bed was better. Fun place for kids and sound sleepers.

Five stars for the woods and trails.
Five stars for the staff.
Five stars for the beach.
Five stars for the views.
Five stars for the prices on cabin rentals.
Three stars for the cabins themselves.
First and foremost, if you read nothing else, know that the cabins marked «waterfront» share a common bathroom/​bathhouse. The «deluxe» cabins have private bathrooms with little fiberglass shower stalls and real flush toilets. For $ 12 more, the deluxe are the way to go. Many of them front on the water, anyway, so it’s not like «waterfront» doesn’t apply to them.
You park up the hill and a shuttle takes you and your stuff down to the cabins. Unless you’re good at packing really light, this is kind of a production for a brief stay, but it’s a great service. If you’ve packed for several nights (or have kids in tow), it doesn’t seem like such a bunch of rigmarole.
The scenery is spectacular here. Wide view of Whidbey’s east shoulder, and the Olympics peek over the south side of that. There’s a steady current carrying plenty of driftwood past your windows, and there’s a stripe of sand between you and the waterline, on the other side of the concrete bulkhead.
The cabins themselves are pretty rickety. They’re virtually all made from the same slab of cedar planking – did the original owners get this all in one big truckload from some guy named Lucky who made them a bulk deal? They’ve been here long enough that the floors appear to have been stained ebony, but it’s just decades of use showing their true colors.
You get a little side table with 4 chairs, a single bed, a single-​point-​two-​five bed in its own bedroom, a kitchen with a microwave, a fridge, and a sink, and the aforementioned bathroom. Being at the bottom of the hill certainly hasn’t hampered the plumbing any – if anything, quite the opposite. The toilet flushing sounds like a 787 taking off with no muffler.
The mattresses here are far better than sleeping on a park bench. They’re somewhere between the park bench and your bed at home. But not too close to home. The bedroom is pretty tiny – I comfortably rested my feet flush against one wall, stretched across the bed, and rested my palms flat against the other wall, without straightening my elbows. You bring your own bedding.
Bottom line, if you’re renting cabins in a state park, you probably grasp all this. It’s not a hotel, and you have to plan ahead for some of the stuff you might need in the way of creature comforts. What you get in exchange is access to a gorgeous little beach. This is not the crown jewel of the state park system, but it’s a wonderful, affordable, friendly getaway that fills your lungs with fresh air and makes you sleepy after the sun goes down. The relaxation will do you a world of good.

Washington State’s best kept secret. Featured twice by Sunset Magazine. Now includes a café with good food, open on weekends and during the spring/​summer holidays. Is a sister café with Scandia Coffeehouse in Stanwood, which is being featured in the upcoming July 2012 edition of Sunset.

This is a cool state park. I took my dog here for a «hike». The trails are wide and strolling around is easy to do. We went on a Sunday and holy hell it sounded like a daycare.
Be prepared for the noise. There are families with at least 3 billion kids each and they are running amok! I would think maybe a better time to visit this place is early Sept. when the kids are in school and less people around. Make sure you pay the park fee.

Cama Beach State Park is amazing!!! The beach front rental cabins are the perfect get away for a family or group of friends. We highly recommend it for everyone & can’t wait to come back for are 3^rd trip. Facility, Staff & other guests are great !!!

Just got back from spending an amazing President’s Day Weekend at Cama Beach! I booked a waterfront cabin last month for my boyfriend and me, and the timing worked out perfectly because we both needed a little get-​away to recover from midterms and to recharge for the homestretch before finals.
Soo glad we had a waterfront cabin. It was so nice to see the water from the windows. We had breakfast at the little table up against the boom the separated us from the beach (it was usually high-​tide at breakfast, so it was actually separating us from the water) and we also enjoyed our tea/​coffee/​cocoa/​whathaveyou on the porch while taking in the amazing views of the water/​beach/​mountains/​sunset.
The «hikes» we did are more like strolls in the woods. Cranberry Lake is really just a glorified marsh but it was still fun to check it out. We followed another trail into Camano Island State Park but turned around because it ran alongside the road.
We used the grills to cook our meals and built a fire one evening. Another couple joined us by the campfire and it was nice to chat. Everyone was so relaxed and friendly.
The cabins were built in the 1930’s, so they are a little drafty and the lights shine through the walls, but there is heating and we stayed cozy at night. The whole park makes an effort to be ‘green,’ so there’s composting and recycling, energy-​saving lightbulbs, and fuel-​efficient vehicles. They ask that you clean the cabin before you go and provide a broom, dustpan, mop and bucket so it doesn’t take too long.
No cars down in the cabin area but they have a good system for checking in and loading up into a shuttle. Also, the showers require tokens for hot water ($.50 for 3 minutes) but there was plenty of hot water without the tokens and we ended up not using most of ours; maybe we snagged other visitors’ leftover minutes?
It was a very inexpensive adventure with breathtaking views. We had a really great time and I’m sure we’ll be back to enjoy it again.

Love, love, LOVE this place.
We got lucky with a mid-​week, one night lodging in one of the deluxe cabins. Usually, the summer dates are completely reserved many many months in advance. We loved our time here so much we are already making reservations for next year!
Our cabin was just steps from the beach and water. It was so relaxing to sip coffee on the bench in front of our cabin while we watched and listened to the water lapping the shore. The cabin is very rustic. As someone else mentioned, it is not a 5-​Star hotel. In fact, it’s very much glorified camping. But you do get electricity, a little kitchenette complete with a mid-​size fridge, bathroom and shower, HOT water, and… internet connection in these rustic cabins.
As a parent of a toddler, it was a life saver to have internet connection, since it was easy to get some youtube videos of Elmo and other sesame street favorites to entertain us while it rained. When the sun was out, we were out exploring the beach, picking up shells and meeting our family friendly neighbors.
After the little one went to sleep, husband and I were able to cozy up just outside our cabin and watch the stars and moonlight dance on the water, glasses of wine in hand. Very romantic.
The kitchen only has a microwave, coffeemaker and fridge, but there are outdoor grills and firepits around where you can grill up some steaks or roast some marshmallows. Next time we will be more prepared to enjoy.
The staff is very nice here. There are shuttle vans that take you from the parking area to the path in front of the cabins. If you choose to walk from the parking area to the cabins, be forewarned the hill is fairly steep. It’s probably easier going down rather than up. The check in/​check out process is very easy and matter fact. You do have to clean your cabin before you leave so make sure you make time for that.
I’m sure it’s more crowded on the weekends, but for a mid-​week stay it was really peaceful and quiet.

It’s amazing how quickly you forget what great service is until you finally get it! Wow, the park rangers are top notch!
I recommend this for a weekend getaway from the city; you must be kid friendly tho!

Great little state park for an off-​season getaway. Stayed in one of the ocean front cabins for a couple of days and had a really good time exploring the park and the island. Beds were a little small and the walls a little drafty, but for the incredibly low winter rates it was completely worth it. Additional conveniences: Indoor heat, small, full-​height fridge, and combo microwave/​convection.
Our cabin had no bathroom, but the new bathroom/​showerhouse building was clean and well maintained.
With a bigger group, the bungalows at the end of the park looked like an ideal spot.

Cama is an amazing little bit of history we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy today.
The site has been a re opening in progress for the last twenty years. the original cabins are amazing, cute and charming. prices are very reasonable if your lucky enough to get a reservation.

Really clean, quiet, updated park. Has lots of parking. We discovered this park had a bunch of cabins for rent. Hopefully someday we’ll be able to rent one when we have a family.
Good For: peace and quiet

Newest state park in all of Washington? Sign me up.
I just got back from a mini mid-​week vacation to this lovely little treasure. We got in on a cancellation, since reservations are booking out well into the year. The price was incredible. It’s no five-​star hotel, but indoor plumbing, three beds (real beds), microwave, coffee maker and high-​speed internet? Yeah, I’m set.
Right on the water? YEAH!
Gorgeous scenery? Check
Amazing hikes within a walk or a reasonable drive? Yup
A++++++ WILL STAY AGAIN!
Boom.

The State of Washington just opened this to the public after purchasing it from a Camano Island family that ran it for generations. Excellent I mean EXCELLENT place to enjoy the Puget Sound and get away.
Note; you do have to make reservations and I believe that they are booked entirely this summer (08).