Swift Creek Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 12 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $37–$74Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 42All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Swift Creek Campground is tucked into a mixed-conifer forest at the edge of Baker Lake in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
In addition to being a prime location for hiking, boating, fishing, picnicking, and horseback riding in summer and early fall, Swift Creek offers opportunities for snowshoeing in the winter months. With a small beach on-site and access to Baker Lake, visitors will have plenty of opportunities to fish, kayak, canoe and swim. The nearby Baker Lake Trail is a family friendly hike that begins in a majestic stand of Douglas fir. In 1843, a small eruption of Mt. Baker caused a forest fire, and visitors can still see the burned snags of virgin cedar trees that once dominated the area. The trail contours above the eastern shoreline of Baker Lake.
Facilities
Swift Creek offers campsites that accommodate either tents or RVs. There are two group sites that are reservable as well. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The campground also has a day-use area at the lake's edge, equipped with picnic tables and grills. There is a boat ramp and a marina on site.
Natural Features
The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest showcases rugged peaks, sparkling alpine lakes and old-growth forests, providing visitors with unique and surprising landscapes. Mt. Baker, the most prominent feature of the Mt. Baker Wilderness, dominates the landscape on a clear day. Rising to an elevation of 10,781 feet, the active volcano is perpetually snow-capped and mantled with an extensive network of creeping glaciers. Mt. Baker's summit, Grant Peak, is a 1,300-foot-deep mound of ice, which hides a massive volcanic crater. Wildlife in the area includes mountain goats traversing the higher elevations to squirrels and black bears in the forests. Migratory birds and native fish find ample habitat in the varied ecosystems as well.
Nearby Attractions
Hike in the mountains above the lake in the Mt. Baker National Recreation Area or Mt. Baker Wilderness, or take some time to visit North Cascades National Park. This unique park is like no other place on earth. It features a deep blue lake surrounded by sheer, 2,000' cliffs, two picturesque islands and a violent volcanic past. Hiking trails, a visitor center and educational programs are available. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 932-0242.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Extra Vehicles: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per single tent site. Two RVs with tow vehicle per double site or two vehicles per double tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. A fee of $12/extra vehicle per night must be paid for upon arrival by cash or check only.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site may be forfeited and released to other guests.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest has a Food Storage Order in effect. All food and refuse must be acceptably stored (in a hard sided vehicle or trailer, food storage locker, or certified bear resistant container) or acceptably possessed (attended to by a person who is physically present).
Click here for more information about the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42 · 2 group, 2 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 41 of 42 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…reservable as well. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The campground also has a day-use…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…group sites that are reservable as well. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The campground…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 313th darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
“A fee of $12/extra vehicle per night must be paid for upon arrival by cash or check only.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $37–$74 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 25 mapped sitesAll 43 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 22 of the 43 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 42 of the 43 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Group Loop | GP1-5 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 204 ftBaker Lake | $190 | |
| Group Loop | GP6-10 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 107 ftBaker Lake | $190 | |
| Swift Creek | 011 Host | host pad | 40 ft | 337 ftBaker Lake | 3,111 ft | ||
| Swift Creek | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 373 ftBaker Lake | 3,075 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 404 ftBaker Lake | 3,018 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 598 ft | 2,781 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 554 ft | 2,774 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 016 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 47 ft | 551 ft | 2,728 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 110 ft | 614 ftBaker Lake | 2,629 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 018 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 523 ft | 2,570 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 019 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 135 ft | 541 ftBaker Lake | 2,530 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 020 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 86 ft | 563 ft | 2,524 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 021 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 132 ft | 481 ft | 2,396 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 022 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 127 ft | 398 ft | 2,489 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 023 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 139 ft | 417 ft | 2,646 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 024 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 73 ft | 508 ft | 2,817 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 025 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 102 ft | 410 ft | 2,824 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 026 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 94 ft | 512 ftBaker Lake | 2,911 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 027 Multi | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 101 ft | 495 ftBaker Lake | 2,935 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 028 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 101 ft | 596 ftBaker Lake | 2,841 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 029 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 82 ft | 454 ftBaker Lake | 2,818 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 523 ftBaker Lake | 2,716 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 109 ft | 437 ftBaker Lake | 2,682 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 032 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 82 ft | 382 ftBaker Lake | 2,790 ft | $37–$74 |
| Swift Creek | 033 | standard nonelectric | $37–$74 | ||||
| Swift Creek | 034 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 035 | standard nonelectric | $37–$74 | ||||
| Swift Creek | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 037 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 038 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 039 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 040 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 041 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 043 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 044 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 045 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 046 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 047 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 048 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | 049 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | $37–$74 | |||
| Swift Creek | Yurt 1 | yurt | 18 ft | 53 ft | 120 ftBaker Lake | $70 | |
| Swift Creek | Yurt 2 | yurt | 18 ft | 53 ft | 68 ftBaker Lake | $70 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Park Creek CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 0.6 mi
Panorama Point CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 0.7 mi
Boulder Creek CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 1.9 mi
Shannon Creek CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 2.8 mi
Bayview Campground (Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, WA)Mt. Baker National Forest · 3.9 mi
Bayview CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Seattle, go north on I-5 to Burlington. Take Exit 230 on State Highway 20. Go past the Mt. Baker Ranger District Office in Sedro-Woolley and follow State Route 20 east for 16 miles to milepost 82. Turn left (north) on the Baker Lake Highway (Forest Service Road 11). Continue for 20 miles to the sign for Swift Creek Campground Road (Forest Service road 1142). Turn right and travel about 1/3 mile to the campground at the end of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Concrete, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Swift Creek Campground is in Washington’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Rick Larsen (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →