Upper Goodell Group Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 8 mi
Reservable everywhere but bookable nowhere.Ask the agency →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1None on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Goodell Group Campground is a quiet, remote facility for tent camping on the banks of Goodell Creek in North Cascades National Park. The campground is the perfect place to relax while watching the rushing creek cascade over its rocky course. The area is more remote and up a slightly steeper road than nearby Lower Goodell Group Campground. The elevation is 500' above sea level. Both Upper and Lower Goodell Group Campgrounds are convenient hubs for day trips to the visitor center, hiking trails and the nearby town of Newhalem. Keep reading
Recreation
Nature abounds in the Goodell Gorge, where visitors enjoy exploring the scenery, viewing wildlife and birding. Black bears inhabit the area, so caution must be taken while hiking, picnicking or camping. Many miles of hiking trails are within a short drive. The creek and nearby Skagit River offer fishing for trout, salmon and steelhead. There is no boating or swimming at the site.
Facilities
The facility has a picnic shelter and pit toilet for visitors' convenience. No potable water. Water is available at the main Goodell Creek campground on the south side of State Route 20. The campground has one group site, which can comfortably fit 12 to 20 people with a maximum capacity of 30.
Natural Features
The site lies among lush ancient forests of western redcedar, western hemlock and Douglas-fir trees. The creek's headwaters begin in the surrounding mountains, pick up cold, clean glacial meltwater along the way, and eventually empty into the Skagit River. The creek provides a sampling of the colorful crystalline rocks of the North Cascade Core, which formed deep underground and is now revealed in the rugged terrain of the North Cascade Range. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (360) 854-7200.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is a short drive or a long walk to the visitor center, and the nearest store is in Newhalem.
What the agency tells you
Campground is located within a hydro-electric project and a warning system is in place to notify campers of high water; see host for specific information upon arrival
This is a tent-only facility; trailers or larger campers are not allowed due to the steep and narrow dirt access road.
Wildlife frequents the area. All food must be stored in animal-resistant food lockers or hard-sided vehicles until use.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Gathering firewood is not allowed
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
No potable water. Water is available at the main Goodell Creek campground on the south side of State Route 20.
Refund Policy Customers may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Customers may also initiate a refund request through the call center at any time after their reservation has ended. Fees: Applicable fees, such as reservation fees, service/cancellation fees, lottery application fees, and change fees, are non-refundable. Debit or Credit Card Purchases: Refunds for debit or credit card payments made after October 1, 2018 will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. In the event that a customer has cancelled this card, they will need to contact their card company to have the funds released. We cannot issue refunds to any card other than the one used to pay. If a customer paid with a debit or credit card prior to October 1, 2018 their refund will be issued in the form of a Treasury check. Check or Cash Purchases: Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. You may update the address at the time you request the refund. It may take up to 6-8 weeks for the Treasury check to arrive. Please make sure your address is up to date in your customer profile. Emergency Closures: In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within your Recreation.gov customer profile. Reservation fees for free tickets are non-refundable in the event of an emergency closure.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 22 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Hiking
- Night sky · 153rd darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system
recreation.gov lists none of the 1 campsites the agency files here. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
What you actually pay
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| Upper Goodell Group Site | 001 | type not stated | 22 ft | 124 ft | 2,063 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lower Goodell Group CampgroundRoss Lake National Recreation Area · 0.0 mi
Goodell Creek CampgroundRoss Lake National Recreation Area · 0.1 mi
Newhalem Creek CampgroundRoss Lake National Recreation Area · 0.2 mi
Gorge Lake Campground6.0 mi
Colonial Creek North CampgroundRoss Lake National Recreation Area · 7.6 mi
Colonial Creek South CampgroundRoss Lake National Recreation Area · 7.8 miUpper Goodell Group Campground is located at mile marker 119 on State Route 20. From Burlington, WA, drive 60 miles east on State Route 20. From Twisp, WA, drive 82 miles west on State Route 20.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Marblemount, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 32°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 · a letter you can send
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
Upper Goodell Group 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 →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record marks Upper Goodell Group Campground reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its campsites. The draft asks why, and what it would take to fix it.
- The member who votes the moneyRick LarsenU.S. Representative · Washington’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Upper Goodell Group Campground is reservable and not bookable
Dear Rick Larsen, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 2nd district. Upper Goodell Group Campground, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington is a federal campground the National Park Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the National Park Service in writing: why isn’t Upper Goodell Group Campground on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Upper Goodell Group Campground (Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Upper Goodell Group Campground is reservable and not bookable
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. Upper Goodell Group Campground, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington is a federal campground the National Park Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the National Park Service in writing: why isn’t Upper Goodell Group Campground on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Upper Goodell Group Campground (Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Upper Goodell Group Campground is reservable and not bookable
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. Upper Goodell Group Campground, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington is a federal campground the National Park Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the National Park Service in writing: why isn’t Upper Goodell Group Campground on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Upper Goodell Group Campground (Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington) via campanac.com