Charbonneau Park Offers Riverside Camping Near Pasco, Washington

Camping in Charbonneau Park

Charbonneau Park and Campground, with 54 sites located on the Snake River, is an oasis of shade in the high desert land that is southeastern Washington.

The campground and marina sit on the south side of Lake Sacajawea, a reservoir that was formed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed Ice Harbor Dam a couple of miles down river. The corps operates this campground just as it does its sister campground, Hood Park, a few miles to the west.

Charbonneau Park RV Camping

Charbonneau Park offers 37 RV and tent sites with 50 amp electricity; 14 of the sites are located along the water.  It also has 15 full hook-up sites with electricity, water and sewer; two of these sites are handicap accessible. All of the campsites can be reserved in advance through the federal government’s campground reservation system.

The sites have paved pads and each one comes with a picnic table and fire pit/grill. The campground also has playgrounds for children, flush toilets with hot showers, potable water and dump stations.
A boat launch and marina are nearby. The marina sells gasoline for boats during the summer months. The boat launch is open year round.

The Corps of Engineers charges nightly fees for camping from May 1 through September 30. Dry camping is available for free the rest of the year.

Day Use

Charbonneau Park also has a day use section with a picnic shelter for large groups. The shelter can be reserved in advance; otherwise, it is available on a first-come first-serve basis, the corps says.
The park is very popular with residents of the nearby Tri-Cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick, who flock there by the hundreds for picnicking, swimming and boating on hot summer weekends.

Charbonneau History

Charbonneau Park is named after Toussaint Charbonneau, the French-Canadian husband of Sacajawea, the Shoshone Indian guide who interpreted for the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery as it traveled to the Pacific Ocean.

On their journey to and from the ocean, the explorers spent several days camped a few miles downstream at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Their campground is now the site of Sacajawea State Park.

How to Find Charbonneau Park

Charbonneau Park is located at 642 Campground Road in rural Burbank, a small community on
Highway 124. Turn on Highway 12 just south of the Snake River Bridge and go 8.3 miles to the Ice Harbor Dam intersection. Turn right on Safe Harbor Road just before you get to the dam. The park is located a couple of miles down this road.

McNary National Wildlife Refuge

Pelican at the refuge visitor center.

If you like looking for birds, the place to do this is the McNary National Wildlife Refuge, which straddles the Snake and Columbia rivers in Washington and Oregon.

Whether you're driving Highway 12 south of Pasco, taking another highway west at Wallula Junction and driving to Umatilla, refuge signs abound. Usually you can see hundreds of water birds swimming in the lakes on both sides of Highway 12.

The refuge covers more than 15,000 acres as it meanders through the Columbia Basin. The birds you'll see depend in large part on the time of the year. Canada geese, mallards, wigeons and other ducks favor the refuge during the winter months. And don't forget bald and golden eagles, hawks and peregrine falcons.

Other times of the year you'll find owls, wrens, blue herons and pelicans, not to mention mule deer, badgers and muskrat.

Entrance to the visitor center at Burbank Heights.

The educational center at Burbank Heights, just off the Waitsburg Highway, has a wonderful display of the birds and animals you'll see throughout the refuge. When you visit the center, take time to walk the paved trail  to a bird blind where you can watch birds in the small lake. Signs also identify the different vegetation you'll find in the refuge.

We made our first visit to the center earlier this week after we made a last-minute decision to escape the heat by camping at Hood Park, a pretty park along the Snake River about a mile from where it empties into the Columbia. It was almost like camping in our backyard, as it was only about 10 miles from our house, We were surprised to see so many other residents there.

We had some free time one afternoon, so we hopped on our scooters to explore the area that we usually just drive through on our way to somewhere else. That's how we found the refuge's visitor center.

Indian monuments

Memorial to Indian fishermen above Ice Harbor Dam.

Last week we took a drive out to Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River. It's a place Id never been, even though its only about 20 miles away.

We stopped at the visitor center where we saw steelhead swimming upstream. The visitor center has an interesting display of dam history. Dam personnel give tours a few times a week, so I want to go back sometime and take it. I suspect it will be a little bit like going inside the innards of Grand Coulee Dam, the dam north of us which at one time was the largest in the world.

From the dam, we drove a narrow twisty road to Charbonneau Park, a heavily used campground and day use park. The parking lot was crammed with pick-ups and boat trailers, as people took to the water to keep cool

On the way back, we stopped at a memorial to Indian fishermen which sits on a hill overlooking the dam. One plaque on the monument mentioned all the tribes which had fished for centuries on the Snake before the dam went in. Tribes which fished there included the Umatilla, Yakima, Nez Perce and Colville. I think the sin listed six tribes but, alas, I didn't write them down.

All in all, the trip was worthwhile, educational and fun.