The Quincy Lakes Wildlife Area George, Washington

About 7 miles north of the town of George, Washington (gotta love the name!) lies the 15,200 acre Quincy Lakes Wildlife Unit which is managed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.  The Unit boasts several small lakes and reservoirs and you are allowed to camp there free for up to 15 days.  I headed there after dropping Camping Buddy Becky off at her parents condo in Western Washington.

Free camping from March 1 to September 30.

The campground data sheet on the Unit:

Hookups:                                 None

Fire ring:                                  No

Water Access:                         Yes (no drinking water)

Dump station:                          No

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                              Yes

Laundry:                                  No

Store:                                      No

Pool:                                       No

Shade:                                    No

Verizon reception:                   4G, 2 out of 4 bars

Millenicom reception:              3 out of 4 bars

Cost:                                      Free for up to 15 days

Geologically speaking, Quincy Lakes is the product of the erosion of lava flows by glaciers that gouged out the "potholes" which became the small lakes of the unit.  Most of the topsoil was scraped off during this process so there are no major tree stands, mostly scrub brush and and blue wheat grass.

Burke Lake, the sidewalk leads to a shore fishing dock.

I found an elevated camp site between Burk Lake and a small reservoir which gave a great view of the Unit.

The Tank's antenna is up because TV reception was great here!

Along with the lakes that were favored by local fisherman the Unit has some picturesque smaller ponds.

One of the small ponds near the Tank's site.

  The Unit was moderately crowded over the weekend portion of my stay but on weekdays I was the sole occupant.

This shot of the camp site gives a better idea of the terrain.

Here's another small pond and you can see the black basalt cliffs in the background.

Not a lot of trees but still pretty.

After camping in the fir trees of Western Washington transitioning to the semi-arid terrain of the Quincy Lakes Wildlife Area was pretty abrupt -- I had a hard time believing I was in the same state!  As you can probably tell from the pictures the weather during my six day stay was perfect (picture perfect!) with daytime temperatures in the mid-80's with low humidity and nighttime in the high 40's....great sleeping weather!  I would absolutely return to the Unit to camp again and would recommend it unreservedly as a fun camping/fishing/hiking site.

Thanks for reading!