Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, ADA site #21 Campground||Muckleshoot (Coast Salish) land
October 9th-11th, 2025
Got Majel all loaded up, though this time with the new-to-me Yakima rooftop cargo box. I also swapped out our old igloo cooler for my big Coleman one I bought several years ago. Got the kids loaded up and off we went!
Leeloo, of course, was a model passenger. She just chills the whole time in her Sleepypod. Sieh was really good, too! I hardly heard a peep from him until we were almost to the campsite!
Got here and found that the welcome shack wasn’t open, and is only open Friday through Sunday, noon to four during the off season. This foiled my plan of popping inside to check out the tiny shop (I wanted to see if there were Kanaskat-Palmer State Park stickers.)
Last time I just checked in at the drive-up window, which was incrediby convenient. This time, I thankfully ran across a couple of camp hosts to ask them what the procedure was for checking in with a paid-in-full registration, because all the signage was for people who hadn’t paid.
Apparently, you fill out a little paper form, then pop it into what the camp host called the “Iron Ranger,” lol. Easy peasy, and now I’ll know for next time.
Got the pop-up catio all set up and moved the kids into it. Right away they climbed out of their Sleepypods and started checking out the campsite through the mesh walls.
Since it had rained earlier in the day, and the forecast called for more rain while were here (and let’s be honest, we’re in western Washington…what are the chances that it’s NOT going to rain?) I got to weather-proofing. It turns out that putting the rain fly on is a lot easier with two people! I really struggled getting it on this time! I think if I were like, 6 feet tall and less fatigued it would have been less of a battle. As it was, I wore myself out on it! Next time I might try throwing it over the catio before I even pop it up.
Then I got the front porch guyed out with the poles (my first time doing this.) It was super easy, thankfully. Since this is an ADA site, it’s paved instead of graveled/dirt, so you can’t use tent pegs. Thankfully, I was able to score some water bags intended to work as replacements for tent pegs, and they worked great.
I didn’t want to have to tarp the whole picnic table (the water bags are fantastic, but why do more than I have to?) so I actually brought one of my new camping items: a kitchen table set up. It fits perfectly under the catio porch, and has room for everything I need.
When I decided to try camping again, I got a few items that I knew I’d need, like the pop-up catio, and then a few that I wanted, like the camp kitchen. I also got a ridiculous water pump that I have been incredibly happy with. I was wondering when I would even get a chance to use the camp kitchen, since I’ll only be doing campground camping and campgrounds almost always have picnic tables, but it’s totally come in clutch already.
After I got the pop-up catio and camping kitchen set-up, I moved on to getting our bed ready. Here’s how we do that:
Finally got everything set up, and got myself some cheese ramen started for an early dinner. The kids were all cuddled up in Sieh’s Sleepypod, because I was a bad dad and only worried about making sure that we had everything we needed to stay dry, completely forgetting to check the temperature.
It’s been in the 60s to low 70s lately, and I assumed it would just stay in the 60s, but you know what they say about when we assume. It’s in the low 50s, and it dropped down to the upper 40s last night. I didn’t bring any puffy coats, so my poor kids are wearing their vests over their jammies for warmth. They look a bit of a hot mess, poor things. Next time I’m definitely bringing their snow suits!
Next time I want to get a site with partial utilities so that we’ll have electricity and I can bring an electric space heater for the catio and the car. To be honest, we really could have done with it this time, haha.
It started getting dark, so I moved the kids and the food into Majel. I prepared their dinner for them on top of the cooler, which also worked really well as a dining table.
I’m incredibly pleased with my Coleman cooler. I talk a lot of shit about Coleman (because let’s be honest, a lot of their stuff kind of sucks) but a few years ago I was researching for a good quality but reasonably priced-cooler (sorry, YETI) and this specific cooler came up multiple times.
I never got to properly test it out back then, because that was the year of camping trips that went far, far south (carpenter ant-ed out of one trip, then couldn’t find a site without deer flies during another) and I just sort of gave up on camping at that point, because it was wearing me out.
So this is my cooler’s first offical test, and it’s doing great so far! It’s so nice to not have to buy ice after just one day. It’s a bit big (because at the time I was hoping to start making homemade dishes while camping, not realizing how disabled I was becoming,) but it works! I use a tip I found on tiktok, which is to put all your food into little rectangular trash bins inside so that if the ice melts nothing gets wets, and that’s been a winner, especially with my old Igloo cooler.
With our new cargo box on the roof, all the stuff sacks etc go in there once I get set up, so Majel stayed nice and tidy. I was able to put the litterbox in the footwell of the passenger seat (last time I had to put it on top of my suitcase,) and both that seat and the driver’s seat stayed empty. The kids even cuddled in the passenger seat for a while.
Once they decided they were cold, they climbed back and into the sleeping bag with me. So glad I got this over-the-top 0 degree sleeping bag! If it’s too hot for it, I can just unzip it and lie on top, but last night it was really helpful! Between that and the two throw quilts we stayed nice and warm all night long, even with the window open for ventilation!
I only used one of the window screens and one of the window guards, because we needed ventilation to not wake up wet, but I didn’t exactly want to encourage a breeze. It worked out well, and I could have totally left the second screen and window guard at home. If we get to camp with an electric heater, we won’t need to worry about condensation at all!
DAY TWO
Went to sleep around 9pm, and woke up at 8am. Poor Leeloo, at home we had garbage, recycle, and compost pick up on Thursday morning before we left for camping, and then Friday morning the campsite had garbage pick up! Two days of “LOUD NOISE,” as she says with her speech buttons.
I was worn out from existing and from driving and from getting the camp all set up. Eventually got out of bed and got the kids into the catio and started breakfast activities. I’m so glad I have space for a wash station in my camp kitchen, because it’s really convenient. Got the water boiling for tea, human breakfast, face-washing, and dish-washing. The kids were very impatient at the late breakfast, because they’re used to their grandma feeding them between 8 and 9.
After breakfast we hung out for a bit, and the kids cuddled in the mini tent for warmth, until Sieh decided he’d like to have a walk around the campsite. We went out and of course my small and fancy cow kept trying to eat every single blade of grass that we saw.
He did take a break from the grass to go and worship some trees, though. The way he looks at trees, man.
As the ADA site, we’re right across a lawn from the bathrooms, and a bunch of people came all at once to use the facilities, so Sieh decided it was time to retreat to the tent. They’ve both actually been doing really well with having people being out and about at this campground, which is a relief. The last time I took them camping out on the Olympic Peninsula, we had a trail right next to our campsite and they just wanted to hide from people the whole time, which had not been their norm. Glad to see that it was mostly just a fluke.
Once I got back with Sieh, Leeloo decided she’d like to have a go, so we went out to patrol the perimeter. First she checked out that sweet, sweet grass, but then she got down to business. She marched all over the camp site, then wanted on top of Majel (I think she’s too bundled up to jump up herself (“you can put your arms down when you get to school.”).
After she felt like she’d seen all she needed to see, I actually got her to ride on the rollator! We’ve never tried this before, aside from them being in a Sleepypod to go to the vet. Pro tip: if you have one of the big round Sleepypods and are despairing at having to carry them (I love them for their safety features but they are AWKWARD to haul around,) they actually fit perfectly into a strap-back rollator! Our vet’s office actually thought it was a specialized Sleepypod stroller, haha.
Anyhow, Leeloo did great on the rollator, we rolled all over the campsite until I got too worn out and had to go lie down for a bit.
Right as we got back into the pop-up catio the rain started up, so perfect timing!
I love that there’s just the right amount of room for the camp kitchen and my rollator to stay dry.
Leeloo joined Sieh under the fluffy camp throws, and I settled in to start getting this typed. It rained off and on while I worked, and then I took a break to make some cup ramen for lunch (very YuruKyan style.)
Finally tried out my Ohuhu markers that I bought a while ago. They seem pretty legit (not that I know anything about alcohol markers,) and I got to mess around trying some different things. I’m pretty bad, but I just got them for fun as a step up from the mild liners that I use for my book journaling.
I got two small packs (the ones that have fine tip/chisel tip and the chisel tip/brush tip type.) To be honest, I like all of the tips, but I think I might lean slightly towards chisel/brush, since you can make fine lines with the chisel tip, and beyond fine lines the fine point doesn’t really have many uses. I’d have drawn my kids but they’re all snuggled up under blankets staying warm, so I drew the pop-up catio porch view instead.
Around 6, I started getting the kids settled into Majel ahead of the temperature drop. I made a thermos of tea and settled in with them for the night. At 8 I prepared their dinner, which they scarfed down, and then they both crawled into the sleeping bag with me.
We listened to the rain coming down, and enjoyed our mutual snuggles as we drifted off to sleep.
Unfortunately, I forgot to put a diaper on Leeloo and she ended up wetting the bed during a sleep sprint. Thankfully, I had the waterproof blanket over the fancy Hest mattress, so it escaped unscathed!
THIRD DAY
We woke up slightly wetter, and definitely stinkier than we were when we went to bed. I ended up covering the window that I had open for ventilation due to how cold it got, but of course if you neglect ventilation you invite condensation.
(Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time I went to get out of bed, so I was able to pull out everything but the kids’ Sleepypods from the pop-up catio while I waited for my tea water to boil. I served the kids their breakfast in bed, then, when they were done, transferred them into the catio so I could start getting us packed up.
Since I was packing right up to the wire last time I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t rushed this time. I leisurely washed the dishes, got all the stuff sacks down from the rooftop cargo box, and started packing things up.
I really can’t overstate what a gamechanger the rooftop cargo box is. Instead of having to perfectly tetris everything away as I’m packing up, I’m able to be much more relaxed. If I was going camping by myself, space wouldn’t be at such a premium, but with the kids, just like with human kids, I end up bringing at least double the stuff! Aside from the bed set up, I’d probably just bring a tarp, a chair, and a table if it was just me, haha.
I had to take a break from packing, because while Leeloo settled into her Sleepypod to digest her breakfast, Sieh had other plans. He yelled and yelled and yelled, and smashed his face against the catio zipper until I finally gave in and took him for a walk around the campsite. Where he, predictably, just wanted to eat grass. Sigh.
Even after that, he was still cranky about being in the catio, so I hurried up and finished packing everything aside from the kids, the litterbox, and the catio. I went and got their big square grey and green backpack out of Majel, and put it on my rollator. Then I summoned the kids.
Sieh was annoyed that he wasn’t coming out for more fancy cow activities, but he settled down pretty quickly once I got them pushed out to the road that runs through the campsite.
First we rolled down the lane and back, and then I took them on the RV loop to check things out. Sieh got a little nervous about the people we were passing, so he retreated down inside the backpack, but Leeloo stayed popped up and taking it all in. She did so well! I’m so relieved that she’s starting to overcome her acquired nervousness around people while “on the trail.”
The park employees were hard at work, cleaning bathrooms and doing whatever else needed doing. We saw two of their trucks, and the cute little golf carts that the camp hosts drive while out and about.
When we got back, I popped the kids into Majel with their litterbox, just loose so they could take care of business and hang out while I got the catio taken down.
Only two spiders this time (and two baby slugs!). The slugs are indigenous, which is great, but why do they have to get on the catio when they have so many great plants they could be crawling on? Also, one of the spiders was another great big reddish one in between the catio floor and the footprint. Ugh.
Right as I was bundling the collapsed catio into its carry bag, the rain started up again! We actually had really good luck with not being caught out by the rain, so I’m grateful. Tossed the catio into the trunk, took a last look around the now empty campsite, then we hit the road!
I did manage to check out the little gift shop on our way out of the park this time! There’s a small display of postcards, keychains, stickers, stuffed animals, and a couple of other things. Pretty minimal, but I managed to score vinyl stickers for 3 of the state parks I’ve been to with the kids! And for only a buck a pop!
Just like on the way to the campsite, Sieh was such a good boy and only yelled for a couple of minutes at one point. Leeloo, of course was silent. She’s a really excellent traveler.
The kids were so happy to see their grandma when she came out to the car to fetch them when we got home. It took so long to take off their ridiculous outfits (I totally forgot to do it before we left, so I couldn’t blast the heat like I’d planned) but then they were free! Free to groom, free to run around the house and the actual, permanent catio, and free to groom their little bodies that had been covered in multiple layers of clothes.
That’s all ’til next time!
Camp Like Noodle 