PNW/Seattle Van Lifers & Camping

Welcome! We are a group of folks who love the idea of van life for freedom and recreation/camping. Some of us have vans, SUVs, RVs,  trucks, and cars that we can camp and/or live in, and all who want to join us for camping and/or socializing are invited. Tent campers are very welcome! Most of our members are open to “show and tell” their van builds so we can all learn from each other.

We organize monthly weekend camping events in (mostly) western Washington state from March-October. At these camping events, we get together for nightly campfires (bring your own food) and an optional Saturday activity such as hiking or lunch/shopping in the nearby town. There is also usually time to look at each others' vans etc. Again, tent campers are very welcome.

We also host periodic social events in Seattle, especially during the winter, with optional van show and tells.  We are opening up the idea of extending our events to Oregon and perhaps even organizing caravans/group trips. We also plan to open up event hosting more broadly in 2026. Stay tuned!

We are a coed group providing  fun and inclusive experiences for our members. For 2026 we ran a campground survey of our members, the results are below. We will be adding events to this meetup soon, in order to give you time to make reservations. See “how it works” below for details.

2026 Schedule

| Date | Campground | City |
| ---- | ---------- | ---- |
| March 20-22 | Salt Creek Recreation area | Port Angeles, WA |
| April 24-26 | Deception Pass | Oak Harbor, Washington |
| May 15-17 | Bay View | Mount Vernon, WA |
| June 5-7 | Newhalem | Newhalem, WA |
| July 17-19 | Crescent lake | Port Angeles |
| Aug 14-16 | Cape Disappointment | Ilwaco, WA |
| Sept 11-13 | Fort Flagler | Nordland, WA |
| Oct 9-11 | Camano Island State Park | Camano Island, WA |

HOW CAMPING EVENTS  WORK (we try to make it easy):

1. The event organizer will schedule the camping event on Meetup and all members will receive an email notification.
2. Event will list the campsite link and the area/campsite number range that the meetup will be in. Event host will have made sure that there are campsites available and also include deadlines or urgency for getting reservations.
3. Attendees will secure and pay for their campsite, and they can choose to camp the entire weekend or just one night, where available. If you have a van, camper etc., be sure that you reserve a site for vans (some are hike in only) and if you need electricity/water or to be near a bathroom, check for that as well. Note that sometimes we host events at campgrounds without electricity/water at the campsite, but most every campsite will have restrooms. Attendees need to ensure that they are familiar with the campsite refund options in case they need to cancel.
4. Attendees will RSVP for the meetup after making a reservation.
5. The week preceding the meetup, the organizer will send a reminder email to attendees, indicating where the group will meetup for nightly campfires (bring your own food) and any Saturday activity options/plans.
6. Attendees will use the meetup event web page to leave any comments about where they’ll be camping and what their plans will be. If the nightly campfire location changes, the host will leave a comment on this event page and/or “make the rounds” on the campground to inform attendees.