At Kennewick the Columbia takes in the Snake under dry bluffs, and the grass along both banks is where you camp. Hood Park and Charbonneau Park are the green loops on that water, Corps campgrounds with electric hookups and hills that stay brown all summer. Anglers work the bank for salmon and steelhead, and summer runs to triple-digit heat, so you want that plug.
Hood Park is the first night, three miles south of Pasco on US-12 at Highway 124, reserved on Recreation.gov. The loops sit on the river, bank fishing from the grass, and after dark the water is loud. As of September 2026 a burn ban has wood fires out while gas and propane stoves still work.
Charbonneau Park is on Lake Sacajawea, farther out Highway 124, with a swim beach and full-hookup pads reserved the same way. It is the other Corps night when Hood is full.
The meeting of the two rivers is the walk at Sacajawea Historical State Park. The Interpretive Center holds Maya Lin's story circles and exhibits on the Corps of Discovery, Sacagawea, and the Sahaptin, and a Discover Pass covers the day. Richland and Pasco share these banks, so you do the park from the Corps pads without moving camp.
Upriver, Hanford Reach National Monument is a primitive day on the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia, White Bluffs above the water and no facilities on the ground. A social trail runs from the White Bluffs Boat Launch to the dunes on top, and spring wildflowers and the fall salmon run are the reasons to go.
Palouse Falls State Park
The Palouse River drops through columnar basalt into a churning bowl, a canyon Ice Age floods cut. From Fryxell Overlook the walls and the bowl are in one frame. Washington State Parks calls it the official state waterfall.
All trails into the canyon and to the base of the falls are permanently closed, and trailers and RVs are not allowed in the lot, so a campervan parks with care.
Potholes State Park at Moses Lake is a desert reservoir threaded with basalt potholes and freshwater marsh, waterfowl in the shallows. The campground is year-round, designated sites only, with a maximum site length of 50 feet, and fishing on the reservoir stays open year-round. If you need more sleeping space than a van, look at RVs for rent in Washington. North of that lake, Spokane is the next van city.
Walla Walla and Lewis and Clark Trail State Park
Out of Kennewick the country goes from wheat to vineyard rows, and Walla Walla is the tasting-room day people already run from here. Highway 12 continues to Lewis and Clark Trail State Park on the Touchet near Dayton, ponderosa and cottonwood in the dry grass. The park is a river strip in arid grassland, shade after a day in the open.
Standard non-hookup sites take tents or motorhomes. Reserve that pad first, then the van, because the wine day only works if the night is already locked. The campground closes November through March. If the trip keeps going south after Walla Walla, Oregon campervan rentals pick up the other side of the Columbia.