Camp Murray Beach

They have raised the price on their 50A FHU sites from $16 to $28 a night. Which is $2 a night less than their neighbor, about 1 mile away at JBLM. However, JBLM has much more space between sites, they are paved sites instead of dirt and they include cable TV. The sites at the Camp Murray campground are not maintained. The entire arrival is completely self-service, the hosts did not assist us when we arrived. We watched numerous arrivals and each wandered around trying to determine where to go and what site is theirs. We watched people depart and no one came to the site and raked the limbs or pines cones, took any trash away, nor cleaned the picnic tables. Nothing. The host mowed one day while we were there, The assistant host walked her dog and was friendly enough. Not certain who is responsible for the site maintenance but during our stay it was not happening. If you are going to charge more, I believe they need to raise their standards a bit and take a bit of pride in the maintenance of the sites. 

AUGUST 2018 We stayed on the waterfront row last August for 2 weeks. So peaceful and really beautiful. The prices have been raised to $25 for 30 amp and $32 for 50 amp. Still worth it for this gem of a campground so close to everything Tacoma and the surrounding area has to offer.

This campground is a gem! Quiet sites on and by American Lake, our site was on the upper row with a nice view and level gravel site. We were unable to extend our stay but would have liked to. Ray's Place on post had great coffee and a breakfast so large my wife and I shared it.

Great location and right on American Lake! Walking/Running trails, and a fresh water stream. Stocked lake, and wild life abound.

Sadly Murray too now has suffered after the crackdown on squatters/homesteaders of both campgrounds at JBLM...now it's affected Murray :( 14 day stay limit now, then you must vacate and not return for two weeks...still no tent camping beginning NOV-End of march. These two rules are strictly enforced summer season now, no special people getting over staying longer/squatting-homesteading as I watched my many former summer seasonal neighbors constantly playing musical chairs with their RVs between McCord, Lewis and Murray campgrounds during my first visit back in three yrs since I moved to Florida. Ed the campground host still there, he's summer seasonal type whom lives in Hawaii and teaches scuba in winter, funny I left camp Murray after one summer season and lived Hawaii that winter and at the Veterans Day luau @ Hale Koa I saw ed, he was there... One of the squatter/homesteaders took over the asst host job so she doesn't have to rotate out now and she lost her approachable essence...takes the job way too serious... very nice place on water but sadly on fast side of American lake...Lewis campground about 1 mile west on same shoreline as Murray but around a choke point which separates American lake into two halves is, right where Lewis north forts American lake beach/park is that you'll see at 10oclock direction if you're lookIn at american lake from camp Murray. Murray is on the fast side of American lake so it's a lot noisier in comparison to Lewis area of American lake unless the special forces/2-75 ranger battalion are doing helicopter insertion/recovery training in the Lewis side of American lake where they fly in to water level inserting or extracting our warriors.. This busy watercraft thing on the Murray side/fast side of American lake is especially true on a sunny weekend day when boaters towing tubes, skiers, fisherman and the occasional kayaker or paddle board fill up the lake and holiday weekends kinda scary on the fast side (Murray shores on American lake) when you see busy days.. Rental water toys can be acquired at adventure center at ft Lewis on American lake...kayaks and paddle boards easily paddled to camp Murray campground from ft Lewis adventure center via waters shoreline...paddle across lake to north fort Lewis beach swimming area park, from there easy walk to shoppette, gym or warrior zone essentially avoiding existing out camp Murray gate and back into north fort Lewis gates which is faster than bicycle ride around.....surprisingly this is common and not a security issue as you'll see boats and people coming & going ashore at camp Murray dock/boat landing... Yrs before when I was a regular seasonal summer squatter here, there were jerks from civilian side of American lake that would do illegal dragboat races...fire up their 454powered rocket boats and go flying full roar skipping across the lake in the middle of the night....glad to see that ended! Ammeities on this website say swimming but absolutely no swimming at shores of camp Murray in American lake is authorized... Very serious risk to humans as too much boat traffic and or the opportunity of random boat traffic so swimming is seriously dangerous around dock/shores of American lake but you'll prolly catch some veterans dependant wife challenging regulations saying that's a dumb rule and she's gonna let her kids/grandkids swim there anyways... Campground has a party/group shelter and has unit functions/parties and when they do, the already limited bathrooms will be excessively busy as well as the screaming kids runnng around obnoxious/careless/irresponsibly so drive slow and be vigilant... Bout a mile & 1/2 out the gate to any stores/anythin other than coffee shop at camp Murray campground office unlike Lewis which has so much more to do of which all is bicycle rideable to everything and very much more dependant/kid friendly...Murray isn't very child friendly, no playground, jungle gym etc...lots of trails to walk but unattended children isn't an authorized option either... my experiance has been campers with kids at camp Murray dont seemingly enjoy the place (in comparison to Lewis or McCord) due to its lack of activities and also to kids it's boring seclusion with nothing to do for them unlike retired veteran/empty nesters whom project a look of happiness and content in murrays simplistic setting of nothing to do but sit and read a book or stare at the lake listening to Rush Limbaugh while visiting with other former war fighters... 

I will begin with a note about the gate.  The directions on this site just say go through the gate right off of 5 however that gate is only open Mon-Fri and closes at 4.  You must still Exit at 122 and go North on Berkley Street and go past the commercial gate 2 blocks until you get to Portland Avenue through the traffic circle to the other gate.  Then once we got to the camp ground we never saw a camp host and never were told the codes to the bathrooms.  We finally asked another camper the code to the bathrooms and the women shower smelled like feces.    The lake was beautiful however I would not recommend this campground.