General information:
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Camp programs operate within local health, safety, and child-care frameworks that vary by region. Because these standards are set and enforced locally, families should consult the camp directly and relevant local authorities for the most current information on safety practices and supervision.
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From the Washington guide
Read the mid-summer stretch as the usable window, and read it as several climates rather than one. West of the mountains, mornings can start under marine cloud that burns off to bright, dry afternoons, with cool nights that want a real layer. The salt water stays cold all season, so the Sound and the coast are for boats and beaches more than long swims. The high country holds snow and cold into the warm months and shifts fast. East of the crest runs hot and dry, where the inland lakes finally warm enough for real swimming. Late summer can bring drifting wildfire smoke on either side of the mountains. The figures here are air temperatures from a west-side lowland station, so treat the hotter interior and the colder high country as running well off them.
Average at camp time
June
71°high
53°low
July
77°high
57°low
August
78°high
57°low
Temperature figures are drawn from NOAA/NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. Conditions vary within a state by region, elevation, and distance from the coast, so interior and higher areas generally run cooler than coastal or low-lying ones. Treat these as a general guide, not a forecast for any specific camp.
Most families arrive through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), the main gateway for the whole Pacific Northwest, sitting in the Puget Sound lowland south of Seattle. For the eastern, drier side of the state, Spokane International (GEG) is the more natural door. From either, the reality is mostly driving: the interstate spine runs the length of the Sound, a mountain-pass highway crosses the Cascades toward the warm interior, and a loop highway reaches around the Olympic Peninsula.
From there it depends entirely on the form. Reaching the island camps means trading the highway for a state ferry, so the last leg is a boat tied to a schedule rather than a road. Reaching the wilderness forms means following secondary and forest roads to a trailhead where the pavement, and daily contact, ends. And much of the metro day-camp layer asks for no journey at all, since it runs out of the parks and schools families already live beside. Ferry times, pickups, and any transport a camp arranges are worth confirming directly with the program rather than assumed.