# Remote Camping In Nw Oreon/sw Washington



## Ducks2Roses (Sep 5, 2007)

PNW'sters

I'm fairly new to the Portland/Vancouver area and am wondering if any of you have any insights for remote camping in the area. By remote, I'm mainly talking where I'm not sharing campisites with someone who is 10 feet away from me. 100 feet is more preferable.

To make this info request more challenging, I prefer to camp near water (lake, river) and I need to be able to pull my 28' RS-DS in and out of the area.

Suggestions? Thanks!


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## Scott and Jamie (Aug 27, 2006)

Hi Ducks! We do alot of remote dry camping around the NE parts of Mt Hood. Alot of the roads can be very tight so I would suggest you take a day trip with just a truck and checkout before you camp in any remote area. Hopefully some of the other portland area folks will chime in and let you know what are some good remote areas on your side of the mountain.

Scott


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Mike, We've been camping up on the John Day river outside of Ukiah-Dale, Oregon we camped right on the river, walk 10' feet and bingo your taking a dip. Finding the sites can be tough but if you get on the USFS sites and dig around you can find the dry camp grounds, be careful some are not RV friendly at all. Best to explore with out your trailer if you can though. There are also some USFS sites up around Rainier that are bigger and not one on top of the other, and you can camp along the Bumping River too.


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## OregonCampin (Mar 9, 2007)

I can't help you too much with the Northern part of this state, but we have some great spots in the Hoo Doo area that we go.... even the actual campgrounds are nice!







It's Forest Service Land, so if you can find a place to put the OB, you can camp there. We call it Free Range Camping - here is a link to the Willamette Forest Service site.... click the link in Dispersed Camping Willamette National Forest

I too would suggest that you take the truck out without the OB and do some scouting - there are a couple of spots that we go that there is no turn around for quite some time and if you don't know where you are going you can get yourself into a pickle! Of course, we take the dirt bikes and send someone ahead to take a look around before we pull down - even if you have been there before it can change within a few weeks (downed trees, rolling rocks, etc). You can also camp in the Sno-Parks, which we do this time of the year and then ride the bikes on the snow mobile trails.







The one things I can suggest is to make sure you check the fire restrictions - this time of year they can be pretty tight, even inside the campgrounds.

Have fun!

See ya on the road!

Shannon


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## ER_traveler (Jul 22, 2004)

The two places that I really liked to camp when I lived up there were at Iron Creek Campground, and Lower Falls Campground, both in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. You can get more info about them on their website.

Iron Creek is in an old growth forest with plenty of private sites. They don't have any hookups so it will be dry camping. It is just off the cispus river and down the road from Windy Ridge- an excellent place to view Mt St Helens. If you are looking to do an in the middle type camping trip with friends from up north in Seattle or somewhere then its a nice place for that. There is tons of stuff to do up there (Windy Ridge) if you enjoy hiking and stuff. I reccomend the trail down to Spirit Lake as a fairly easy hike with nice views at the end.

Probably one of my favorite campgrounds in the PNW is Lower falls. It is very private first come first serve campground locate right off of the Lower Lewis River water falls. Dry camping as well. There is a long wide trail that you can either bike or hike up to see the middle and upper falls. You can also go to the ape caves, which is a mile long lava tube hike that is dooable for small kids- just remember to bring flash lights. From there you can continue down the road to reach the Lahar of Mt St Helens for some nice views, and at the end of the road there is a short hike to the Lava Canyon.

I am in Tucson AZ now and trying to figure out some new places to go.

Bill

Oh btw is not a hard drive to either, I had no trouble taking my 26RS to either place and they both offer very large paved spots.


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

Ducks2Roses said:


> am wondering if any of you have any insights for remote camping in the area.


PM Oregon Camper (not OregonCampin). They spend the majority of their Outbacking time in National Forest campgrounds that are way out there.

Ed


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## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

LarryTheOutback said:


> am wondering if any of you have any insights for remote camping in the area.


PM Oregon Camper (not OregonCampin). They spend the majority of their Outbacking time in National Forest campgrounds that are way out there.

Ed
[/quote]

Yeah, like he's going to give up his secret spots. Good luck on that one.


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## jasonrebecca (Oct 30, 2007)

White Pass has a few good campsites that are kind of off the beaten path.
Leach Lake comes to mind, and even better if you Fly fish!


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