Acker Rock Lookout
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 6 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:16 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Perched atop the edge of a rocky cliff in the Umpqua National Forest, Acker Rock Lookout offers visitors a unique lodging experience with spectacular panoramic views of the South Umpqua watershed in southwest Oregon. Still used in active fire detection today, the lookout was placed on the rocky cliff via helicopter in the 1960's. Before the advent of airplane surveillance for fire detection, there were more than a dozen lookouts on the Tiller Ranger District. Today Acker Rock and Pickett Butte are the only remaining lookouts on the District. Keep reading
The lookout tower is generally available for reservation from August 1st thru November 15th (depending on snow). High Clearance four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles are recommended for travel to this site, and guests must bring several of their own amenities. The lookout is not rented during the winter months due to wind and snow weight restrictions on the building. Visitors should keep in mind everything must be packed in via a moderately steep 0.4-mile hike along a forested trail to reach the lookout.
Recreation
The panorama includes landmarks on the Rogue-Umpqua Divide; on a clear day you can see mountains on the Willamette, Rogue, and Deschutes River watersheds and Crater Lake Rim. Overlooking the Umpqua River and several of its tributaries, the lookout is a delightful setting for hiking, birding and wildlife viewing. Seasonal changes envelope the area as snowmelt gives rise to spring flowers and vivid autumn colors bring with it numerous recreation opportunities. For a day trip, guests may enjoy a scenic drive along a portion of the 172-mile Rogue-Umpqua National Scenic Byway or a mountain hike into the Rogue Umpqua Divide wilderness on over 100 miles of trail.
Facilities
The 12-foot by 12-foot, one-room lookout is furnished with a single bed, a small table and chair, and is equipped with a propane fueled wall heater, lanterns, cooking stove with oven and a refrigerator (propane is provided). A composting toilet is located at the lookout site. There is no water at the site, so visitors must bring plenty for drinking, cooking and washing. Potable water is available at a spigot in front of the Tiller Ranger Station office (45 minute drive). Guests must supply their own food, cooking utensils, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, towels, dish soap, matches, cooking gear, toilet paper and garbage bags. Although propane lighting is available, bringing an additional light source is recommended.
Natural Features
Unique volcanic and sedimentary rock outcroppings and dense conifer forests define the landscape, giving way to sub-alpine meadows and summer wildflowers in the higher elevations. The rock formation on which the lookout building sits is itself a magnificent feature. Sheer cliffs drop off for several hundred feet on the west and south sides. The translation of the word "Umpqua," meaning "thundering waters," defines the area. High mountain lakes, heart-stopping rapids, peaceful ponds and thundering waterfalls await visitor.
Nearby Attractions
Opportunities for fishing are within 10 miles of the lookout.
What the agency tells you
Maximum capacity of the tower is four people at any time.
There is no water at the site, please consider bringing your own cooking pans and utensils
Please do not let pets roam freely, as they may endanger wildlife and plants
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Visitors must pack out all trash. Do not leave perishable items or liquids in the refrigerator. Please be respectful of other visitors, and be aware that leaving trash out can attract rodents and other animals. There is a transfer station off County Road 46 at milepost 4.5, but it is only open on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a fee of $3.00 per can (up to 35 gallons) is charged.
The lookout tower is a no-smoking facility
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Vehicle access past the road gate is permitted with your reservation, but other users may hike from the gate to the lookout during your stay. Placing personal locks on the gate is not permitted as agency personnel may need to access the site.
The gate combination will be included with the reservation confirmation letter.
Do not throw trash, hygene products, or hand wipes in the composting toilet. Human waste and small amounts of toilet paper only.
Renters are advised to bring cleaning supplies to clean interior surfaces upon arrival and departure. The Forest Service will provide cleaning supplies but cannot guarantee their availability in the case they have been used or taken by previous occupants.
The hike from the parking area to the lookout is approximately a half mile of uphill trail. Be prepared to carry personal effects including bedding this distance.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Meadow
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:16 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:43 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:16 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:43 UTC
- Susan Creek CampgroundRoseburg District Swiftwater Field Office · 21 mi · 5 of 56 site-nights open
- Cavitt Creek Falls Recreation SiteRoseburg District Swiftwater Field Office · 22 mi · 4 of 16 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:16 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ACKER ROCK LOOKOUT | ACKER ROCK LOOKOUT | lookout | 1,074 ft | 108 ft | $40 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
South Umpqua Falls CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 2.3 mi
Ash Flat CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 4.4 miCamp Comfort CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 4.4 miCover CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 5.6 mi
Boulder Creek CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 6.8 mi
Dumont Creek CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 8.4 miImportant note regarding GPS use: please be advised that GPS units can, and have sent guests down the wrong roads to access the Lookout. Please consider following the directions below rather than your GPS unit.
Directions: From Canyonville take West 1st Street and turn onto SE 3rd St/OR-227. Continue to follow OR-227 approximately 23 miles until you reach Tiller. From Tiller, travel northeast on Douglas County Road #46 which becomes South Umpqua/Forest Service Road #28, for 18.5 miles to Buckeye Creek/Forest Service Road #29. Follow Forest Service Road #29 for 7 miles to the junction with Forest Service Road #2838. Turn left (north) onto Forest Service Road #2838 for 1.5 miles to the Forest Service Road #2838-950. (On the left) Follow the Forest Service Road #2838-950 for 1.5 miles to the trailhead. The Acker Rock Trail #1585 is 0.4 mile and requires a moderate to steep hike to reach the lookout. Forest Service Road #2828-950 road is closed with a locked gate. Vehicle access past the road gate is permitted with your reservation, but other users may hike from the gate to the lookout during your stay. Placing personal locks on the gate is not permitted as agency personnel may need to access the site.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Prospect, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Acker Rock Lookout is in Oregon’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Cliff Bentz (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJeff MerkleyU.S. Senator · Oregon
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRon WydenU.S. Senator · Oregon
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Acker Rock Lookout are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Acker Rock Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Acker Rock Lookout. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Acker Rock Lookout (Umpqua National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Acker Rock Lookout are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Acker Rock Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Acker Rock Lookout. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Acker Rock Lookout (Umpqua National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Acker Rock Lookout, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Acker Rock Lookout are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Acker Rock Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Acker Rock Lookout. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Acker Rock Lookout (Umpqua National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com