Alder Springs
1Heads up1 fire 19 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 41 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.
What the agency tells you
This small, rustic site is right on the side of the historic McKenzie Pass Highway. Surrounded by towering Douglas fir trees, this is a perfect spot to be on a warm day.
Access is dependent on McKenzie Highway (OR Hwy 242), which is closed in the winter. Check tripcheck.com for conditions.
First come, first serve sites.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Single Campsites - $10 per night Extra Vehicles - $5 per vehicle, per night - The campground is very small! Please, only bring one vehicle if possible. If a second vehicle must be used, please park near the restroom.
Tent camping only.
Camping is not allowed more than 14 days in a 60 day period.
Use of chainsaws in the campground is prohibited.
Dogs MUST be on leash at all times within the campground.
No drinking water available.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:28 UTC
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“Single Campsites - $10 per night Extra Vehicles - $5 per vehicle, per night” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:28 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites · the site map
All 4 sites
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 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 2 | type not stated | ||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 3 | type not stated | ||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 4 | type not stated | ||
| Scan and Pay | Standard | standard nonelectric | 4,029 ft | $10 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Limberlost CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 7.1 miOlallie CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 8.3 mi
Olallie on McKenzie Highway - Willamette (OR)Willamette National Forest · 8.4 miLava Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 8.4 miMcKenzie River Trailhead at Paradise CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 8.9 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Black Butte Ranch, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 23°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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Alder Springs is in Oregon’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Val Hoyle (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →