Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground)
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:49 UTC
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Reserve a site at Alsea Falls on recreation.gov or pay when you arrive for non-reserved campsites using the Recreation.gov Mobile App . You must download before you reach the site since there is no cell reception in the drainage. Alsea Falls Recreation Site is located along a Bureau of Land Management National Back Country Byway, located in the Oregon Coast Range, 13 miles west of Monroe, Oregon, in Benton County. Alsea Falls is open for camping the first weekend in May through the end of September of each year. Day use is open year round. The South Fork of the Alsea River flows through the Alsea Falls Recreation Site, cascading down 30 feet to form Alsea Falls in the day use area. Keep reading
Recreation
The beautiful surroundings of Alsea Falls can be enjoyed by exploring the trails that wander through the area and lead to the picnic grounds and beyond. On a warm day, Alsea Falls Recreation Site offers cool relief along the river. During the winter months, the South Fork of the Alsea River provides excellent salmon and steelhead fishing. Be sure to check with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for current fishing regulations.
Facilities
This recreation area has 16 individual campsites; all are reservable . No first come-first served availability, however, you can come by on a nightly basis to camp if the site is not reserved until the reservation holder arrives. Amenities within the campground include drinking water and vault toilets. Several campsites can accommodate large RVs or trailers: up to 32 feet long. A site map is available here.
Natural Features
Forests in all stages of growth line South Fork Alsea National Back Country Byway. The nearby South Fork Alsea River offers painters and photographers endless opportunities to capture the natural beauty of Alsea Falls and the surrounding area. Old growth Douglas fir and western red cedar forests can be seen on the nearby ridges, while younger Douglas fir and vine maples provide a pleasant atmosphere at the Alsea Falls Recreation Site. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (503) 375-5646 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
The Fall Creek Day-Use Trailhead offers over 12 miles of mountain bike specific trails. Hikers can use these trails as well. Green Peak Falls with a drop of 45 feet is accessed by road or trail through the private campground of McBee Park. Follow the markers along the trail and road. Alsea Trout Hatchery is north of the town of Alsea.
Charges & Cancellations
Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.
What the agency tells you
Campfires? Current fire information for the Northwest Oregon District closures and restrictions can be found at BLM Fire Closures and Restrictions under the district specific section. Normally, campfires are limited to the steel fire rings or BBQ grills provided within the recreation site. At high to extreme fire danger levels, campfires are most likely prohibited, check above link. No building rock campfire rings.
All campsites are available for advanced reservations up to 2 days in advance of your stay. Although the legend shows FF (first come-first served) we call it walk-up camping. You may camp in a site that shows FF as a walk-up user on a nightly basis until the next reservation holder arrives to the site. On the day of the reservation holder's arrival you must vacate the site by 11:00 am.
A fee of $5 for extra vehicles will be collected at the facility through the on site fee station. Cash or check made payable to BLM is accepted. Place fee in the yellow fee envelope. Keep the receipt tab to display on your vehicle dash or campsite post.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
All equipment must fit on the site pad. Vehicles park in developed areas only.
There is a limit of 1 RV/camper/trailer and 2 tents per standard nonelectric campsite.
No hookups or phone service.
No ATV's or ORV's allowed in the facility.
Visitors flock to Alsea Falls when the weather is hot in the Willamette Valley.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21 · 5 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 32 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 6
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campground include drinking water and vault toilets. Several campsites can accommodate large RVs or…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Amenities within the campground include drinking water and vault toilets. Several campsites can…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 716th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 4
- Cell signal · Cell signal · BLM says
- None
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 32 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:49 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 16 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 19 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:49 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 · 19
What you actually pay
“A fee of $5 for extra vehicles will be collected at the facility through the on site fee station.” · the Bureau of Land Management’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$40 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.
“Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
recreation.gov availability, read 16:49 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
38 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 38 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 21 of the 38 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Campground | 01 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 96 ft | 95 ft | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 02 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 81 ft | 146 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 03 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 58 ft | 126 ft | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 04 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 58 ft | 146 ft | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 05 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 58 ft | 88 ft | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 06 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 65 ft | 107 ft | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 07 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 65 ft | 42 ft | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 08 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 85 ft | 121 ft | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 09 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 85 ft | 200 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 10 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 117 ft | 256 ft | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 11 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 48 ft | 252 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 12 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 48 ft | 216 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 13 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 51 ft | 215 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 14 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 49 ft | 176 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Campground | 15 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 51 ft | 166 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 |
| Campground | 16 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 69 ft | 155 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $20–$40 | |
| Picnic Loop | 06 | day use | 15 ft | 107 ft | |||
| Picnic Loop | 07 | day use | 15 ft | 42 ft | |||
| Picnic Loop | 08 | day use | 15 ft | 121 ft | |||
| Picnic Loop | 09 | day use | 15 ft | 200 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 10 | day use | 15 ft | 256 ft | |||
| Picnic Loop | 11 | day use | 15 ft | 252 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 12 | day use | 15 ft | 216 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 13 | day use | 15 ft | 215 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 14 | day use | 15 ft | 176 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 15 | day use | 15 ft | 166 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 16 | day use | 15 ft | 155 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 17 | day use | 15 ft | 159 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 18 | day use | 15 ft | 194 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 19 | day use | 15 ft | 208 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 20 | day use | 15 ft | 156 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 21 | day use | 15 ft | 188 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | |||
| Picnic Loop | 22 | day use | 15 ft | ||||
| Tent Loop | T1 | walk to | 15 ft | 64 ft | 75 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $15 | |
| Tent Loop | T2 | walk to | 15 ft | 50 ft | 44 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $15 | |
| Tent Loop | T3 | walk to | 15 ft | 50 ft | 63 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $15 | |
| Tent Loop | T4 | walk to | 15 ft | 56 ft | 73 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $15 | |
| Tent Loop | T5 | walk to | 15 ft | 67 ft | 62 ftSouth Fork Alsea River | $15 |
The agency files 17 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 38 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
River Edge14 mi
River Edge Group CampgroundSiuslaw National Forest · 16 miRichardson Campground16 mi
BlackberrySiuslaw National Forest · 18 miBig Elk CampgroundSiuslaw National Forest · 19 miFrom Corvallis: Take Hwy 99W south about 15 miles. Turn right on Alpine Road, follow for approximately 9 miles. Alpine Road turns into South Fork Road. Follow about 4 miles to the Alsea Falls Campground on the right.
From Alsea: Travel south from the town Alsea on Alsea-Deadwood Hwy for about 1 mile. Turn left on the South Fork Road and follow for approximately 8.5 miles (stay on main paved road). Pass the Alsea Falls Day-Use about 0.5 miles and turn left into the Alsea Falls Campground Entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Alpine, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) 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 →
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 moneyVal T. HoyleU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 4th 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon
Dear Val T. Hoyle, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) (Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) (Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground), Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 21 sites at Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground) (Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…download before you reach the site since there is no cell reception in the drainage. Alsea Falls Recreation Site is located along…”