Armstrong
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 3 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:08 UTC
- A night
- $26When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 11In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Armstrong Campground is a small but beautiful place to camp, right on the edge of the Clackamas Wild and Scenic River. The river flows right by spacious, lush, family-friendly campsites, giving visitors plenty of access to the river, as well as to the surrounding forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is very popular in the Clackamas River and anglers can expect a catch of winter steelhead, spring chinook and late summer coho salmon, as well as other species of freshwater fish. The Clackamas contains miles of wild water as it bends and drops through the scenic Cascade Range, creating prime whitewater rafting opportunities. A hiking trail follows the river north and south and begins about a mile away at Fish Creek Campground.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites available mostly for tent camping, but a few sites having space for RVs. Larger RVs may have trouble navigating the roads within the facility. An overflow parking area is available. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. No hookups are available. Parking surfaces are gravel and dirt.
Natural Features
The campground is located in Mt. Hood National Forest at an elevation of about 870 feet. A variety of ferns, shrubs and grasses cover the forest floor and provide some privacy between sites. While the campground is close to the road, the sound of the river blocks most of the noise. The forest provides habitat for the federally protected bald eagle and northern spotted owl, as well as an occasional peregrine falcon. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area.
Nearby Attractions
A boat ramp is available at Fish Creek Campground, which is less than half a mile south of the campground. It is a convenient place to launch kayaks, canoes or other boats on the river. Just below Indian Henry Campground, the Clackamas River offers 12.5 miles of class III-IV whitewater. The Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival is hosted annually on the river, attracting rafters from all over the country.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
Click here for more information on the Mt. Hood National Forest
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
In accordance with standard industry practices, Mt. Hood Recreation will be assessing an additional vehicle fee per night on the second vehicle in each single-family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 7 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 26 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. No hookups are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. No hookups are available. Parking…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 755th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 24 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:08 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Armstrong closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Elk Lake CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 24 mi · walk-up
- Fox Creek Group CampWillamette National Forest · 27 mi · 1 site
- Marion Forks Campground and Day Use AreaWillamette National Forest · 39 mi · walk-up
- Sunset Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 46 mi · 18 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 183 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 168 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 62 ft | 110 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 41 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 21 ft | 57 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 007 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 21 ft | 37 ft | $26 |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 27 ft | 31 ft | $26 | |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 27 ft | 53 ft | $26 |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 43 ft | 54 ft | $26 |
| AREA ARMSTRONG | 011 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 43 ft | 94 ft | $26 |
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 agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
LockabyMt. Hood National Forest · 0.0 mi
Fish Creek (OR)Mt. Hood National Forest · 0.2 miFish Creek Campground/Day UseMt. Hood National Forest · 0.3 miCarter Bridge CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 0.4 mi
Roaring RiverMt. Hood National Forest · 1.9 mi
SunstripMt. Hood National Forest · 2.3 miFrom Estacada, travel east on Highway 224 for 14 miles to Armstrong Campground, on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mount Hood Villages, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 33°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Armstrong is in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Janelle Bynum (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →