U.S. Forest Service · Mount Hood National Recreation Area · OR
Barlow Crossing Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 6 mi
Wildfire
Grasshopper fire · 5.6 mi away · 93,972 acres · 98% contained · updated Sep 30, 2026
Wildfire
Austin fire · 21 mi away · 12,888 acres · 98% contained · updated Oct 12, 2026
Wildfire
The Narrows fire · 24 mi away · 305 acres · 98% contained · updated Sep 16, 2026
Wildfire
Latigo Lane fire · 34 mi away · updated Oct 16, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
Photos · Forest Service
2,990 ftElevation
225 ftWater · Barlow Creek
16.9 miSE of Mount Hood Villages, OR
60%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 584th darkest of 770 in OR
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located along the Historic Barlow Road near the Barlow Creek.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itAlaska Recreational Management, Inc.A private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Servicethe operator link
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
$16-Single / Night $32-Double / Night
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near hereWhite River Station CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 1.4 mi
Barlow Creek CampgroundMount Hood National Recreation Area · 1.4 miBonney Meadows CampgroundMount Hood National Recreation Area · 3.6 mi
Frog LakeMt. Hood National Forest · 4.0 mi
Clear Lake (OR)Mt. Hood National Forest · 4.9 mi
Forest Creek CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 5.1 mi
Barlow Creek CampgroundMount Hood National Recreation Area · 1.4 miBonney Meadows CampgroundMount Hood National Recreation Area · 3.6 miFrog LakeMt. Hood National Forest · 4.0 miClear Lake (OR)Mt. Hood National Forest · 4.9 miForest Creek CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 5.1 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight44°Chance Rain Showers32% rain
Saturday53°Chance Rain Showers then Partly Sunny32% rain
Saturday Night34°Partly Cloudy
Sunday54°Partly Sunny
NWS forecast for Government Camp, OR
Source: National Weather Service, PDT forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°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.
100°32°10°
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.
Measured at: MADRAS 2 N, OR (USC00355142), 45 miles away and 547 ft lower
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.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 4, 2026
Who answers for this land
Barlow Crossing Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 17, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Government Camp, OR, 8.2 mi SE (a census designated place). Straight line.