Bear Springs Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 10 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:44 UTC
- A night
- $21When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 4In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bear Springs Campground is an ideal destination for families and groups that enjoy the outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It offers spacious group sites, single-family sites, and a day use area with a picnic shelter amid a forest of towering trees. Keep reading
Recreation
Bear Springs is not far from some great wilderness spots, including mountain lakes and streams, as well as trails and historic sites. A variety of short hiking and off-highway vehicle trails are available nearby for exploration. The Mt. Hood area and Government Camp are within a short drive from the campground. For water enthusiasts, rafting and kayaking opportunities abound on the nearby Deschutes River. Picnicking is also a popular activity.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family and group sites for tent and RV camping. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided, but utility hookups are not available. Parking surfaces are gravel and dirt. Firewood can be purchased from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is located on the southeastern edge of Mt. Hood National Forest at an elevation of 3,000 feet. It is situated among towering pine and fir trees, but the beauty of the campground is its secluded feel. Deer and other wildlife are common in the area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 467-2291.
Nearby Attractions
Bear Springs is near the Warm Springs Tribal Lands and is approximately 19 miles from Government Camp, where visitors may enjoy summertime snow skiing. It is also approximately 24 miles from the Deschutes River and less than one mile to Spring Drive RV Campground.
What the agency tells you
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 2 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided, but utility…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 483rd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:44 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 · 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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Bear Springs Campground 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.
- Fox Creek Group CampWillamette National Forest · 34 mi · 1 site
- Elk Lake CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 36 mi · walk-up
- Lower Bridge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 39 mi · 12 sites
- Marion Forks Campground and Day Use AreaWillamette National Forest · 40 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 16:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 2 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Shelter Day Use | Shelter | day use | 15 ft | 1135 ft | 269 ft | $21 |
| 001 | type not stated | 20 ft | 568 ft | |||
| 002 | type not stated | 20 ft | 410 ft | |||
| A | group tent only area nonelectric | 25 ft | 485 ft | 41 ft | $78 | |
| B | group tent only area nonelectric | 18 ft | 485 ft | 389 ft | $78 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Spring Drive RV CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 0.7 mi
McCubbins Overflow CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 1.6 miKeeps Mill CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 2.6 mi
Clear Creek Crossing CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 3.4 mi
Forest Creek CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 4.4 miWhite River Station CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 6.7 miFrom Sandy: Travel east on Highway 26 for 48 miles to the Highway 26/I-216 junctions. Turn left onto I-216 and travel east for 4 and 1/4 miles. Turn Right at Bear Springs campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pine Grove, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 53°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Bear Springs 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 →