Big Meadows Horse Camp
1Heads up1 fire 6.1 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 6 of the next 8 nights read 15:29 UTC
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 1310 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Meadows Horse Camp is located 23 miles south from Idanha, Oregon, at an elevation of 3,600 feet of of Big Meadows Road (Forest Service Road 2267). Big Meadows Road is paved, but most access roads and travel surfaces throughout campground and in the adjacent forest are compacted rock. There are 9 camping units that can accommodate vehicles and trailers up to 36 feet in length. Each site has a picnic table. There are two single-vault toilets and stock amenities including 4-stall corrals or highlines in each campsite, hitching rack, loading ramp, and stock water trough. Drinking water is available via hand pump. Keep reading
This location has 6 reservable sites and 3 sites which are on a first-come, first-served basis only. Campfires allowed until and unless otherwise posted. Fire bans are common during summer months. Please plan accordingly. Scan and Pay might be offered at this campground; It is recommended that you pay by cash or check for FCFS campsites. There are no refunds, modifications, cancellations, or other fee changes allowed with FCFS payments. This system is the same as putting cash into a fee tube and cannot be refunded. Please download the Rec.Gov app prior to arriving at the campground as there may be no cellular service or very limited service at the campground. If no Scan & Pay option is available you must pay via cash or check. Reservations for this site can be made up to 6 months in advance of arrival date by reserving online at RECREATION.GOV or by calling 877-444-6777.
Facilities
There are 9 camping units that can accommodate vehicles and trailers up to 36 feet in length. Each site has a picnic table. There are two single-vault toilets and stock amenities including 4-stall corrals or highlines in each campsite, hitching rack, loading ramp, and stock water trough. Drinking water is available via hand pump.
Nearby Attractions
Several miles of loop trails radiating from the campground into the forest area including Duffy Lake Trail, Big Meadows Loop Trail, Big Meadows Tie Trail. This site is also in close proximity to Santiam Pass. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 967-3917.
What the agency tells you
There are no electric hookups available.
Limit 1 vehicle per site; a $10 per vehicle per night fee will be charged for each additional vehicle at the campsite.
No discharging firearms, possession of fireworks or use of chainsaws allowed.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
You must stay in the campsite that you reserved. Site swapping is not allowed.
Scan and Pay might be offered at this campground; It is recommended that you pay by cash or check for FCFS campsites. There are no refunds, modifications, cancellations, or other fee changes allowed with FCFS payments. This system is the same as putting cash into a fee tube and cannot be refunded. Please download the Rec.Gov app prior to arriving at the campground as there may be no cellular service or very limited service at the campground. If no Scan & Pay option is available you must pay via cash or check.
Campfires allowed until and unless otherwise posted. Fire bans are common during summer months. Please plan accordingly.
Check-Out 12:00PM Check-In 2:00PM
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13 · 9 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 8 of 9 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 9 of 13 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 13 campsite records, DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 9 of 13 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Night sky · 411th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Something open on 6 of the next 6 bookable nightsread 15:29 UTC
recreation.gov lists 10 of the 13 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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 · 17
What you actually pay
“a $10 per vehicle per night fee will be charged for each additional vehicle at the campsite.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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 15:29 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · the site map
All 13 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 13 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.
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 1 | equestrian nonelectric | 39 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 2 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 3 | equestrian nonelectric | 49 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 4 | equestrian nonelectric | 37 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 5 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 6 | equestrian nonelectric | 73 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 7 | equestrian nonelectric | 69 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 8 | equestrian nonelectric | 99 ft | ||
| Big Meadows Horse Camp | 9 | equestrian nonelectric | 85 ft | ||
| 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 | 751 ft | $25 |
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
Lost Lake - Willamette (OR)Willamette National Forest · 5.6 miLost Lake CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 5.6 mi
Fish Lake Remount Depot CabinsWillamette National Forest · 6.3 mi
Lost Prairie Group SiteWillamette National Forest · 7.7 miMarion Forks Campground and Day Use AreaWillamette National Forest · 8.4 mi- From Detroit, Oregon, travel 25.6 miles east on State Highway 22 to Big Meadows Road (Forest Service Road 2267). Continue on Big Meadows Road (Forest Service Road 2267) for 0.9 miles to Forest Service Road 2257. Proceed on FS Road 2257 for 0.5 miles to Big Meadows Horse Camp.
- From Sisters, Oregon, head west on State Highway 126/ US Highway 20 for 31.5 miles to Big Meadows Road (Forest Service Road 2267)*. *(Highway will merge and continue as State Highway 22 after 25.7 miles from Sisters). Continue on Big Meadows Road (Forest Service Road 2267) for 0.9 miles to Forest Service Road 2257. Proceed on FS Road 2257 for 0.5 miles to Big Meadows Horse Camp.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Idanha, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 65°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
Big Meadows Horse Camp 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…app prior to arriving at the campground as there may be no cellular service or very limited service at the campground. If no Scan & Pay…”