Clay Creek Recreation Site
Reservable everywhere but bookable nowhere.Ask the agency →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 21None on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Overnight camping is closed until further notice. Day-use recreation areas remain open for public use. Reserve a campsite at Clay Creek 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. Clay Creek Recreation Site is nestled in the Coast Range of Oregon between Eugene and the Oregon coast at an elevation of 436-492 feet. Located at the confluence of Clay Creek and the Siuslaw River, this recreation site offers a wealth of activities including forest hiking, fishing, wildlife viewing, picnicking and camping. The Springfield Office of the Northwest Oregon District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Clay Creek Recreation Site. Keep reading
Recreation
This quiet family oriented recreation site is a favorite if you enjoy riverside camping with an interpretive trail to old-growth timber. Spacious campsites with paved parking pads, mossy vine-maple tangles, and tall straight firs make up this camping area. The recreation site also boasts large group shelters available by reservation for group outings, weddings, or other events. The Clay Creek Trail, created in 1991 for hiking, provides access to a stand of Douglas fir high above the campground and the Siuslaw River. The site’s Clay Creek Trail ascends a ridge above the campground to a remnant old-growth stand. From camp, you cross the concrete bridge on Clay Creek Road and river to begin the hike.
Facilities
Clay Creek offers 21 individual campsites to accommodate 32 feet of RV, truck and trailer, or tents. Most sites contain fire ring, barbeque grill, picnic table, and tent pad. In addition, the site contains vault toilets, a summer swimming area with dressing rooms nearby, individual picnic sites, a children’s play area, horseshoe pits, potable water, volleyball area (bring your net and ball), and a ball field.
Natural Features
Clay Creek campground and the surrounding area are home to large canopy trees such as Douglas fir, western hemlock, red cedar, red alder and big leaf maple. The forest understory features a host of native plants like rhododendron, salal, various fern species, salmonberry and vine maple. On the forest floor, oxalis, Calypso orchids and mosses compliment the scenery. A diverse variety of bird life, from the seldom seen pileated woodpecker, northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet to the ever-present Oregon junco, frequent this area. Signs of larger animals, such as raccoon, mink, bear, elk, deer and beaver are evident. Clay Creek is part of the Siuslaw River watershed that drains water from the Coast Range to the Pacific Ocean. The river flows broad, cloudy, and green and calls to anglers; check current fishing regulations before casting your line. The Siuslaw River is a salmon watch site that runs fast and cold during the winter months, where you can observe spawning Coho and Chinook salmon in the river’s exceptional habitat during the fall and winter.
Nearby Attractions
Put-ins for the river downstream, along the Siuslaw River Road. No permit required to paddle the 6.5 mile river, with Class II - III rapids. Whittaker Creek Recreation Site (Florence) Alder Dune Campground (Florence) Archie Knowles Campground (Florence) B & E Wayside Mobile and RV Park (Cottage Grove) Baker Bay Campground (Dorena) Baker Bay County Park (Westfir) Bedrock Camp Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (541) 683-6600.
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? Please see here for current campfire restrictions: Fire Closures and Restrictions Typically, campfires are limited to the steel fire rings or BBQ grills provided within the recreation site. No building rock campfire rings.
The Day Use Area and Campground are open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Camping stay limit is 14 days in a 28 day period.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Quiet hours are from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am.
Pets are ALLOWED but must be LEASHED (max. 6 feet) in the parking lot. Please dispose all pet waste in trash receptacles.
The maximum RV or truck/trailer length is 32 feet from front bumper of tow vehicle to back bumper of trailer.
No ATVs or ORVs allowed within the recreation site.
No fishing in Clay Creek - fishing allowed per Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fishing regulations.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tent pad. In addition, the site contains vault toilets, a summer swimming area with dressing rooms nearby,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 23 of 23 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Softball Fields
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 647th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
- Cell signal · Cell signal · BLM says
- None
Nothing on the booking system
recreation.gov lists none of the 21 campsites the agency files here. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 records · the site map
All 23 records
| Camp Loop | 01 | type not stated | 30 ft | 440 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 02 | type not stated | 30 ft | 373 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 03 | type not stated | 30 ft | 316 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 04 | type not stated | 30 ft | 316 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 05 | type not stated | 30 ft | 269 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 06 | type not stated | 30 ft | yes | 248 ft |
| Camp Loop | 07 | type not stated | 30 ft | 137 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 08 | type not stated | 30 ft | 31 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 09 | type not stated | 30 ft | 119 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 10 | type not stated | 30 ft | 56 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 11 | type not stated | 30 ft | 153 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 12 | type not stated | 30 ft | 109 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 13 | type not stated | 30 ft | 114 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 14 | type not stated | 30 ft | 60 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 15 | type not stated | 30 ft | 72 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 16 | type not stated | 30 ft | 109 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 17 | type not stated | 30 ft | 40 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 18 | type not stated | 30 ft | 43 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 19 | type not stated | 30 ft | 115 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 20 | type not stated | 30 ft | 31 ft | |
| Camp Loop | 21 | type not stated | 30 ft | 134 ft | |
| Picnic Area | Shelter 1 | day use | 252 ft | ||
| Picnic Area | Shelter 2 | day use | 115 ft |
The agency files 2 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Whittaker Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office · 7.3 mi
Vincent Creek CampgroundCoos Bay Umpqua Field Office · 13 miArchie Knowles CampgroundSiuslaw National Forest · 14 miSmith River Falls CampgroundCoos Bay Umpqua Field Office · 15 miFawn Creek CampgroundCoos Bay Umpqua Field Office · 16 miRichardson Campground19 miFrom Eugene (valley): From Interstate 5 go west on Beltline Road to West 11th Avenue. Turn right onto West 11th Avenue (Highway OR-126). Follow Highway 126 about 29 miles to Siuslaw River Road just west of Walton. Turn left on Siuslaw River Road and follow about 10 miles to the intersection of BLM Road 19-7-20.1. Keep left on Siuslaw River Road for about 6 miles. The main entrance to the recreation site is located on the right.
From Florence (coast): Take Highway OR-126 east about 14 miles to Mapleton. Turn right and follow Highway 126 for about 12 miles to Siuslaw River Road. Turn right on Siuslaw River Road and follow about 16 miles to the intersection of BLM Road 19-7-20.1. Keep left on Siuslaw River Road for about 6 miles. The main entrance to the recreation site is located on the right.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Clay Creek Recreation Site 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
The agency’s own record marks Clay Creek Recreation Site reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its campsites. The draft asks why, and what it would take to fix it.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Clay Creek Recreation Site is reservable and not bookable
Dear Val T. Hoyle, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 4th district. Clay Creek Recreation Site, Nw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office, Oregon is a federal campground the Bureau of Land Management records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 21 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why isn’t Clay Creek Recreation Site on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Clay Creek Recreation Site (Nw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Clay Creek Recreation Site is reservable and not bookable
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. Clay Creek Recreation Site, Nw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office, Oregon is a federal campground the Bureau of Land Management records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 21 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why isn’t Clay Creek Recreation Site on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Clay Creek Recreation Site (Nw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Clay Creek Recreation Site is reservable and not bookable
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. Clay Creek Recreation Site, Nw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office, Oregon is a federal campground the Bureau of Land Management records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 21 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why isn’t Clay Creek Recreation Site on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Clay Creek Recreation Site (Nw Oregon Siuslaw 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. Clay Creek Recreation Site is nestled in the…”