Clearwater Big House
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 13 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 19 of the next 30 nights read 15:17 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clearwater Big House gives the feel of a winter chalet hideaway, even during the warmest months of the summer. Hiking, horseback riding and scenic drives abound, delighting guests year after year. The Clearwater Lookout Tower is a mile away. The tower is not open, but the area is nice for scenic views. An old trapper cabin was located at the current site and was later used as a ranger station. From 1928-29, a ranger built a three-room house and by 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps was tasked with building a barn, warehouse, outhouse and garage. In winter, the cabin is well-suited for snowmobiling and cross country skiing on groomed snowmobile trails. These modes of over-snow transportation are required for winter access to the cabin. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin provides nearby access to hiking and horseback riding trails that lead to Teal Springs and the lush Tucannon River Drainage. The scenic drive along the Tucannon River Drainage to Sunset Point is also a recommended activity. In winter, snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snowshoeing trails are right out your front door.
Facilities
The cabin has 868 square feet of living space on the first floor, and another 336 square feet upstairs, and can accommodate up to 10 people. It is fully furnished with 3 queen, 1 full, and 5 twin beds, and a dining table and chairs. Propane heat and lighting are included, and the kitchen is equipped with a propane cook stove and refrigerator. The cabin does not have indoor bathroom facilities. There is an outdoor fire ring and a picnic table. An outhouse is located across the road. No water is provided. Guests need to bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking, and washing. They should also bring cooking pots and utensils, bedding or sleeping bags, dish soap, matches, a flashlight and all other basic camping items. General cleaning is expected before departure. Mop, bucket, broom, and cleaning supplies provided (water is not provided). Cleaning service is not always available between guests, please leave the cabin as you would like to find it.
Natural Features
Set on a gently rolling slope at an elevation of 5,600 feet, the cabin is nestled in a clearing dotted with young Christmas trees. The Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness is nearby, stretching across the northern Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. The mountain slopes are carpeted with bunchgrass, lodgepole pine and subalpine fir. An array of wildlife, including Rocky Mountain Elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed and mule deer, black bears, cougars and coyotes, may be spotted.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest general stores and gas stations are in Pomeroy, a 40-minute drive from the cabin.
Charges & Cancellations
For Changes & Cancellation Fees, please see Rules & Reservation Policies.
What the agency tells you
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock; please call the Pomeroy Ranger District one week prior to arrival at (509) 843-1891 for lock combination and to check on weather and road conditions. Office hours Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:30 pm. CLOSED Weekends and Holidays
Access to cabin in winter is via cross country skis, snowshoes or snowmobile 8 miles on a groomed trail and 1/2 mile on an ungroomed road. Pay close attention to winter weather conditions as they can change quickly. We will no longer authorize refunds for inaccessibility due to inclement weather conditions.
No water available; bring plenty for drinking, cooking and cleaning
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility. Cabin should be cleaned before departure. Mop, bucket and some cleaning supplies provided
No off-road vehicles around cabin; they may only be used on designated trails
One dog is allowed at this facility, no other pets are permitted.
For current news and events of Pacific Northwest Region National Forests, click here
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “An outhouse is located across the road.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…An outhouse is located across the road. No water is provided. Guests need to bring plenty of water…”
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 15:17 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:17 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
What you actually pay
“For Changes & Cancellation Fees, please see Rules & Reservation Policies.” · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:17 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA CLEARWATER BIG HOUSE | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 715 ft | 142 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Clearwater Lookout CabinUmatilla National Forest · 0.4 miTeal Spring CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 0.7 miBig Springs CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 2.4 miAlder Thicket CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 4.0 miLadybug CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 4.9 mi
Tucannon Guard StationUmatilla National Forest · 6.3 miFrom Pomeroy, Washington (35 minutes): Take 15th Street south for approximately 17 miles until the paved road ends. Continue on Forest Service Road 40 for 7 miles to Clearwater Junction (where the fire lookout is located). Turn left onto Forest Service Road 42 for 0.25 mile, and then turn right into the Clearwater Guard Station area. The rental cabin is the two-story building.
Automobile access to this site runs from approximately mid June through the end of October, depending on weather conditions. Sometimes automobile access may be earlier or later than anticipated, so when making your reservation be prepared to have an alternate travel method (snow mobile, snow shoes & sled, etc) in case the snow stays longer in the spring, or comes in earlier in the fall. We will no longer authorize refunds for inaccessibility due to inclement weather conditions. The same route is accessible during winter months by a groomed snowmobile trail (except the 0.25 mile of Forest Service Road 42 and access road into the Guard Station area are not groomed). Parking will be at Rose Spring Sno-Park, and from there, visitors ski, snowshoe or snow mobile approximately 5.5 miles to the cabin. A Washington State Sno-Park Permit is required to park at the Sno-Park.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pomeroy, WA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Clearwater Big House is in Washington’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Michael Baumgartner (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMichael BaumgartnerU.S. Representative · Washington’s 5th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Michael Baumgartner, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Big House are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Big House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Big House. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Big House (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Big House are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Big House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Big House. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Big House (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Clearwater Big House, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Big House are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Big House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Big House. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Big House (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com