U.S. Forest Service · Colville National Forest · WA
Deer Creek Forest Camp
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 17 mi
Wildfire
Hill Loop fire · 17 mi away · 127 acres · 100% contained · updated Oct 9, 2026
Wildfire
Mingo Meadow fire · 28 mi away · 3 acres · updated Oct 16, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Season
- May 17 – October 28Open May 17 through October 28
Photos · USDA Forest Service
4,610 ftElevation
346 ftWater · an unnamed pond
22.8 miNW of Kettle Falls, WA
0%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 60th darkest of 400 in WA
Open May 17 through October 28Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Nearby trails are Taylor Ridge Trail #74 and Kettle Crest North Trail #13 . This high elevation fee campground was burned over during the Stickpin fire of 2015. The site has been reconstructed and has numerous young trees including Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine and aspen. Understory grass, shrubs, and wildflowers are well established. The campground includes a mix of back-in and pull-through campsites and will also offer horse corrals as of late June, 2024. Keep reading
The campground is located on the designated route of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, is across the street from the northern trailhead of the Kettle Crest National Recreation Trail (hike, horse, and mountain bike friendly) and provides close access to the Taylor Ridge Trail (popular mountain bike trail). Each site includes a table, fire ring, and a level parking spur (50-60 feet long). There is one outhouse and no drinking water. There is a water trough available across the road (paved county highway) for horses.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…feet long). There is one outhouse and no drinking water. There is a water trough available across the road…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 8.3 km away
- Patchy color
Source: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.3 km) · Oct 10, 2026
Phone before you drive
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.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
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.
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicleSee the note
“Camping: $5/single site Extra Vehicle: $2/per night” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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 · 5
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
What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Aug 24, 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 hereOld Stage Horse CampColville National Forest · 11 miLambert Creek Horse CampColville National Forest · 11 mi
Davis Lake CampgroundColville National Forest · 12 miPierre Lake CampgroundColville National Forest · 12 miWapaloosie Horse CampgroundColville National Forest · 14 miJungle Hill Horse CampgroundColville National Forest · 16 mi
Davis Lake CampgroundColville National Forest · 12 miPierre Lake CampgroundColville National Forest · 12 miWapaloosie Horse CampgroundColville National Forest · 14 miJungle Hill Horse CampgroundColville National Forest · 16 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight41°Mostly Cloudy3% rain
Saturday52°Mostly Sunny3% rain
Saturday Night31°Partly Cloudy
Sunday48°Mostly Sunny
NWS forecast for Orient, WA
Source: National Weather Service, OTX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Deer Creek Forest Camp 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now. Its own recreation database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
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
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 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
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.3 km) · Oct 10, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported patchy color · Oct 10, 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: Orient, WA, 8.3 mi W (a census designated place). Straight line.