Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin
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 28 of the next 30 nights read 15:15 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Deer Creek Guard Station is located approximately 31 miles from the town of John Day, in central Oregon. It is in a beautiful, quiet location, off the beaten path. From sunup to sundown, the cabin affords opportunities for adventure in exploring, viewing wildlife, or just relaxing and enjoying the wonders of nature all around. The cabin is larger than some, is furnished and offers many comforts. It can be accessed by vehicle. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Big game hunting is popular in the area, as well as fishing on Deer Creek and South Fork John Day River. Anglers might watch for,Mid-Columbia River Steelhead and redband trout, among others in the area. Guests can also enjoy hiking and horseback riding on a variety of trails in the area.
Facilities
The rustic cabin has a living room/sleeping area, a small bedroom and a kitchen. The living/sleeping area is equipped with a propane fireplace for heat, a couch, chair and end tables. A Murphy bed is located in the living/sleeping area for additional sleeping space and can be put away during the day. In the dining area is a full futon bed and table with four chairs. In a small room just off the dining area is a log bunk bed that can sleep two comfortably. The cabin can accommodate up to six people. The kitchen is equipped with a propane cook stove and propane refrigerator, ample counter space, pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups and flatware. The entire cabin is lit with propane lights. An accessible vault toilet is located near the guard station. A picnic table and campfire ring are situated next to the perennial creek that runs through the facility grounds. Any water taken from an outdoor source should be boiled or treated prior to consumption. Stream water gets scarce during mid-August. Firewood can be collected from the surrounding area. Guests should bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as well as bedding (linens, blankets, pillows and/or sleeping bags), flashlights or a lantern for emergencies, a first aid kit, towels, garbage bags and dish soap. Guests will need to clean the facility and carry out all trash prior to leaving. No pets allowed in the Guard Station Natural Features The three-room cabin was built in 1956 and was originally used as a work station by fireguards. Before satellite surveillance systems, fireguards were the smoke chasers who rushed to sites of reported smoke and tried to extinguish the flames. Douglas fir and ponderosa pine trees dot the broad, flat expanse surrounding the cabin, which sits at an elevation of 5,100 feet. Deer Creek runs through the area nearby. In the spring and summer, guests enjoy abundant wildflowers and wildlife in the area, including wild horses, elk, black bears, deer and wild turkeys and other species of birds. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 575-3000.
What the agency tells you
Water is not available at the cabin; guests should be prepared to treat or boil water taken from an outdoor source
Learn more about the The Malheaur National Forest
The cabin remains locked; guests must use a combination lock code contained in the reservation confirmation letter
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Weather conditions and snow may delay opening of the access road to the cabin beyond the scheduled date, as well as force early closures; contact the Blue Mountain Ranger District prior to arrival to inquire about current restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather, storms or anything that may affect the quality of a visit
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.
Deer Creek Guard Station is in a remote forest location with no mobile phone coverage.
No Pets
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…lit with propane lights. An accessible vault toilet is located near the guard station. A picnic table…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…from the surrounding area. Guests should bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wild Horse Viewing
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 15:15 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:15 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
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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 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 DEER CREEK GUARD STATION CABIN | 01 | cabin nonelectric | yes | 138 ft | $60 |
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
Murderers Creek Guard StationMalheur National Forest · 5.6 miOregon Mine CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 6.2 miBilly Fields CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 11 miFrazier CampgroundOchoco National Forest · 13 mi
Fall Mountain Lookout CabinMalheur National Forest · 16 miStarr CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 16 miFrom John Day, OR., travel south on Highway 395 approximately 17 miles to County Road 63 (Izee Highway). Turn right and take County Road 63 to the junction of Forest Service Road 24. Turn right and take Forest Road 24 approximately 10 miles. Turn left onto Forest Service Road 514. Travel about 1/4 mile staying to your right until you reach the locked gate that allows entry to the facility grounds.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Seneca, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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 · 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
Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin 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 →
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 moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd 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
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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin 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. Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin. 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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin (Malheur National Forest, Oregon) 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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin 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. Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin. 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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin (Malheur National Forest, Oregon) 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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin 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. Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin. 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 Deer Creek Guard Station Cabin (Malheur National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com