Elkhorn Valley Recreation Site
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 30 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 23All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Limited picnic areas at Elkhorn Valley Recreation Site are open for day use, but camping remains closed. Canyon Creek Recreation Site is open for day use. Nearby Attractions: Canyon Creek Recreation Site is located downstream from Elkhorn Valley and is open for day use including swimming, fishing, and picnicking. Fishermen's Bend Recreation Site, along Hwy 22 closer to Mill City, is open to day use where you can picnic, hold events and gatherings, relax, cool off, fish and put in a non-motorized boat. Along Forest Road 2209 in the Willamette National Forest the sites Three Pools, Shady Cove, Opal Creek Wilderness, and Jawbone Flats are closed until further notice. Recreation - Facilities Camping at Elkhorn Valley Recreation Site remains closed due to heavy wildfire damage, but day use amenities such as picnic sites, vault toilets, and trash services are available in the first loop. Keep reading
Natural Features
During your stay, view the deep emerald pools, surrounding cliffs, waterfalls and old-growth forest. Enjoy some of the best swimming in Oregon by cooling off in the refreshing Little North Santiam River on a hot summer day.
Nearby Attractions
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
Campground is CLOSED until further notice to all access due!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 23 · 6 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 49 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…day use amenities such as picnic sites, vault toilets, and trash services are available in the first…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Night sky · 743rd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
“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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 sites
All 23 sites
| A Loop | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 002 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 003 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 004 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 005 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 006 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 007 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 008 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes |
| A Loop | 009 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes |
| B Loop | 010 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | yes |
| B Loop | 011 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| B Loop | 012 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | |
| B Loop | 013 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| B Loop | 014 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| B Loop | 015 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| B Loop | 016 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| B Loop | 017 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | |
| C Loop | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | |
| C Loop | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 49 ft | |
| C Loop | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | |
| C Loop | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 23 ft | |
| C Loop | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | |
| C Loop | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Fishermens BendNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 3.9 miShady CoveWillamette National Forest · 8.3 mi
Aquila Vista Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 13 mi
Yellowbottom Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 15 miSouthshore Campground15 mi
Southshore at Detroit Lake - Willamette (OR)15 miFrom Salem: Take State Hwy 22 East for 24 approximately miles. Turn left on North Fork County Road. Elkhorn Valley is 8.5 miles up North Fork County Road. Traffic is high during the summer season. Please drive carefully. Be aware of slippery roads during wet and icy weather.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gates, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 36°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Elkhorn Valley Recreation Site 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 →