Fishermens Bend
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 38 mi
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $16–$28Across the site types the agency prices
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fishermen's Bend Recreation Site has limited day use open. No camping or dump station is available. $5 passenger vehicle (up to 9), $10 non-commercial vans (10-19 passengers), $20 non-commercial bus (over 19 passengers), $30 Northwest Oregon District Annual Day Pass for passengers vehicles only, America the Beautiful Interagency Passes and Golden passes are also acceptable for day-use fees Cottonwoods Shelter rental $110 per day, does not include vehicle day-use fees Recreation Day use only until further notice. Expanded opened area includes River Loop only. Keep reading
Group picnic shelter, Cottonwoods, is reservable 7 first come-first serve individual picnic sites some hiking trails around River Loop and to the fishing overlook boat launch river access Facilities porta potties, picnic sites with picnic table, parking, and barbecue grill, hiking trails, boat ramp, camp host, fishing overlook Natural Features - Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (503) 375-5646.
Nearby Attractions
North Santiam State Park is next door, with more great water and hiking opportunities. Scenic John Neal Memorial County Park is less than 15 minutes away. Silver Falls State Park is 45 minutes from Fishermen's Bend, with 10 majestic waterfalls, ranging from the grand 177' South Falls, to the delicate 27' Drake Falls.
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
Day-use only, no camping. All vehicles entering the site must pay a day-use fee including those vehicles associated with the shelter reservation.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets
- “…boat launch river access Facilities porta potties, picnic sites with picnic table, parking, and…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Night sky · 758th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 4
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 65 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 18
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $16–$28 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
65 records · the site map
All 65 records
| Camp Loop | C02 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 1,035 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C03 | day use | 32 ft | yes | 1,004 ft | |
| Camp Loop | C04 | day use | 21 ft | yes | 1,001 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C05 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 902 ft | |
| Camp Loop | C06 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 909 ft | |
| Camp Loop | C07-A | day use | 30 ft | yes | 823 ft | |
| Camp Loop | C07-B | day use | 34 ft | yes | 794 ft | |
| Camp Loop | C08 | day use | 24 ft | yes | 868 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C09 | day use | 32 ft | yes | 750 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C10 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 814 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C11 | day use | 40 ft | yes | 686 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C12 | day use | 12 ft | yes | 782 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C13-A | day use | 40 ft | yes | 692 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C13-B | day use | 40 ft | yes | 663 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C14 | day use | 21 ft | yes | 784 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C15-A | day use | 36 ft | yes | 563 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C15-B | day use | 34 ft | yes | 428 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C16 | day use | 36 ft | yes | 776 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C17 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 404 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C18 | day use | 25 ft | yes | 709 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C19 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 408 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C20 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 642 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C21 | day use | 36 ft | yes | 406 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C22 | day use | 28 ft | yes | 535 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C23 | day use | 32 ft | yes | 407 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C24 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 502 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C25 | day use | 36 ft | yes | 436 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C26 | day use | 33 ft | yes | 493 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C27 | day use | 36 ft | yes | 485 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C28 | day use | 25 ft | yes | 515 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C29 | day use | 36 ft | yes | 566 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C30 | day use | 29 ft | yes | 504 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C31 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 683 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C32 | day use | 25 ft | yes | 549 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C33 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 788 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C34 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 607 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C35 | day use | 34 ft | yes | 894 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C36 | day use | 32 ft | yes | 735 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C37 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 968 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C38 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 836 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | C40 | day use | 35 ft | yes | 888 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Camp Loop | G03-Salmon | day use | 38 ft | yes | 974 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G01-Steelhead | day use | 38 ft | yes | 437 ft | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G02-Trout | day use | 38 ft | yes | 675 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G04-Firs | day use | 20 ft | yes | 321 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G05-Cedars | day use | 20 ft | yes | 197 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G07-Osprey | day use | 20 ft | yes | 647 ft | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | G08-King Fisher | day use | 20 ft | yes | 588 ft | |
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | Overnight G04 – Firs | day use | 20 ft | yes | ||
| Fishermen's Bend Group Sites | Overnight G05 – Cedars | day use | 20 ft | yes | ||
| River Loop | G06-Cottonwoods | day use | 15 ft | yes | 334 ftNorth Santiam River | $110 |
| River Loop | R01 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 278 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R02 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 249 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R03 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 132 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R04 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 82 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R05 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 69 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R06 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 141 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R07 | day use | yes | 116 ftNorth Santiam River | ||
| River Loop | R08 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 122 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R09 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 136 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R10 | day use | yes | 52 ftNorth Santiam River | ||
| River Loop | R11 | day use | yes | 37 ftNorth Santiam River | ||
| River Loop | R12 | day use | yes | 53 ftNorth Santiam River | ||
| River Loop | R13 | day use | 20 ft | yes | 76 ftNorth Santiam River | |
| River Loop | R14 | day use | yes | 122 ftNorth Santiam River |
The agency files 65 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.
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.
25 of 65 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Elkhorn Valley Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 3.9 miShady CoveWillamette National Forest · 12 mi
Yellowbottom Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 14 miOld Miner's Meadow Group Use Area14 mi
Aquila Vista Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 16 miSouthshore Campground17 miFishermen's Bend is located 29 miles east of Salem on Hwy 22, and 1.5 miles west of Mill City.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mill City, 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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Fishermens Bend 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 →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyJanelle S. BynumU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 5th 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 Fishermens Bend has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Janelle S. Bynum, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 5th district. Fishermens Bend, Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon carries 65 records on the Bureau of Land Management’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? 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 Fishermens Bend (Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Fishermens Bend has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. Fishermens Bend, Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon carries 65 records on the Bureau of Land Management’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? 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 Fishermens Bend (Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Fishermens Bend has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. Fishermens Bend, Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon carries 65 records on the Bureau of Land Management’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? 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 Fishermens Bend (Nw Oregon Cascades Field Office, Oregon) via campanac.com