French Pete Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $19–$38Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
French Pete Campground sits at an elevation of 1,800 feet in the Willamette National Forest. This popular escape from summer heat is heavily shaded by a thick canopy of conifers. There are numerous opportunities for hiking and fishing in the area. Keep reading
Recreation
The area offers excellent opportunities for fishing, hiking, boating, swimming, camping, picnicking, and scenic drives. Fishing in the McKenzie River is catch and release only for trout. The Three Sisters Wilderness Area as well as French Pete Creek and Box Canyon Trail Areas offer several miles of hiking. Additional hiking trailheads are a short drive away. Terwilliger (Cougar) Hot Springs are nearby for a nice soak. Cougar Reservoir and Hidden Lake are also in the vicinity, offering additional recreation options.
Facilities
Campsites are nicely shaded with access to both French Pete Creek and the South Fork of the McKenzie River. This 16-unit campground has toilets, water from a hand pump, fire rings, and garbage service.
Natural Features
French Pete Campground sits at the confluence of the South Fork of the McKenzie River and French Pete Creek. The area is heavily wooded with Douglas fir trees and vine maple.
Nearby Attractions
Mountain bike trails, hot springs, a boat ramp and lake accesss are within 10 miles of the campground.
What the agency tells you
No electric hookups at this facility
This facility has first-come, first-served sites
Limit one vehicle per campsite; a fee of $8 per vehicle per night will be charged for additional vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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.
No discharging firearms, possession of fireworks or use of chainsaws allowed
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from the area after eating
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Be sure to reserve a site that will accommodate your equipment. The site you reserve is your site. You man not move to another site.
Click here for more information on Willamette National Forest
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Willamette.McKenzieRiver@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 42 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campground has toilets, water from a hand pump, fire rings, and garbage service. Natural Features…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Hiking
- Night sky · 360th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
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.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“a fee of $8 per vehicle per night will be charged for additional vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $19–$38 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.
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
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 16 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| FRENCH PETE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE | 04 | tent only nonelectric | $19 | |||
| FRENCH PETE | 06 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE | 09 | tent only nonelectric | $19 | |||
| FRENCH PETE | 10 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE | 11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $19–$38 | ||
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 112 ft | 312 ftSouth Fork McKenzie River | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 99 ft | 387 ftSouth Fork McKenzie River | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 99 ft | 358 ft | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 75 ft | 243 ft | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 73 ft | 247 ft | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 252 ft | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 100 ft | 109 ft | $19–$38 |
| FRENCH PETE CAMPGROUND | 17 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 100 ft | 73 ft | $19–$38 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hard Rock CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 0.4 mi
Cougar Crossing CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 1.2 mi
Sunnyside CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 1.3 mi
Slide CreekWillamette National Forest · 2.4 mi
Red Diamond CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 3.3 mi
Indian Ridge LookoutWillamette National Forest · 3.5 miFrom Blue River, Oregon, travel four miles east on Highway 126 to Aufderheide Drive (Forest Service Road 19). Continue on Aufderheide Drive for 11 miles to French Pete Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Oakridge, OR
Typical weather
Typical May night 50°F, day 74°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
French Pete Campground is in Oregon’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Val Hoyle (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →