Gotchen Guard Station
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 23 of the next 30 nights read 14:23 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Built in 1909, the Gotchen Creek Guard Station is the oldest historic structure on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and the only building constructed during the administration of Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and an early conservation leader. Within the state of Washington, only a few ranger stations of this age survive. It is a small two-room cabin nestled in a grove of aspen trees at the edge of a meadow, just a few miles from the Mt. Adams Wilderness. The cabin served as the administrative headquarters for the Mt. Adams District from 1909 until 1916. Keep reading
The ranger station was built along the primary “sheep driveway” entering the Forest from the east, which tens of thousands of sheep passed through. It was formally listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Gotchen Creek Guard Station ranked among those historic sites “recognized for their unique contributions to Washington’s heritage.” The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.
Recreation
Many recreational opportunities are within close proximity of the Guard Station, including hiking, biking, horseback riding, hunting, skiing, and snowshoeing. The cabin is at the base of Mt. Adams, and near Mt. Adams Wilderness. Gotchen Creek Trail #40 and Snipes Mountain Trail #11 are both within close proximity of the cabin.
Facilities
The cabin sleeps a maximum of 6 people in two areas. There is one double bunk bed in the main room of the cabin, and there is a second double bunk bed in a seperate bunkhouse near the cabin. The cabin has propane heat, propane stove, and a propane refrigerator. Pots, pans, dishes, and cooking utensils are provided. A vault toilet is located about 20 yards from the cabin. There are 2 battery operated lanterns, but it is suggested you bring additional non-flammable light sources, such as a headlamp. There is no potable water at the cabin, and guests are strongly encouraged to bring plenty for drinking, cooking, and washing. Snow can be melted during the winter; however, the water must be treated or boiled before drinking. Although the cabin has several amenities, guests need to provide their own sleeping bags, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit, toilet paper, and garbage bags. Please pack out what you pack in. Access in winter months is dependent on snow levels. Access to Gotchen may require ski's, snowmobile or snowshoes.
Natural Features
The guard station is located near the base of Mt. Adams, which at 12,276 feet is the second highest peak in Washington. It is a few miles away from the Mt. Adams Wilderness area, a blend of dry east-side and moist west-side ecosystems, allowing diverse types of vegetation and wildlife to flourish. Multiple trails provide access to spectacular views of Mt. Adams, including its glaciers, mountain streams, meadows, open alpine forests and lava flows. Forest Road 8225 served as a stock driveway for many years and was the main entry into the National Forest from the east. The 1910 Special Fire Report for the Columbia National Forest stated that more than half of the bands of sheep that used the Forest passed by the Gotchen Creek Ranger station. The area was burned over in the Cascade Fire of 2012. Fire scarred trees and post fire regrowth are part of the adjacent landscape.
Nearby Attractions
The guard station is located near Mt. Adams and the Mt. Adams Wilderness.
What the agency tells you
No potable water at this site.
No animals are allowed at the cabin. Thank you.
The Gotchen Guard Station sleeps up to 6 people and requires that renters bring bedding, potable water and a non-flammable light source. The cabin has sleeping in the living room for up to 4 in a "full" or double size bunkbed; and the same in a separate building. Although the beds can sleep 8, a maximum of 6 people is allowed in this small historic cabin. Propane heat, cooking stove and refrigerator are provided as well as toilet paper for the vault toilet.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
During winter months access to cabin is over snow. Guests will not be able to drive to cabin after snow has fallen. In the event of a heavy snowfall, guests may not be able to access nearby Pineside Sno-Park or could get stranded. The Forest Service does not plow the road to the Sno-Park, and does not plow the road to the Guard Station. Those with existing reervations are advised to check weather conditions close to their reservation date and plan accordingly; refund requests will be honored if the Sno-Park is inaccessible.
Camping is prohibited at the guard station, as are open fires.
Pack out all food and garbage and clean the facility before you leave.
Doors and windows should be locked and all personal items removed upon departure.
The guard station is a non-smoking facility.
Please contact the Ranger District at (509) 395-3400 prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms that may affect the quality of your visit.
Entry to the cabin is by a key stored in a lock box; the combination to the lock box is given in your confirmation letter
During Summer Months of July and August, the living room propane heater is disabled.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…light sources, such as a headlamp. There is no potable water at the cabin, and guests are strongly encouraged to…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Meadow
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 3.2 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 14:23 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 14:23 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 14:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| (same) | Gotchen Guard Station | cabin nonelectric | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Morrison Creek CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 12 miTrout Lake Creek CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 16 mi
Atkisson Group camp17 mi
Peterson Prairie CabinGifford Pinchot National Forest · 19 mi
Peterson Prairie CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 19 miSUMMER ACCESS
Automobile Access to the cabin is over snow in the winter. Guests will not be able to drive to the cabin after snow has fallen typically in November or December through April. The cabin is located about 20 minutes outside of Trout Lake, WA when road is not impassable by snow.
From Trout Lake head towards Pineside Sno-Park on Mt. Adams Recreation Highway. Once you get to Pineside Sno-Park take Forest Road 8225 to the junction with Forest Road 8225060. Turn right and the cabin is 150 yards on the left.
WINTER SNOWMOBILE OR SKI IN:
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Glenwood, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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 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
Gotchen Guard Station is in Washington’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Dan Newhouse (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 moneyDan NewhouseU.S. Representative · Washington’s 4th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
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 Gotchen Guard Station, Washington
Dear Dan Newhouse, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Gotchen Guard Station, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Gotchen Guard Station 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. Gotchen Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Gotchen Guard Station. 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 Gotchen Guard Station (Washington) 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 Gotchen Guard Station, Washington
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Gotchen Guard Station, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Gotchen Guard Station 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. Gotchen Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Gotchen Guard Station. 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 Gotchen Guard Station (Washington) 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 Gotchen Guard Station, Washington
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Gotchen Guard Station, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Gotchen Guard Station 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. Gotchen Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Gotchen Guard Station. 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 Gotchen Guard Station (Washington) via campanac.com