Horse Creek Group Campground
1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Horse Creek Group Campground is located on the banks of Horse Creek. The rushing water and tall Douglas fir trees offer a cool, shady spot to enjoy the outdoors. A picnic area offers a great spot for grilling and group gatherings. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing in Horse Creek is an enjoyable pastime. The McKenzie River National Recreation Trailhead is nearby, offering fun-filled hiking and biking opportunities. The 26-mile trail boasts wonderful scenery along the river, and is an easy hike for all ages. There are also numerous developed boat launches that provide access to the McKenzie River.
Facilities
Horse Creek accommodates up to 100 campers and 23 vehicles. The campground comes with drinking water, picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings. Visitors need to bring their own firewood.
Natural Features
The campground sits along Horse Creek among Douglas fir and Western Red Cedar. The creek flows into the McKenzie River, a 90-mile tributary that transports snowmelt from the Cascade Range to the Willamette Valley. Set along the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, gorgeous, lush mountain landscapes are found in every direction.
Nearby Attractions
Cougar Reservoir is about 10 miles southwest and boasts excellent boating opportunities.
What the agency tells you
Entry to the site is through a locked gate. The combination is provided in the reservation confirmation letter. Call the McKenzie River Ranger Station (541) 822-3381 at least 72 hours prior to arrival to confirm combination code and for updates.
The McKenzie River Ranger District office is open Monday-Saturday during summer, and Monday-Friday the rest of the year. Please call 541-822-3381 for information at least 72 hours prior to arrival for updates or other information. Office hours are 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
No electric hookups are available
Everything else this campground posts · 4
No discharging firearms, possession of fireworks or use of chainsaws.
For more information on Willamette National Forest, click here
Please, bring your own firewood that was acquired locally. 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.
Please, make sure to scroll the code after each use to ensure passer-bys do not acquire it. Also, make sure to keep the gate closed as much as possible, even if you are in camp. This will ensure greater privacy and keep wandering vehicles out.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with drinking water, picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings. Visitors need to bring their…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…23 vehicles. The campground comes with drinking water, picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Night sky · 436th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 39 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 15:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
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 · 13
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 15:46 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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| HORS | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 378 ft | 152 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
McKenzie BridgeWillamette National Forest · 1.7 mi
Paradise in OregonWillamette National Forest · 3.2 miMcKenzie River Trailhead at Paradise CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 3.4 mi
Limberlost CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 4.8 mi
Lookout Campground and Boat Launch - WillametteWillamette National Forest · 6.3 mi
MonaWillamette National Forest · 6.3 miFrom Eugene, Oregon: Take I-105 East McKenzie River to highway 126E. Go 55 miles on Hwy 126 to McKenzie Bridge. From McKenzie Bridge travel east on Highway 126 to Horse Creek Road #2638. Turn right on Horse Creek Road and travel southeast for 2 miles to Horse Creek Group Campground. The campground is the first left after the junction with King Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cascadia, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 68°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 45°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 · 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
Horse Creek Group 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 →
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 moneyVal T. HoyleU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 4th 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 Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Val T. Hoyle, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Horse Creek Group Campground 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Creek Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Horse Creek Group Campground. 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 Horse Creek Group Campground (Willamette 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 Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Horse Creek Group Campground 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Creek Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Horse Creek Group Campground. 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 Horse Creek Group Campground (Willamette 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 Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Horse Creek Group Campground, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Horse Creek Group Campground 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Creek Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Horse Creek Group Campground. 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 Horse Creek Group Campground (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com