Imnaha Guard Station
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 30 mi
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 19 of the next 19 nights read 16:31 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Imnaha Guard Station is located in the southwest portion of Oregon's Cascade Range, at an elevation of 3,800 feet. The facility offers a remote setting and most of the amenities needed for a comfortable stay. This cabin does not feature indoor lighting so guests will need to bring lanterns or flashlights. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking and Birdwatching are popular activities among guests visiting this cabin. Bird songs from nuthatches, chickadees, and Steller's jays are common at Imnaha Guard Station. Varied thrush are around and can be identified with their distinct calls that lift from the forest floor. Occasionally the loud drumming of the dilapidated woodpecker can be heard, the largest woodpecker in North America. Sky Lakes wilderness is within a short drive from the cabin and can be accessed from Blue Canyon Trailhead and Alta Lake Trailhead. The Lower South Fork trail is also a short drive from Imnaha Cabin and has multiple trailheads to choose from.
Facilities
The Imnaha Guard House has a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, and is designed to comfortably sleep 4 occupants. The bedroom is furnished with a full-size bed, a small closet and one dresser. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs, sink, refrigerator, stove, and basic cooking utensils. The bathroom has running water, shower and flush toilet. The heater, stove and refrigerator are operated by propane, and potable water for drinking and cooking is available from the faucet. A picnic table in the backyard permits comfortable outside dining. The cabin features a lava-rock fireplace in the front room. There are no guarantees of firewood. Visitors should bring lanterns, sleeping bags, towels and matches. A very small Forest Service campground called Imnaha, is located within sight of the cabin but will remain closed for the season.
Natural Features
Imnaha Guard Station is surrounded by an old-growth forest composed of Douglas-fir, white fir, incense cedar, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and western white pine. A notably large, 300-year-old Douglas-fir, known as "The Big Tree," towers above the canopy near the Imnaha cabin. Imnaha Springs is just up a trail behind the cabin and forms separate rivulets that flow through yellow monkey flowers and moss. The large volume of water that bubbles from the springs is crystal clear and ice cold. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (541) 560-3400.
Nearby Attractions
Diamond Lake Resort, Crater Lake National Park, Lost Creek Lake, Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway, National Falls, Rogue Gorge, Natural Bridge and Mount McLoughlin are all wonderful sights to see.
What the agency tells you
Entry through the access gate and to the cabin is by combination lock. The combination will be included in your confirmation letter. LOCK OPERATIONS: Once the combination has been entered, the shank of the lock must be depressed into the body of the lock, and then released before the lock will open.
You may contact the Ranger District 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 by calling 541-560-3400.
Pets are welcome at this facility, but please keep them leashed whenever they are near the springs
Everything else this campground posts · 5
All garbage and food must be packed out
The guard station is a no-smoking facility
No tents are permitted in the fenced cabin area. 'Extra' people using the cabin are welcome to camp at one of the numbered campsites in the nearby Imnaha Campground
Click here to learn more about Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 1 of 1 campsite records, Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:31 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 16:31 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
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.
| AREA IMNAHA GUARD STATION | C1 | cabin nonelectric | 189 ft | $80 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lodgepole Guard StationRogue River National Forest · 4.2 mi
Mill Creek CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 9.3 miRiver Bridge CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 12 mi
Mazama CampgroundCrater Lake National Park · 14 mi
Mazama Village CampgroundCrater Lake National Park · 14 miFrom Butte Falls, OR, drive east on the Butte Falls - Fish Lake Highway (County Road 821). Less than a mile from town, turn left onto the Butte Fall - Prospect Highway (County Road 992) and travel north on County Road 992. Go 9 miles on County Road 992 to Forest Road 34. Turn right, go 8 miles on Forest Road 34 until its junction with Forest Road 37. Travel north / northeast on Forest Road 37 for 4.5 miles. Take Imnaha Campground turn-off and continue through campground to find the cabin. From Prospect, OR, at the Prospect Hotel turn east onto the Butte Falls - Prospect Highway (County Road 992), travel 2 or 3 miles and take a left onto Forest Road 37, which continues south to Imnaha Campground turn-off. Wheeled-vehicle access is possible only from late spring through early fall, depending on snow conditions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Prospect, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Imnaha Guard Station is in Oregon’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Cliff Bentz (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 moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd 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 Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Imnaha 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. Imnaha Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Imnaha 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 Imnaha Guard Station (Rogue River 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 Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Imnaha 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. Imnaha Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Imnaha 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 Imnaha Guard Station (Rogue River 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 Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Imnaha Guard Station, Rogue River National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Imnaha 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. Imnaha Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Imnaha 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 Imnaha Guard Station (Rogue River National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com