U.S. Forest Service · Siskiyou National Forest · OR
Josephine Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 7 mi
Wildfire
West Side Rd 5565 fire · 7.2 mi away · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Crooks Creek Rd 3440 fire · 11 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Tartar Gulch Rd fire · 13 mi away · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Foothill Blvd 5651 fire · 29 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
W Fork Whiskey Creek fire · 31 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 16, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
1,270 ftElevation
447 ftWater · Josephine Creek
4.6 miNW of Cave Junction, OR
37%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 531st darkest of 770 in OR
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
A rustic setting above Josephine Creek and the Illinois River. Keep reading
Facilities
6 campsites with picnic tables, and fire pits No drinking water Vault toilet No garbage disposal - Please pack it out
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “No drinking water Vault toilet”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…with picnic tables, and fire pits No drinking water Vault toilet No garbage disposal - Please pack it…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
No
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Little Falls CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 0.6 mi
Sixmile CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 4.4 mi
River Bench CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 4.6 mi
Store Gulch CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 5.1 miSelmac Lake ParkMedford Grants Pass Field Office · 5.4 mi
Spalding Pond CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 7.3 mi
Little Falls CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 0.6 miSixmile CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 4.4 miRiver Bench CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 4.6 miStore Gulch CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 5.1 miSelmac Lake ParkMedford Grants Pass Field Office · 5.4 miSpalding Pond CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 7.3 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight48°Partly Cloudy
Saturday76°Mostly Sunny1% rain
Saturday Night45°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Sunday74°Mostly Sunny1% rain
NWS forecast for Kerby, OR
Source: National Weather Service, MFR forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
100°32°20°
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.
Measured at: CAVE JUNCTION 1 WNW, OR (USC00351448), 6 miles away and 107 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
Roadless
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 30, 2026
Who answers for this land
Josephine Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Kerby, OR, 1.8 mi NW (a census designated place). Straight line.