Kalama Horse Camp
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 21 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $23From, per site
- Sites
- 26All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Kalama Horse Camp is located just outside the west boundary of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. 27 sites accomodate primarily equestrian users, with nearby access to trails for horseback riding, hiking and biking. Keep reading
Recreation
Interpretive Sites Hiking, biking and horseback riding trails Facilities Picnic Shelter Hitching Posts and Mounting Blocks Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Charges & Cancellations Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. Group Sites Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): A visitor who cancels a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Check in: 2 pm, Check out: 12 pm (noon)
Although all sites accomodate both equestrian and non-equestrian users, only visitors with stock animals are permitted in reservable sites. Visitors without stock animals are permitted only in walk-up sites, which are first-come first-serve. Please use caution around horses in the campground--leash pets and avoid making loud noises or sudden movements. In the non-peak season, the campground is entirely first-come first-serve and operated by the US Forest Service. During peak season, the campground is operated by concessionaire.
Extra vehicle fee of $8.00/night of stay.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26 · 16 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 25 of 26 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 27 of 27 campsite records
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle Fee $8.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $23 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.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 records
All 27 records
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 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 1 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 10 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 2 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 3 - HOST | host pad | $23 |
| A | 4 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 5 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 6 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 7 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 8 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| A | 9 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 11 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 12 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 13 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 14 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 15 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 16 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 17 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 18 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 19 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 20 | standard nonelectric | |
| B | 21 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 22 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 23 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 24 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 25 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 26 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
| B | 27 | equestrian nonelectric | $23 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lower Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 21 mi
Sunset Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 23 mi
Paradise Creek campgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 23 mi
Lewis River HC (WA) Gifford Pinchot NFGifford Pinchot National Forest · 23 mi
Govt Mineral Springs Guard StaGifford Pinchot National Forest · 24 mi
Iron Creek CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 26 miFrom Portland, OR take I-5 north to Woodland, WA. Take Exit 21 for WA-503 E toward Woodland/Cougar. Follow WA-503 East; turn left onto Forest Road 81, following signs for Kalama Recreation Area. Travel 8 miles north; turn right and continue following signs for Forest Road 81. Campground is on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cougar, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Kalama Horse Camp is in Washington’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: C. See every public-lands vote →