U.S. Forest Service · Hells Canyon National Recreation Area · OR

Lick Creek Campground

2Heads up2 fires, nearest 35 mi
Wildfire
Pollock Road fire · 35 mi away · 100 acres · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
Sheep fire · 39 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 17, 2026
ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$10From, per site
Sites
9All of them booked ahead
5,440 ftElevation
139 ftWater · Lick Creek
15.7 miSE of Joseph, OR
51%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 120th darkest of 770 in OR

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Located along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway in the national recreation area, Lick Creek Campground offers an enjoyable camping experience along Lick Creek. The area features forested terrain with a mix of trees and open spaces. Popular activities include camping, relaxing, day hikes, and exploring along the byway. Primary use season is June through September. Quiet hours are 10pm to 6am. Keep reading

Facilities

Lick Creek CG has 9 sites, each with a picnic table, fire ring and parking spaces.

Tents and rigs

Sites
9
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Creek
Fishing
Hiking
Hunting
Wildlife viewing
Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 25 km away
No change
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (25 km) · Oct 3, 2026

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.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
A night$10plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$28DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 17

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$10
Single$10
Rates for the season the campground is in now, May 28, 2026 to Oct 12, 2026.
Overnight Use: Single Site: $10/night.
Interagency Senior/Access Recreation Passes provide a 50% discount to Single Campsites ONLY.
The discount applies only to the fee for the campsite physically occupied by the pass holder, not to any additional fee or campsite(s) occupied by members of the pass holder's party. https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes Please be prepared to pay with CASH or CHECK.
Overnight campsites fees are $10/night for single family unit (tent or trailer sites).
Self-service pay station on site.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$18
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$28

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

9 sites

All 9 sites

Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 9 of the 9 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Lick Creek1standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek2standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek3standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek4standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek5standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek6standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek7standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek8standard nonelectric$10
Lick Creek9standard nonelectric$10

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Coordinate45.15765, -117.03430
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From Enterprise, Oregon travel south on Oregon State 82 to Joseph for about 6.5 miles; In Joseph turn left on Oregon State 350 for about 8 miles; Turn right on the Wallowa Loop Road (also known as the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway); Travel on this road which eventually becomes Forest Road 39 for 16 miles. The campground is on the left after the Lick Creek crossing.

Advisory: The scenic byway is usually closed by snow from late October through late May or early June and is not passable with motor vehicles.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight42°Mostly Cloudy
Saturday58°Mostly Sunny
Saturday Night36°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Sunday56°Mostly Sunny

NWS forecast for Wallowa Lake, OR

Typical weather

Typical October night 28°F, day 57°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°0°

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: MCCALL, ID (USC00105708), 49 miles away and 415 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Lick Creek1,956 acres · 3 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Lake Fork21,936 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Little Sheep5,238 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Cliff Bentz, official portrait

Lick Creek 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

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.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (25 km) · Oct 3, 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: Wallowa Lake, OR, 11.4 mi SE (a census designated place). Straight line.