Ludlum House
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 24 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 18 of the next 18 nights read 16:45 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
The Ludlum House is situated at the base of a mixed-conifer forest at the confluence of Wheeler Creek and the Winchuck River in southwestern Oregon, offering guests a unique setting for recreation and relaxation. The house was rebuilt in 1999 as a near-replica of the original two-story Ludlum family vacation house. Mr. Ludlum, an oil-company executive, constructed the house in 1939, then sold the property to the Forest Service following World War II. The accessible home offers some of the amenities needed for a comfortable lodging experience, although guests will need to bring several of their own supplies to ensure a safe and enjoyable stay. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, wildlife viewing and fishing top the list of recreational opportunities in the area surrounding the Ludlum House. Just steps away from the banks of the Winchuck River, the cabin provides fantastic fishing opportunities for Coho salmon, Chinook salmon, cutthroat trout and steelhead trout. The river is closed to fishing above the Wheeler Creek confluence to provide a refuge for wild fish, but anglers will some excellent steelhead waters below this point, including several miles on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Standard winter steelhead tactics such as drift fishing, floating jigs, or swinging flies work well on this gravel and cobble-bottomed river. Flies such as spruce flies or bucktail streamers work well for sea-run cutthroat. The Oregon Redwoods Trail provides a unique accessible hiking opportunity through a grove of majestic old-growth redwood trees. Guests will have the opportunity to learn about old-growth tree ecology, fire history, wildlife, and botany in the area along Peavine Ridge in the Winchuck River drainage. Redwood trees in this area represent the only coastal redwoods found in the Pacific Northwest Region, located at the limit of their northern range. The trail is an out/back design with a short loop at the far end, where a picnic stop is provided. A short wooden deck provides access to the inside of a hollowed redwood tree.
Facilities
Ludlum House is two stories and features one room on a lower floor, and a three-quarter dividing wall upstairs. The first floor, porch and surrounding grounds are all accessible. Picnic tables and a campfire ring are located near the cabin, as well as an accessible vault toilet. While the house and grounds can accommodate up to 60 guests maximum, there are no beds. The house is minimally furnished with a table and chairs, a sink and food preparation counter and a wood stove. There is no firewood available at this site, visitors must bring their own. Guests must also provide their own sleeping bags, sleeping pads, a light source (battery powered lights are preferred), towels, dish soap, matches, cooking gear, first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Water is available on site from a hand pump. Solar lighting is available, though it is recommended that guests bring an additional light source (battery operated lights). The use of candles is prohibited. Tent space and room for trailer parking is available near the cabin.
Natural Features
The Ludlum House is somewhat secluded and surrounded by a towering old-growth forest, with an expanse of lawn stretching out before it. Within an 1.5 hour drive from the house, guests have access to the rugged southern Oregon and northern California coasts and further south, the Redwood National Park . The nearby Winchuck River flows into the Pacific Ocean about 0.5 miles north of the Oregon and California border and approximately 5 miles south of Brookings, Oregon. Five major tributaries, Wheeler Creek, East Fork, Fourth of July Creek, Bear Creek and South Fork, make up the Winchuck River system. Mt. Emily, at 2,926 feet, is the highest point in the basin. Diverse landscapes provide habitat for a wide-range of wildlife, including black-tailed deer and an occasional black bear, to squirrels and salmon. Sensitive wildlife species such as Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet are present in the watershed as well. These species, along with many others, depend on the surrounding undeveloped wilderness, undisturbed wetlands, clean streams, and diverse forests to live.
Nearby Attractions
Next to the rental, you can hike the Chimney Camp Trail # 1279 is a beautiful trail about 2.3 miles length, one way, of easy to moderate hiking on old road. Special precaution most be taken when fording Wheeler Creek. This trail it is not fully accessible for people with disabilities. Parking area available at the Trail Head.
What the agency tells you
This beautiful facility is open year around for reservations. Maximum occupancy for the house is 30; 60 total for the house and surrounding grounds. No exceptions. The reservation fee includes a maximum of 10 people. For groups over 10, there is an aditional charge of $5 per person per day that will be collected at the district office or can be deposited in the feed tube at the Ludlum Campground site.
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock. The combination will be included in your confirmation letter. Please call the Gold Beach Ranger District office at (541)247-3600 four days prior to your arrival to confirm your combination. The office is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closed on weekends and holidays.
Please contact the Ranger District at (541)247-3600 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Pets are welcome at this facility but must be leashed
All garbage and food must be packed out
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
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
- 1
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records, DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:45 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:45 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 16:45 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 LUDLUM HOUSE | CO1 | cabin nonelectric | yes | 218 ftEast Fork Winchuck River | $125 |
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
Miller Bar Camping and Day Use AreaSiskiyou National Forest · 7.8 mi
Nook Bar Camping and Day Use AreaSiskiyou National Forest · 7.9 miNorth Fork CampgroundSmith River National Recreation Area · 8.6 miSouth Fork Camping and Day Use AreaSiskiyou National Forest · 10 mi
Quail Prairie LookoutSiskiyou National Forest · 14 miFrom Portland OR, follow 1-5S to US 199S to Brookings. From Brookings, travel south on U.S. Highway 101 for 5 miles to the junction of Winchuck River Road (County Road 896). Proceed up Winchuck River Road for about 7 miles to Forest Service Road 1107. Follow Forest Service Road 1107 approximately 2 miles to the junction with Forest Service Road 1108. Follow Forest Service Road 1108 for about 2 miles to the Ludlum Recreation Area. Turn right into the Ludlum Campground and travel the road within the campground to the house.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Harbor, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 42°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
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
Ludlum House 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 Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon
Dear Val T. Hoyle, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ludlum House 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. Ludlum House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ludlum House. 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 Ludlum House (Siskiyou 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 Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ludlum House 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. Ludlum House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ludlum House. 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 Ludlum House (Siskiyou 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 Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Ludlum House, Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ludlum House 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. Ludlum House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ludlum House. 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 Ludlum House (Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com