McKee Bridge Community Kitchen
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 22 mi
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 27 of the next 30 nights read 16:31 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated along the rocky banks of the Applegate River, the McKee Bridge Community Kitchen is a fantastic day-use picnic shelter and registered National Historic Site. The shelter is constructed with large pine timber and features Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) masonry, including a beautiful stone fireplace. Located in southwest Oregon in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest at an elevation of 1,600 feet, this day-use area boasts nearby volcanic peaks, scenic rivers and fantastic old-growth forests. Keep reading
Recreation
The area surrounding this day-use area offers outdoor enthusiasts the opportunity to hike, fish, swim, ski and enjoy a multitude of outdoor activities throughout the year. Nearby Applegate Lake is a recreation lake located north of the spectacular Red Buttes Wilderness Area. The lake is popular for swimming, cycling, boating, canoeing, fishing and hiking the various trails. Mule Mountain Trail offers visitors a special opportunity to access the hillsides above the Applegate Valley and witness the seasonal changes in wildlife activity. It is a long distance hike winding up and around the arid ridges of the Siskiyou Mountains. In the spring time, dwarf star tulips, lilies, shooting stars, larkspurs and buttercups puncture the needle and leaf mat and adorn the grass floor.
Facilities
The McKee Bridge Community Kitchen is a covered group site. Reservation is for Community Kitchen shelter and not the covered bridge or the day-use/swimming area. You are not allowed exclusive use or prevent other members of the public from using the facility.
Natural Features
The unique character of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is composed of two distinct geological provinces; the Cascade Range and the Siskiyou Mountains. The Cascade Range is dominated by snow-capped volcanic peaks, such as 9,495 foot Mt. McLoughlin, located within the Sky Lakes Wilderness. The Siskiyou area embodies the most complex and treasured plant communities in the Pacific Northwest. World-class wild rivers, biological diversity, remarkable fisheries resources and complex watersheds define the Siskiyou. Diverse landscapes provide habitat for a wide-range of wildlife, from spotted owls and bull elk to salamanders and sandhill cranes.
Nearby Attractions
The United States Congress designated the Red Buttes Wilderness in 1984 and it now includes a total of 19,940 acres. Management of the Red Buttes Wilderness, located on the California/Oregon border, is shared by the Klamath National Forest and the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest. Several, nearby lakes are close to McKee. Acorn Woman Peak looks south to Acorn Woman Lakes, a semi-primitive developed recreation area that accepts camping reservations from May through October. Applegate lake is a large reservoir with boat ramps, campgrounds, viewpoints and a developed recreation area named Hart tish. Both Acorn Woman Lakes and Applegate Lake are open for fishing year-round.
What the agency tells you
This is a day-use area only; no overnight camping
Store food properly so not to attract wildlife
Click here for more information about Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
Your reservation is for the kitchen/pavilion area ONLY. You are not allowed to use the adjacent covered bridge or restrict access to the day use/swimming area with this reservation. Users wanting to use the McKee covered bridge should contact Jackson County for further information.
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Fishing
- Historic site
- Observation Site
- Picnicking
- Snorkeling
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
Something open on 27 of the next 27 bookable nightsread 16:31 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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.
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 records · the site map
All 1 records
| AREA MCKEE BRIDGE COMMUNITY KITCHEN | G01 | day use | 77 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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
Flumet Flat Group CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 1.0 mi
Jackson Campground on the Applegate RiverRogue River National Forest · 1.1 mi
Beaver Sulphur Group CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 2.2 mi
Acorn Woman LakesRogue River National Forest · 2.7 mi
Acorn Woman Peak LookoutRogue River National Forest · 5.0 mi
HART-TISH PARK at APPLEGATE LAKE5.4 miFrom Jacksonville, OR, travel 8 miles south on Highway 238 to the community of Ruch, OR. From Ruch, OR, turn left on to Upper Applegate Road (County Road 859). Continue south approximately 8 miles to McKee Bridge Day Use Area, entrance is on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ruch, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December 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 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
McKee Bridge Community Kitchen 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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject McKee Bridge Community Kitchen has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. McKee Bridge Community Kitchen, Oregon carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about McKee Bridge Community Kitchen (Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject McKee Bridge Community Kitchen has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. McKee Bridge Community Kitchen, Oregon carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about McKee Bridge Community Kitchen (Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject McKee Bridge Community Kitchen has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. McKee Bridge Community Kitchen, Oregon carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about McKee Bridge Community Kitchen (Oregon) via campanac.com