North Fork John Day Campground (OR)
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground sits along the Wild and Scenic North Fork John Day River at the junction of the Blue Mountain and Elkhorn Scenic Byways. It features 20 campsites, 3 accessible toilet facilities, and stock handling facilities. There is no potable water or garbage service, so please pack your garbage home. This campground serves as the eastern access point to the North Fork John Day Wilderness via North Fork John Day River Trail #3022. The area offers hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, berry and mushroom picking, sight-seeing, and photography opportunities. In spring and fall you can see the salmon spawning. Special state fishing regulations apply. If you like to drive, you can pick up the Ukiah-Granite Roadside Geology auto tour brochure from the camp host or the Ranger District. Keep reading
Recreation
This campground serves as the eastern portal into the North Fork John Day Wilderness and offers hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, sight-seeing, and photography. Berries and mushrooms can be found in season. If you like to drive, you can pick up the Ukiah-Granite Roadside Geology auto tour brochure from the camp host or the Ranger District office. if you are interested in history, there are numerous remnants of mining left from the turn of the century, Remember, historic objects, even if they look like trash, are protected by law and may not be removed.
Facilities
This campground features 14 tent/rv campsites, 5 tent only campsites, 1 group campsite, 3 accessible vault toilets, and stock handling/holding facilities (stock is only permitted in the north half of the campground from sites 10-16). There is no potable water or garbage service, so please pack your garbage home.
Natural Features
The campground is set amidst a lodgepole pine forest, with over half of the sites in the shade. The perennial North Fork John Day River runs adjacent to the campground where you can see spawning steelhead and chinook salmon in spring and fall. In the surrounding forests live coyotes, deer, elk, wolves, bear, and cougar, plus a myriad of small animal species.
Nearby Attractions
The historic mining town of Granite is 9 miles south. State of Oregon Parks has a restored dredge that can be toured in the town of Sumpter, 22 miles south. Olive Lake is 21 miles south and west of the campground, and offers fishing , crawfishing, swimming, motorized boating (no wake allowed) and nearby trails for hiking/horseback riding (horses are not allowed in the campground). The lake-turned-reservior was constructed as part of a hydroelectric system to support gold mining activities in the northern Blue Mountain Region in the early 1900's. Historically, water from the lake flowed through a wooden pipeline for 9 miles to the Fremont Powerhouse, where it was used to produce electricity for mines and towns. The Powerhouse is approximately 14 miles south and west of the NFJD Campground on the same road that accesses Olive Lake.
What the agency tells you
- Dogs must be on a leash at all times. - While recreational stock is accommodated at this campground, stock must stay in the northern part of the campground from sites 10-16. - No discharging firearms, including bow/arrows, or possession of fireworks allowed. - Check-out time is 12:00pm. Check-in time is 2:00pm. - Some campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. - Be bear aware; keep all food out of reach or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from the area after eating. - 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 forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information. - Camping or otherwise occupying a single location (including leaving camping equipment and/or related supplies) for a period longer than 14 consecutive calendar days is prohibited. ‘Location’ means the occupied area, the occupied campsite, and the National Forest System lands in the immediate vicinity thereof. - Additional vehicles will require an additional fee paid on site. - Trash service is not available at this site. Please pack home your trash.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 5 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…1 group campsite, 3 accessible vault toilets, and stock handling/holding facilities (stock is…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and stock handling facilities. There is no potable water or garbage service, so please pack your garbage…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Auto Touring
- Backpacking
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Mushroom Picking
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Wilderness access
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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.
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
The sites
20 sites
All 20 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. 20 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| North Fork John Day | 1 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 10 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 11 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 12 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 13 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 14 | group standard nonelectric | $25 | |
| North Fork John Day | 15 | tent only nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 16 | tent only nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 1A | tent only nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 1B | tent only nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 2 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 3 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 4 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 5 | standard nonelectric | yes | $8 |
| North Fork John Day | 6 | standard nonelectric | yes | $8 |
| North Fork John Day | 7 | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | 8 | standard nonelectric | yes | $8 |
| North Fork John Day | 9 | standard nonelectric | yes | $8 |
| North Fork John Day | 9A | standard nonelectric | $8 | |
| North Fork John Day | AB | tent only nonelectric | $8 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Peavy CabinWhitman National Forest · 6.8 mi
Grande Ronde Lake CampgroundWhitman National Forest · 8.9 mi
Anthony LakeWhitman National Forest · 9.0 mi
Mud Lake CampgroundWhitman National Forest · 9.1 mi
Anthony Lake Guard StationWhitman National Forest · 9.1 mi
Caretakers CabinUmatilla National Forest · 9.4 miFrom Ukiah, OR head southeast on Forest Service Road 52 approximately 40 miles to the North Fork John Day Campground and trailhead. Parking for the trailhead is in the north end of the campground.
Besides the 20-site campground, there is a large trailhead parking area, toilet, unloading ramp, and facilities for stock animals (corrals, mangers, hitching posts). This site is directly adjacent to the Wild & Scenic North Fork John Day River and the Blue Mountain National Scenic Byway.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Granite, OR
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
North Fork John Day Campground (OR) 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 →