Olallie Lake Guard Station Cabin
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 16 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Olallie Lake Guard Station Cabin gives campers an old-fashioned cabin experience with its well-preserved features, including a massive rock chimney, interior wood and hand-wrought iron work. It provides access to a number of outdoor recreation opportunities as well as its namesake lake. The cabin is at nearly 5,000 feet so the season can be delayed by late snows which restricts cabin access. Keep reading
Recreation
The Olallie Lake Guard Station Cabin is located in the heart of the Olallie Lake Scenic Area which has several lakes and miles of trails including the Pacific Crest Trail located adjacent to the cabin. Olallie Lake (240 arces in size) has non-motorized boating and excellent fishing. Rental row boats are available at the nearby Olallie Resort. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout. Swimming is allowed in all lakes except Olallie Lake. Some of the trails and most of the graveled roads are open for mountain biking.
Facilities
The four-room guard station has a kitchen, living room with two futon couches, a bunk bedroom and a loft with a queen bed. The cabin sleeps up to eight people. It has propane lights, a propane refrigerator, stove and oven, basic cooking pots, pans, dishes and eating utensils. A table and chairs is provided. A wood stove is available for heat. Firewood is provided. The cabin has a limited water supply to the kitchen sink with hot and cold water. A vault toilet is located about 75 feet from the cabin and is used by others. Cell phone coverage is not available at the cabin and very spotty in the entire Olallie Lake Scenic Area. Guests will need to bring sleeping bags or bedding, towels and wash cloths, paper towels, food and personal gear, as well as a flashlight or lantern for emergencies, a first aid kit, insect repellent (a must!), sunscreen and dish soap, among other necessities. Please bring garbage bags and clean the facility before leaving. Olallie Lake Resort is in charge of managing this cabin for the Forest Service. We are just next door and have personel onsite 24 hours a day. Guests can access the cabin by vehicle. Higher clearance or 4wd is preferable, but the cabin is accessible to 2wd passenger cars if they drive slow. Road conditions can be hampered by early or late snows. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety..
Natural Features
This historically significant, two-story cabin was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s for the Forest Ranger that patrolled the area. It is a classic example of the Forest Service rustic architectural style of Depression Era administration buildings. The cabin is located on the far south end of the Mt. Hood National Forest. It’s location near the shore of Olallie Lake affords visitors views of the north face of 10,497-foot Mt. Jefferson and 7,215-foot Olallie Butte, in the Cascade Mountains. The facility was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Olallie is Chinook jargon for "berry." Nearby Attractions The Olallie Lake Resort is near the cabin. There is a store there that sells some food, bait, etc. The nearest town is Detroit which is 36 miles south. CJ’s Chevron is the north 40 miles on Hwy 26. Contact Info For local information, please call (503) 853-3481 or call (503) 668-1700 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Olallie Lake Scenic Area is remote; no phones, fuel or other services available
Access to the cabin can be rough; four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicles are recommended
The Olallie Lake Guard Station Cabin is a Forest Service cabin managed by Olallie Lake Resort. It is not part of the privately owned Olallie Lake Resort.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please conserve water, firewood and propane, be sure the lights and all appliances are turned off when leaving the cabin
Other Forest Service operated campgrounds in the area are: Olallie Meadows, Triangle Lake Equestrian, Lower Lake, Paul Dennis, Camp Ten, Peninsula and Horseshoe Lake. These are all first come first served campgrounds
Dogs are not permitted on the Guard Station cabin premises which includes in a vehicle
Learn more about the Mt. Hood 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
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…kitchen sink with hot and cold water. A vault toilet is located about 75 feet from the cabin and is used…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Backpacking
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 446th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
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 · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
| Olallie Resort | OLALLIE LAKE RESORT GUARD STATION | cabin nonelectric | 30 ft | 227 ft | $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
The best route from the Portland area is east on HWY 224 from 1-205 through Estacada.
Continue past Ripplebrook Ranger Station onto Forest Hwy 46. HWY 224 turns into HWY 46.
Go approximately 25 miles; you will want to watch your odometer as the turn off to FSR (Forest Service Road) 4690 is easy to miss. “Olallie” is painted on the road at the junction of 46 and 4690.
Turn left onto FSR 4690.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Idanha, 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
Olallie Lake Guard Station Cabin 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…75 feet from the cabin and is used by others. Cell phone coverage is not available at the cabin and very spotty in the entire Olallie Lake…”