Old Miner's Meadow Group Use Area
1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
- 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 · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Old Miner's Meadow is a two-acre, fenced-in group use area, located in an open meadow surrounded by forests along the Quartzville Creek National Wild and Scenic River and upstream from the Green Peter Reservoir. It is available by reservation only. The area is popular for gold panning, fishing, scenic touring and kayaking. Weekends tend to be busy, so campers should book early. Summer weather is comfortable, but can be cool. Visitors should come prepared for lower temperatures at night. Keep reading
Recreation
The creek is popular for gold panning and kayaking, while the reservoir offers great fishing, swimming, sailing and water skiing. Within a short drive along the creek, campers can find deep pools, waterfalls and swimming areas. Visitors can also drive the Quartzville National Back Country Byway, which meanders along the creek, two lakes and scenic mountain views. There are hiking trails in the nearby national forests.
Facilities
Maximum of 50 people per reservation. This facility consists of one large group area with no designated campsites. Site amenities include picnic tables, individual campfire rings, a group campfire ring and grill, trash collection, vault toilets and horseshoe pits. The toilets for the site are available to campers on private land just outside the site fence boundary. Groups are required to bring their own drinking water and firewood.
Natural Features
The section of Quartzville Creek adjacent to the campground is registered as a National Wild and Scenic River for its recreation and resource opportunities. The nearby Green Peter Reservoir has emerald-colored waters, mountain views and plenty of space for water activities. Though some areas of the surrounding forests have been logged, groves of old growth trees are a short drive away from the campground. This facility is in a meadow dotted with trees, and has both shaded and sunny sites. Though campers may not see them in the campground, elk frequent the area.
Nearby Attractions
Campers can visit the East Linn Museum in the town of Sweet Home to learn about the history of the area. The campground is also adjacent to the Willamette National Forest, which stretches for 110 miles along the western slopes of the Cascade Range in western Oregon. Willamette National Forest Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (503) 375-5646.
Charges & Cancellations
Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.
What the agency tells you
Campfires? Please see here for current campfire restrictions: Fire Closures and Restrictions Typically, campfires are limited to the steel fire rings or BBQ grills provided within the recreation site. No building rock campfire rings.
Groups must enter through a locked gate, the combination should be received in the email receipt. The group is responsible for locking the gate upon departure.
There is no cell phone reception at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
No outside firewood allowed; obtain or purchase firewood at or near your camping destination and burn it on-site; firewood can carry invasive insects and diseases that destroy forests; learn more
Walk-in use of the restrooms and dumpster by visitors camping outside Old Miner's Meadow group area is allowed.
No host on site; Yellowbottom Campground host is one mile from site.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Groups are required to bring their own drinking water and firewood.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Gold Panning
- Hiking
- Water access
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 25 km away
- Patchy color
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
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.
| Old Miner's Meadow Group Site | 001 | group standard area nonelectric | 86 ft | $100 |
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
Yellowbottom Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 1.1 miSouthshore Campground12 mi
Southshore at Detroit Lake - Willamette (OR)12 mi
Yukwah CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 13 mi
Cove Creek (OR)Willamette National Forest · 13 mi
Fernview Group SiteWillamette National Forest · 13 miFrom Sweet Home, Oregon go east on U.S. Highway 20. Approximately one mile out of town turn left on the Quartzville Access Road heading towards Green Peter Reservoir and Quartzville Creek. Old Miner's Meadow is located approximately 25 miles up the road on the right, about one mile past Yellowbottom Recreation Site.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gates, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 36°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Old Miner's Meadow Group Use Area is in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Janelle Bynum (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →