Rainbow (OR)
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 5 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:04 UTC
- A night
- $26When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 17In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rainbow Campground provides ample access to the Wild and Scenic Clackamas River. The campground offers a great location to enjoy peace and quiet in the beautiful mountains of northern Oregon. Visitors enjoy fishing, hiking, biking and rafting. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is very popular in the Oak Fork and anglers can expect a catch of winter steelhead, spring Chinook and late summer Kokanee salmon, as well as other species of freshwater fish. The Clackamas River also provides miles of wild water as it bends through the scenic Cascade range, making whitewater rafting a popular activity. The 5-mile Riverside National Recreation Trail, popular for hiking and mountain biking, is located not far from the campground. The surrounding area provides numerous additional opportunities for hiking.
Facilities
The campground offers more than a dozen single-family sites for tent camping. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Parking surfaces are paved and gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is located in Mt. Hood National Forest along the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River at an elevation of about 1,400 feet. Huge maple and Douglas fir trees cover the area, and dense shrubbery provides some privacy between campsites. The campground is not far from the Ripplebrook Ranger Station and Ripplebrook Pond. The river provides habitat for the federally protected bald eagle and northern spotted owl, as well as an occasional peregrine falcon. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Bagby Hot Springs is located about 14 miles southwest of the campground. A popular site for soaking and relaxing, the springs are in a heavily wooded area in the scenic Cascade Range. The available bathhouses are fed by three major hot water springs and several minor outlets in the area. A historic guard station was built there in 1913.
What the agency tells you
In accordance with standard industry practices, Mount Hood Recreation will be assessing a $8 additional vehicle fee on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered as one vehicle for determining additional vehicle fees. The third and fourth motorcycle would also be considered as one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
Click here for more information on the Mt. Hood National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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
- 17 · 17 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Parking surfaces…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Parking surfaces are paved and…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 5 days ago, 36 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:04 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, Mount Hood Recreation will be assessing a $8 additional vehicle fee on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any doub…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Rainbow (OR) closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Elk Lake CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 18 mi · walk-up
- Fox Creek Group CampWillamette National Forest · 20 mi · 1 site
- Marion Forks Campground and Day Use AreaWillamette National Forest · 33 mi · walk-up
- Lower Bridge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 42 mi · 12 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:04 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 17 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 17 of the 17 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 17 of the 17 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA RAINBOW | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 57 ft | 125 ft | 2,350 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 57 ft | 122 ft | 2,342 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 66 ft | 122 ft | 2,337 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 130 ft | 2,340 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 154 ft | 2,360 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 58 ft | 108 ft | 2,311 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 81 ft | 187 ft | 2,389 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 58 ft | 115 ft | 2,316 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 69 ft | 183 ft | 2,378 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 108 ft | 2,304 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 171 ft | 2,356 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 45 ft | 139 ft | 2,301 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 112 ft | 2,300 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 45 ft | 172 ft | 2,324 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 130 ft | 2,273 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 62 ft | 185 ft | 2,316 ft | $26 |
| AREA RAINBOW | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 85 ft | 235 ft | 2,401 ft | $26 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
RipplebrookMt. Hood National Forest · 0.1 mi
Riverside (Mt. Hood National Forest, OR)Mt. Hood National Forest · 1.6 mi
Indian HenryMt. Hood National Forest · 2.6 mi
Riverside CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 2.6 mi
Riverford CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 3.3 mi
RaabMt. Hood National Forest · 3.9 miFrom Estacada, travel east on Highway 224/Road 46 for 26 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mount Hood Villages, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 33°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Rainbow (OR) 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 →