U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · OR
Richardson Campground
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
390 ftElevation
1,006 ftWater · Fern Ridge Lake
4.1 miNE of Veneta, OR
29%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 769th darkest of 770 in OR
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
This recreation area is part of Fern Ridge Lake
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Hiking
- Picnicking
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Coordinate44.11800, -123.32084
The mapSee it on the map
The driveDirections ↗
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗
Where it is
Also near here
Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground)Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office · 16 mi
Clay Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office · 19 mi
Whittaker Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office · 19 mi
Shotgun Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Upper Willamette Field Office · 25 miArchie Knowles CampgroundSiuslaw National Forest · 25 mi
River Edge28 mi
Alsea Falls Recreation Site (Campground)Nw Oregon Marys Peak Field Office · 16 miClay Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office · 19 miWhittaker Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Siuslaw Field Office · 19 miShotgun Creek Recreation SiteNw Oregon Upper Willamette Field Office · 25 miArchie Knowles CampgroundSiuslaw National Forest · 25 miRiver Edge28 miSource: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today67°Chance Light Rain then Mostly Cloudy33% rain
Tonight43°Mostly Clear
Sunday64°Partly Sunny
Sunday Night42°Mostly Cloudy1% rain
NWS forecast for Elmira, OR
Source: National Weather Service, PQR forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
90°30°
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.
Measured at: EUGENE MAHLON SWEET AP, OR (USW00024221), 5 miles away and 37 ft lower
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Richardson Campground is in Oregon’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Val Hoyle (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Army Corps’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Elmira, OR, 3 mi NNE (a census designated place). Straight line.