Riverside (Mt. Hood National Forest, OR)
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 6 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:08 UTC
- A night
- $26When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 16In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Riverside Campground is a charming and rustic campground, situated alongside the Wild and Scenic Clackamas River in Mt. Hood National Forest. It provides access to a variety of hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails and is a great place to experience nature. 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 and small conversion van camping. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no hookups are available. Parking surfaces are paved and gravel. Sites 1-4 are walk in sites with a common parking area or ideal for hiker/cyclists.
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
- 16 · 14 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- 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, but no hookups are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided, but no hookups are available. Parking…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 709th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 37 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:08 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 · 12
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 Riverside (Mt. Hood National Forest, 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 · 17 mi · walk-up
- Fox Creek Group CampWillamette National Forest · 19 mi · 1 site
- Marion Forks Campground and Day Use AreaWillamette National Forest · 31 mi · walk-up
- Lower Bridge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 41 mi · 12 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 15 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 77 ft | 73 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 65 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 79 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 74 ft | 104 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 74 ft | 76 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 86 ft | 96 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 84 ft | 89 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 174 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 121 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 128 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 133 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 45 ft | 185 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 42 ft | 140 ft | $26 | |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 42 ft | 143 ft | $26 |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 251 ft | 184 ft | $26 |
| AREA RIVERSIDE | 016 | type not stated | 122 ft |
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
Riverside CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 1.1 mi
Rainbow (OR)Mt. Hood National Forest · 1.6 mi
RipplebrookMt. Hood National Forest · 1.7 mi
Riverford CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 1.7 mi
RaabMt. Hood National Forest · 2.3 mi
Indian HenryMt. Hood National Forest · 3.7 miFrom Estacada, travel east on Highway 224 for approximately 26 miles, then keep right onto Highway 46 for approximately 2 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
Riverside (Mt. Hood National Forest, 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 →