Rock Springs Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 27 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $6From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
This small campground is conveniently located just off of Forest Road 17. Nestled among ponderosa pine trees, this secluded campground offers a wonderful place for those in search of a quiet place to stay, whether camping or just needing a quiet place to spend the night while traveling from Burns to John Day, Oregon. The campground has light use until big game hunting seasons. Visitors can enjoy fishing in Poison Creek Reservoir, hiking, hunting and horseback riding local trails such as Malheur River Trail #303 and Craft Cabin trail #319. Keep reading
Nearby Attractions
Idlewild Campground Joaquin Miller Horse Camp Craft Cabin Trail Idlewild Loop Trail Joaquin Miller Horse Trail Poison Creek Reservoir Burns BLM
What the agency tells you
Malheur National Forest Fire Public Use Restrictions
Malheur National Forest Alerts
14 Day Stay Limit
Everything else this campground posts · 1
No cell phone coverage
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:55 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $6 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:55 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites
All 12 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. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Rock Springs | 01 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 02 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 03 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 04 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 05 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 06 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 07 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 08 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 09 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 10 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 11 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
| Rock Springs | 12 | standard nonelectric | $6 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Buck Spring CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 0.0 mi
Deerhorn CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 0.0 mi
Dixie CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 0.0 mi
Falls Campground (Malheur National Forest)Malheur National Forest · 0.0 mi
Idlewild CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 0.0 mi
Joaquin Miller Horse CampMalheur National Forest · 0.0 miFrom Burns, OR., travel east on US Highway 20 approximately 2.8 miles to US Highway 395 north. Turn right onto US Highway 395 north toward John Day, OR. Follow US Highway 395 for approximately 30.8 miles to the junction with Forest Road 17. Turn right onto Forest Road 17, travel 4.8 miles to the junction with Forest Road 054. Follow Forest Road 054 for approximately 1, the campground will be on the right.
The agency publishes this point for 18 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Prairie City, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Rock Springs Campground 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 →