Sam Brown Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 13 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 2625 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sam Brown Campground is centered around a large meadow that has a colorful history of the earlier miner and homesteader to the area. Trails are located throughout the area, as well, with options for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and motorcycles, including Elkhorn Mine Jeep Road. The size of this campground, and nature of the landscape, lends itself to large group camping, with 2 picnic shelters, and amphitheater. The meadow is great for group activities and is also a great place to wildlife watch: deer, elk, and a plethora of bird species frequent the area. Briggs Creek flows through the area before passing on to the Illinois River. Campsites are suitable for tents, small trailers, or campers. This campground is close to Sam Brown Horse Camp. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain bike riding, splashing in the creek and wildlife viewing all draw campers to the area.
Facilities
19 campsites with picnic tables, and fire pits No water available. Please bring your own water. 3 vault toilets No trash service available, pack out what you pack in.
Natural Features
A large meadow for wildlife viewing. Briggs Creek flows next to the Campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 592-4000.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby trail opportunities include: Briggs Creek Trail #1132 (the trailhead located in campground) Taylor Creek Trail #1142 Onion Way Trail #1157 Secret Way Trail #1282 Dutchy Creek Trail #1154
What the agency tells you
First come, first serve camping, limited to 14 days.
No trash service available, pack out what you pack in.
There is no cell phone coverage.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Campfires are allowed in developed Forest Service installed metal fire rings when conditions allow. Learn more about current fire information: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/rogue-siskiyou/fire/info
Fireworks are prohibited.
Camp trailers/RVs are allowed, however no electric or water hookups are available.
OHV/ATV use prohibited in campground.
Quiet hours between 10pm and 6am.
Dogs must be on a leash.
Must pay via Scan & Pay onsite with the Recreation.gov app. App must be downloaded with cellular service prior to arriving at the campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Please bring your own water. 3 vault toilets No trash service available, pack out what you pack…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…with picnic tables, and fire pits No water available. Please bring your own water. 3 vault…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Mushroom Picking
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:45 UTC
recreation.gov lists 25 of the 26 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Additional Vehicle Fee: $5 per vehicle per day NOTE : 50% discount for Interagency Senior and Access Pass holders on a single campsite.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
26 sites
All 26 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. 26 of the 26 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Extra Vehicle Fee | Extra Vehicle Fee | type not stated | $5 |
| SamBrown | 01 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 02 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 03 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 04 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 05 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 06 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 07 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 08 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 09 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 10 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 11 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 12 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 13 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 14 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 15 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 16 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 17 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 18 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 19 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 20 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 21 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 22 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 23 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 24 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| SamBrown | 25 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
25 of 26 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Onion Mountain LookoutSiskiyou National Forest · 3.8 mi
Spalding Pond CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 6.7 mi
Sixmile CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 10 mi
River Bench CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 11 mi
Store Gulch CampgroundSiskiyou National Forest · 11 miFrom Interstate 5, take the Merlin Exit to Merlin / Galice Road approximately 12 miles to the Briggs Valley Road (Forest Road 2500). Follow Forest Road 2500 approximately 15 miles to Forest Road 2512, turn right and the campground will be on your left about 0.5 mile up the road.
Access to the area restricts vehicle size, due to the narrow winding steep road to the Briggs Valley area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Selma, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Sam Brown 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 →