Spool Cart Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 17 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Spool Cart Campground is nestled in the forest on the banks of the Grande Ronde River. This developed campground has 13 sites suitable for tents and small trailers with paved roads and accessible toilets. The terrain consists of forested areas with a mix of trees and open spaces. Nearby attractions include the Eagle Cap Wilderness and the Grande Ronde River. Historically, trains stopped here and left spools of cable for loggers to transport to work sites using carts. Primary use season is from late May through mid-October. Quiet hours are from 10pm to 6am. Keep reading
Facilities
Spool Cart Campground has 13 campsites, each with picnic tables, fire rings, and parking spaces.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Fishing
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:44 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 · 17
What you actually pay
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites
All 13 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. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Spool Cart | 1 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 10 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 11 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 12 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 13 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 2 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 3 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 4 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 5 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 6 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 7 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 8 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
| Spool Cart | 9 | standard nonelectric | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Umapine CampgroundWhitman National Forest · 10 mi
Umatilla Forks CampgroundWhitman National Forest · 11 miSpring Creek CampgroundWhitman National Forest · 11 miFrazier Campground & TrailheadUmatilla National Forest · 12 miFrom La Grande, Oregon travel north for 8.5 miles on Interstate-84 West to exit 252 (Highway 244 towards Ukiah); Turn off the Interstate onto Highway 244 and travel west for 12 miles to Forest Road 51; Turn left on Forest Road 51 and go south for about 5 miles; The campground is on your right, along the river.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for La Grande, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°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 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
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
Spool Cart 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 →