Sunnyside Campground
1Heads up1 fire 32 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – September 30Open April 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sunnyside Campground is located along the southeast side of Cougar Reservoir at 1,700 feet in elevation. A large grove of conifers provides shade to these campsites. Motorhomes and trailers not recommended due to the steep entrance into the campground. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking in the area is outstanding in nearby Three Sisters Wilderness, along Rebel Creek. Hikers will enjoy exploring other trails including the French Pete Trail, Box Canyon Trail, Indian Ridge Lookout, and several day hikes within the Cougar Recreation Area. After a fun day on the lake, relax and enjoy Terwilliger Hot Springs, a day use area along Rider Creek.
Facilities
The campground offers vault toilets and garbage collection. Individual campsites include a fire ring and picnic table. Easy access to the lake is possible from this scenic location. There is no water available, campers will need to bring enough for the duration of their stay.
Natural Features
Situated near the South fork of the McKenzie River on the Willamette National Forest, Cougar Reservoir is part of the Cougar Recreation Area. Wildflower and wildlife viewing are abundant.
What the agency tells you
There is no potable (drinking) water at Sunnyside. Please bring all the water you will need for drinking, cooking, washing, etc.
No electric hookups at this facility
This facility has first-come, first-served sites
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Limit one vehicle per campsite; a fee will be charged for additional vehicles
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.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from the area after eating
No discharging firearms, possession of fireworks or use of chainsaws allowed
Be sure to reserve a site that will accommodate your equipment. The site you reserve is your site. You may not move to another site.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click here for more information on Willamette National Forest
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Willamette.McKenzieRiver@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13 · 8 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 21 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Creek. Facilities The campground offers vault toilets and garbage collection. Individual campsites…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is possible from this scenic location. There is no water available, campers will need to bring enough for…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Birding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 371st darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 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.
| Sunnyside | 002 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 333 ft | 431 ftCougar Reservoir | $18 |
| Sunnyside | 003 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 333 ft | 413 ft | $18 |
| Sunnyside | 010 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 230 ft | 269 ftCougar Reservoir | $18 |
| Sunnyside | 012 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 104 ft | 228 ftCougar Reservoir | $18 |
| Sunnyside | 013 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 104 ft | 277 ftCougar Reservoir | $18 |
| SUNNYSIDE | 001 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 004 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 005 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 006 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 007 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 008 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 009 | tent only nonelectric | $18 | |||
| SUNNYSIDE | 011 | tent only nonelectric | $18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cougar Crossing CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 0.1 mi
Slide CreekWillamette National Forest · 1.1 mi
French Pete CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 1.3 mi
Hard Rock CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 1.7 mi
Indian Ridge LookoutWillamette National Forest · 4.2 mi
Red Diamond CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 4.6 miFrom Blue River, travel 4 miles east on Hwy 126 to Aufderheide Drive (FS road 19). Continue on Aufderheide Drive for 9.5 miles; turn left on FS road 1900-500 for .25 miles.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical April night 45°F, day 64°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 45°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Sunnyside 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 →