Timber Butte Cabin
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 18 of the next 18 nights read 16:08 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Timber Butte Lookout is located in the Fall Creek area of the Willamette National Forest at an elevation of 3,650 feet 19 miles from Lowell, Oregon. The cabin is open from mid-April through late October, offering the chance to enjoy beautiful scenery and a variety of recreational activities. The lookout was constructed in 2005 as a replica of the L-4 gabled-style lookout with wooden catwalk commonly built in this region in the 1930s. It was built through volunteer efforts with a $10,000 grant from Lane County and other contributions by individuals and organizations. The cabin can be accessed by car, but guests should expect to walk about 300 feet uphill from their parking spot. A high-clearance vehicle is recommended. Keep reading
Recreation
The lookout is located near the Fall Creek Trail Area. Several hiking trails can be accessed from this area, including the Fall Creek National Recreation Trail, which also offers opportunities for fishing and picnicking. Swimming holes can also be found along this trail. Hunting is another popular activity in this area.
Facilities
The 14x14-ft. cabin is encircled by a catwalk. It sits slightly off the ground and is accessed by a ramp. The cabin accommodates 4 people and contains a double bed with sleeping pad, a propane heating stove, fire extinguisher, broom and dustpan. A 3-burner propane cook top is located on the deck. Propane is provided. Dishes and cookware are available. A picnic table and fire ring are located in a nearby group of trees, and a vault toilet is located about 300 feet away. No drinking water or electricity is provided. Guests must bring their own supply of drinking water. Items such as bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies, trash bags, dish soap, towels and an ice chest are not available. Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The lookout offers panoramic views of the Cascade Mountains and the surrounding evergreen forest. On clear days, guests may see Mount Jefferson and the peaks of the Three Sisters. Willamette National Forest offers prime habitat for such species as Roosevelt elk, black bear, bald eagles, black tail deer and bobcats, among other wildlife.
Nearby Attractions
Guests can explore up to 20 historic covered bridges in nearby Lane County by car. Within 10 miles there is creek access, fishing, swimming, and hiking.
What the agency tells you
THE HEATING STOVE INSIDE THE CABIN IS A PROPANE GAS STOVE, ATTEMPTING TO BURN FIREWOOD INSIDE THE STOVE WILL RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY, EXPLOSION OR WORSE, ABSOLUTELY NO BURNING FIREWOOD IN STOVE!
No drinking water is available at the cabin
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock; guests must contact the Middle Fork Ranger District Office (541) 782-2283 at least several days prior to arrival for the combination. Call for the combination weekdays only; the site administrator is not available on weekends. It is very important that you relock the gate behind you after passing through to prohibit others from interrupting your stay.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
During periods of severe fire danger, open campfires may be prohibited
There is no tent, trailer or RV camping at the site
Guests must bring their own trash bags and pack out all trash
Guests must clean out the cabin before departure
Pets are not allowed
Smoking is not permitted
Check in at 12PM. Check out at 11AM
Guests should contact the Ranger District prior to arriving to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire, road closures or weather, that may affect their visit
Learn more about the Willamette National Forest
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “No drinking water or electricity is provided.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Birding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 652nd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 16:08 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:08 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 16:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| TIMBER BUTTE CABIN | Timber Butte Cabin | cabin nonelectric | 24 ft | 1,552 ft | 195 ft | $80 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Clark Creek Organization CampWillamette National Forest · 3.4 miDolly VardenWillamette National Forest · 3.5 miBedrock CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 3.5 miPumaWillamette National Forest · 4.4 miDo not use the Google map suggested routes as they will take you through areas with many rock/logging trucks on one lane roads. Total mileage from Lowell to Timber Butte Cabin is 19 miles and will be around a 45 minute drive time. From Interstate 5 (I-5), take Highway 58 East (Exit 188) and travel for 13 miles toward Oakridge. Turn left off of Highway 58 at the Lowell covered bridge and proceed toward the town of Lowell. At the 4-way junction in Lowell, turn left onto Boundary Road. Take the next right (Moss Street) for 2 miles to the crossroads of Unity, where you'll see another covered bridge. Turn right (east) onto Big Fall Creek Road (18) and proceed 1/2 mile and turn right onto FSR 1802 (Winberry Creek Road), continue up approx. 12 miles. Turn left onto FSR 1821 and proceed approx. 1.5 miles. At the T junction turn left and continue 0.5 miles. Then turn left onto FSR 1821-168 for 1 mile, beware of logging trucks for this one mile stretch. Turn right onto FSR 1816-175 and after 100 yards turn left onto FSR 1816-131 (gated entrance road to the cabin). Look for the signs that say TB with arrows that point the way after you reach the 1821.
The last mile of the road is brushy and road conditions make a high clearance vehicle necessary.
Cabin parking is located about 1 mile up FSR 1816-131, adjacent to the outhouse.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lowell, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°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 · a letter you can send
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
Timber Butte Cabin 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyVal T. HoyleU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 4th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJeff MerkleyU.S. Senator · Oregon
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRon WydenU.S. Senator · Oregon
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Val T. Hoyle, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 4th district. I tried to camp at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Timber Butte Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timber Butte Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timber Butte Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timber Butte Cabin (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Timber Butte Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timber Butte Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timber Butte Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timber Butte Cabin (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Timber Butte Cabin, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Timber Butte Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timber Butte Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timber Butte Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timber Butte Cabin (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com