Tollgate
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 15 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $21.34–$42.67Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tollgate Campground is one of the most convenient to Portland, making it a great headquarters for exploring the Mt. Hood area. It stands in the southwestern shadow of Oregon's highest point, Mt. Hood. The campground provides access to a variety of trails, as well as historic sites, including spots along the famed Oregon Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
A variety of hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails are available in the area. The nearly 10-mile Pioneer Bridle Trail passes through the campground. A replica of the original Barlow Road tollgate is just east of the campground. The gate was used by travelers along the Oregon Trail from 1879 to 1919. A day-use picnic area at the campground, providing access to the scenic surroundings, as well as the nearby river and Camp Creek. Anglers enjoy the sport of catch-and-release fishing for small trout and whitefish.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent and RV camping. Parking surfaces are dirt and gravel and sometimes uneven. Each site is equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. An adjacent picnic shelter can be reserved for day use and can accommodate up to 30 people and 10 vehicles. It is equipped with multiple tables and pedestal grills.
Natural Features
The campground is located in the Mt. Hood National Forest, approximately 32 miles southeast of Portland, at an elevation of about 2,100 feet. The campground sits on the north bank of the Zigzag River, just east of the community of Rhododendron, in a humid, semi-subtropic environment of Douglas fir and cedar trees. Tollgate Campground was originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and some historic features, such as rock fireplaces and a reconstructed picnic shelter still remain.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is 2.5 miles from the town of Zigzag, which offers a variety of services, including lodging, eateries and a variety of shops. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (503) 622-3191.
What the agency tells you
No hookups available
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
In accordance with standard industry practices, Mount Hood Recreation will be assessing an additional vehicle fee on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered as one vehicle for determining additional vehicle fees. The third and fourth motorcycle would also be considered as one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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.
Click here for more information on the Mt. Hood National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14 · 9 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. An adjacent picnic…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. An adjacent picnic shelter can be…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Night sky · 739th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 5 days ago, 37 km away
- Patchy color
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $21.34–$42.67 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 15 records
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 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA TOLL GATE | 001 | type not stated | |||||
| AREA TOLL GATE | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 47 ft | 99 ft | $21.34 | ||
| AREA TOLL GATE | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 47 ft | 63 ft | $21.34 | ||
| AREA TOLL GATE | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 100 ft | $21.34 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 132 ft | under 10 ft | $21.34–$42.67 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 73 ft | 65 ft | $21.34 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 70 ft | 67 ft | $21.34–$42.67 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 45 ft | 55 ft | $21.34 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 62 ft | $21.34 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 115 ft | $21.34–$42.67 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 011 | tent only nonelectric | $21.34 | ||||
| AREA TOLL GATE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 182 ft | 206 ft | $21.34–$42.67 | |
| AREA TOLL GATE | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | $21.34 | |||
| AREA TOLL GATE | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | $21.34 | |||
| AREA TOLL GATE | PS | day use | yes | $38.96 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Camp CreekMt. Hood National Forest · 2.2 miGreen Canyon Campground & Day Use AreaMt. Hood National Forest · 3.3 mi
Wildwood Recreation SiteNw Oregon Cascades Field Office · 4.6 mi
Riley Horse CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 4.7 mi
Lost CreekMt. Hood National Forest · 5.3 miFrom Portland, travel southeast on Highway 26 for about 32 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rhododendron, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 35°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 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Tollgate is in Oregon’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Maxine Dexter (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →