Whisky Camp Guard Station
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 16 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:41 UTC
- A night
- $40From, per site
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Whisky Camp, built in the 1940s, was the summer home of a fireguard whose primary duties were to fight and prevent fires, serve as a relief lookout, and perform maintenance on phone lines and trails. Located in the Tiller Ranger District in southwestern Oregon, the cabin now offers relaxation and recreation for visitors throughout the year. Four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended for travel to this site, and guests must bring several of their own supplies. Please be aware that in winter months guests may need to snowmobile, ski or snowshoe up to five miles one-way to reach the cabin. Consider this winter travel advisory when making your reservations. Keep reading
Recreation
The Bunchgrass, Elkhorn and Beaver Creek trails leave from Whisky Camp for hiking or horseback riding. Additional activities include mountain biking, birding, wildlife viewing and photography. In the winter guests enjoy snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling (trails may be closed for public safety due to wildfire damage. Please call the Tiller Ranger Station for current updated information).
Facilities
This two-room cabin is equipped with two single beds and two single roll-out beds, both with foam pad mattresses. Amenities inside the cabin include a wall heater, lights, a cook stove with oven and a refrigerator, all powered by propane, which is provided. Provided outside, are picnic tables, a campfire ring, an outdoor grill (not propane) and a vault toilet. An area for pitching a tent is also on-site. Guests must bring several of their own supplies. The cabin does not have food, cooking utensils, sleeping bags, towels, dish soap, matches, cooking gear, toilet paper or garbage bags. Firewood may be available, but the supply cannot be guaranteed. There is no water available at the site. Guests must bring water necessary for drinking, cooking and washing. Potable water is available at a spigot in front of the Tiller Ranger Station office (45 minutes away).. Although propane lighting is available, bringing an additional light source is recommended.
Natural Features
At an elevation of 3,800 feet, this quaint, red-planked, cedar-roofed cabin is tucked beneath a dense forest of cedar, pine and fir trees. Nicely shaded and secluded, an occasional brilliant shaft of sunlight breaks through the canopy. Large mammals such as elk, deer, black bear and cougar, as well as the smaller residents like squirrels, fox, raccoons and bats, are supported by the diverse forest habitat in the area. Learn more about bear safety.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors may want to take some time to visit nearby Crater Lake National Park for a glimpse into the area's fascinating geological and cultural history. Guests might also enjoy a day of scenic driving along the Rogue-Umpqua National Scenic Byway, located within driving distance of the cabin. Landscapes unfold along the highway, showcasing everything from rolling oak-covered hills and towering coniferous forests to roaring white-water rapids and incised inter-canyon lava flows.
Charges & Cancellations
Refunds are not given for inclement weather.
What the agency tells you
There is no water at the site, so it is advised that you bring your own cookware and consider alternative dish ware.
Please leave the cabin cleaner than you found it. Due to the remote location of the cabin, it cannot be cleaned after every stay. Do not leave food, bottled water or cans/bottles (these can freeze and burst between guests) in the refrigerator or anywhere in the cabin when you leave. Do not leave food out where it can attract animals. Keep the building and grounds clean to deter squirrels, mice, rats, and bears. The cabin is a historic structure and thus not made of easily cleanable materials. It provides a rustic experience which some may not prefer.
Visitors must pack out all trash. Please be respectful of other visitors, and be aware that leaving trash out can attract rodents and other animals. There is a transfer station off County Road 46 at milepost 4.5, but it is only open on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a fee of $3.00 per can (up to 35 gallons) is charged.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
Inclement weather can occur during any time of year, but during winter months it is common for snow to make the cabin unreachable by vehicle. Depending on snow-pack, the cabin can only be accessed during these time by snowshoeing, skiing, or snowmobiling 1 to 6 miles one-way to access the site. Refunds are generally not given for inclement weather.
Learn more about Umpqua National Forest
Please do not let pets roam freely, as they may endanger wildlife and plants
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.
Entry to the cabin is through a locked gate. The combination will be included with your reservation confirmation letter.
It is recommended that you bring a map with you when trying to locate this site. Maps are available for purchase at Forest Service Ranger Stations, online, or you can download a Motor Vehicle Use Mapfor free by clicking on the link provided. Please note however that the Motor Vehicle Use Map has limited landmarks and can be difficult to navigate with unless used in conjunction with a more detailed map.
Before your stay, please visit Oregon Covid 19 Activity Guidelines by County and ensure that your group size is within the limits for "Social and At-Home Gatherings (indoor)" in Douglas County
Renters are advised to bring cleaning supplies to clean interior surfaces upon arrival and departure. The Forest Service will provide cleaning supplies but cannot guarantee their availability in the case they have been used or taken by previous occupants. All renters are responsible to clean surfaces to reduce the risk of potential COVID exposure. If unwilling or unable to perform this task, renters can avoid going and submit for a full refund.
The refrigerator is newly replaced. Please do not turn it off when leaving, and remove all food and clean it out.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…but the supply cannot be guaranteed. There is no water available at the site. Guests must bring water…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Birding
- Cross Country Skiing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Snowmobile
- Snowshoeing
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:41 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:57 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:41 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.
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 lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($40), 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.
“Refunds are not given for inclement weather.” · this campground’s own terms
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:57 UTC
- Cavitt Creek Falls Recreation SiteRoseburg District Swiftwater Field Office · 25 mi · 8 of 20 site-nights open
- Susan Creek CampgroundRoseburg District Swiftwater Field Office · 28 mi · 14 of 58 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:41 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
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.
| WHIS | 01 | cabin nonelectric | yes | 2,868 ft | $40 |
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
Butler Butte CabinRogue River National Forest · 3.3 miCover CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 5.1 mi
Pickett Butte LookoutUmpqua National Forest · 6.5 mi
Three C Rock CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 8.6 mi
Ash Flat CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 9.1 mi
Dumont Creek CampgroundUmpqua National Forest · 9.4 miFrom Canyonville take West 1st Street and turn onto SE 3rd St/OR-227. Continue to follow OR-227 approximately 23 miles until you reach Tiller Oregon and take a left onto Douglas County Road 46 just before the bridge crossing the South Umpqua River. From Tiller, take Douglas County Road 46 for 5 miles to the Jackson Creek/Forest Service Road 29 turn off. Turn right onto FS Road 29 and drive for 9.7 miles to the FS Road 2925 turn off. Take a right onto FS road 2925 where you will cross a bridge over Jackson Creek and follow FS Road 2925 for 6.4 miles to the FS Road 3114-600 spur turn off (note: do not take the left turn onto FS road 2925-600, which is about 1 mile before the 3114-600 turn off). Take a right onto FS Road 3114-600 and follow it for 1.4 miles where you will see a road with a locked gate on your left which leads to spur Road 3114-645 down to Whisky Camp Cabin. Use your combination to enter. Call Tiller Ranger Station if you have questions at (541) 825-3100, but note that depending on your cell phone carrier, reception is very limited to non-existent in the area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Prospect, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 32°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 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 · 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
Whisky Camp Guard Station 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 →
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 moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whisky Camp Guard Station 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. Whisky Camp Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whisky Camp Guard Station. 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station (Umpqua 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whisky Camp Guard Station 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. Whisky Camp Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whisky Camp Guard Station. 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station (Umpqua 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Whisky Camp Guard Station, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whisky Camp Guard Station 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. Whisky Camp Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whisky Camp Guard Station. 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 Whisky Camp Guard Station (Umpqua National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com