Yellowbottom Recreation Site
1Heads up1 fire 26 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Yellowbottom offers a one-mile hiking trail and access to Quartzville Creek Wild and Scenic River. Keep reading
Recreation
Yellowbottom offers a one-mile hiking trail and access to Quartzville Creek Wild and Scenic River.
Facilities
Vault toilets Natural Features Yellowbottom offers a beautiful swimming hole and a one-mile trail that will lead to old-growth trees. Discover a landscape of old-growth and maturing forests, accented by rock outcropping, wildflowers and vivid fall colors.
Nearby Attractions
Multiple Forest Service trails into the Middle Santiam Wilderness Drive the Quartzville National Back Country Byway, past the emerald depths of Green Peter Reservoir and along the meandering waters of the Wild and Scenic Quartzville Creek. Enjoy a day of hiking and exploring, or spend the day fishing, swimming, and gold panning on the serene Quartzville River. The Old Miner's Meadow group campsite is nearby and can be reserved on recreation.gov .
Charges & Cancellations
Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.
What the agency tells you
Caution: Log trucks may be encountered throughout the year. And the Byway is open year-round but may become hazardous due to snow and ice.
The site is remote, there is no cell service or electrical connections. Sites are small and may have limitations.
Pets are allowed but must be leashed (max. 6 feet). Please dispose all pet waste in trash receptacles.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Recreational mining and rock hounding are allowed along Quartzville Creek between Rocky Top Bridge and Galena Creek. Recreational mining guidelines are available from the BLM, Northwest Oregon District Office.
There is a day-use fee for this site. Please visit Yellowbottom Recreation Site Day Pass Pass in Oregon - Recreation.gov for more information.
No ATVs or ORVs allowed within the recreation site.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Creek Wild and Scenic River. Facilities Vault toilets Natural Features Yellowbottom offers a beautiful…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 13 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek, Meadow
- Birding
- Fishing
- Gold Panning
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 660th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 25 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, 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.
“Standard fees apply and are non-refundable. Visit https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies for more information.” · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 sites
| Camp | 01 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 87 ft | 91 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 02 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 95 ft | 132 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 03 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 123 ft | 59 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 04 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 106 ft | 166 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 05 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 99 ft | 291 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 06 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 390 ftYellowbottom Creek |
| Camp | 07 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 63 ft | 353 ft |
| Camp | 08 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 64 ft | 386 ft |
| Camp | 09 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 64 ft | 350 ft |
| Camp | 10 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 284 ft |
| Camp | 11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 117 ft | 354 ft |
| Camp | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 135 ft | 329 ft |
| Camp | 13 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 107 ft | 197 ft |
| Camp | 14 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 80 ft | 242 ft |
| Camp | 15 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 89 ft | 150 ft |
| Camp | 16 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 69 ft | 238 ft |
| Camp | 17 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 83 ft | 151 ft |
| Camp | 18 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 81 ft | 223 ft |
| Camp | 19 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 78 ft | 233 ft |
| Camp | 21 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 226 ft |
| Camp | 22 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 74 ft | 170 ftYellowbottom Creek |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Southshore at Detroit Lake - Willamette (OR)13 mi
Yukwah CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 13 miTrout Creek CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 13 mi
Trout Creek Campground - Willamette (OR)Willamette National Forest · 13 miFrom Sweet Home: Drive east 5 miles on US-20 E/Main St toward 22nd Ave. Turn left on to Quartzville Road, continue on Quartzville Road for 18 miles.
From Sisters: Drive west 26 miles on US-20 W/W Cascade Ave., continue on US-20 W for another 42 miles. Turn right on Quartzville Road; continue on Quartzville Road for 18 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gates, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 36°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
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
Yellowbottom Recreation Site is in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Janelle Bynum (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →