Oregon Camping

Anyone have recommendations for camping spots in Oregon? Preferably Mt. Hood or Tillamook State Forest area and somewhere we can park the truck and camp right there. My wife and I are trying to go somewhere this weekend. We've never camped in Oregon before (from Hawaii so we're used to just pulling up somewhere on the beach and camping) and we really want to start exploring the state a bit more. Any suggestions are welcome and tips/advice would be helpful as well.

Also, if people want you can use this thread as an overall camping in Oregon thread and post pictures and setups.

 

A lot of places to camp around hood. Most fs roads you can pull off to the side. Tons of lakes that you can camp on the water. I’ve camped on clear lake and it’s pretty awesome.

 

We were looking at clear lake and gave it some thought. Do you just pull up and park or do I need to get some type of permit?

 

I went to Tillamook twice this year so far;

First time around my girl and I went backpacking for a weekend and I will say, it was fun and beautiful but had some miserable moments.

We backpack with ultra light gear, and even though our Big Agnes tent kept us warm and dry, packing up the next morning sucked. Rain fly was completely wet as well as the ground we camped on. Took awhile getting everything shaken off as to not get the rest of our gear wet.

When we went back, we decided we'd rather spend more time enjoying the outdoors vs hiking through it. We stayed at a cabin at Cape Lookout; highly recommend it if you'd rather check things out at your own pace!

Reserve a cabin when it's warmer; I went when they were getting hit with heavy rain. It was fun though regardless since we hike and backpack through even worse weather just for the heck of it.

 

My favorite campsite near Sisters, great for boating, kayaking, and short hike around the lake, there some very nice sites where it overlooks the lake, book early: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/big-lake/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70586


If you can off road and want absolute peace, go here, I took a rental Subaru once here, and it was not easy to go over the rocks and mud. I’ve also taken the Tacoma thru here with no issues, so its not too crazy but depends before or after rainfall

I would bring a shotgun just in case of wildlife. You’ll be crawling about 2 hours thru the fire roads:https://www.muddycamper.com/oregon/badger-lake-campground/


For family I seriously think this is handsdown the best campsite in PAC NW area, book early ASAP:https://www.recreation.gov/camping/...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70945

 

I went on the side of the lake that you have to off-road a bit to but super easy for a Tacoma. I saw a Nissan Sentra make it, just a little bumpy. Pull in camp grounds. No reservations as it is fs lands. I have three permits: America the beautiful (NP pass/FS/BLM pass), discover pass (wa state parks, wa rec areas), and northwest forest pass (good for wa and or rec areas)

 

https://freecampsites.net/#!137330&query=sitedetails

I hope I don’t regret putting my second favorite camping spot up on the Internet

Also great way to find good camping spots for free

 

http://lostlakeresort.org/

Amazing view of hood from the lake. Good general store and a lot of trout. It's definitely not dispersed or primitive, but fun for a bigger group or family.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! We decided we're going to check out clear lake this weekend. Will try to post some pictures

 

Let us know how it goes! I've been at the main campground on the lake but never the primitive sites.

 

So we ended up camping at Nehalem Falls campground instead. Due to the rain on Saturday we didn't want to drive too far. We really enjoyed it there and would highly recommend it to others. The drive-in sites filled up quick but there's still lots of walk-in sites. On the drive over we also saw lots of spots you could pull into right off the road. We're trying to check out different spots during the summer but Nehalem Falls is a place we will be coming back to again for sure

 

We are headed out to Big Lake next weekend for some camping, kayaking, biking and fishing. Still trying to figure out how i'll get bikes, kayak, and all our gear in the truck without having a bed rack. Has anyone been to Big Lake and are there any easy trail drives (all my suspension and tires are stock) nearby?

 

Timothy is always a nice place and it has some fish....

 

Hell yeah. Rainbows? What did you catch them with? Boat or shoreline?

 

Rainbows and on the shore... green powerbait.

 

In the same area near Timothy and Clear lake is the old Barlow road/trail. It is a easy off-road drive with camp grounds along the way. Plus lots of places to explore from wherever you decide to set up camp. The further east you drive on it the drier the climate too.

 

nice work. if you ever want to do some fly fishing around the PDX area hit me up, i'm always looking for people with more experience than me lol.

 

Well if I remembered how to fly fish from when I was a kid I might take you up on it but it has been almost 25 years since I touched a fly pole.

 

Thanks for the info. Can you camp on the beach?

 

There are many “lake front” camp spots but this picture is on the boat ramp at one of the camp areas. There’s no real beach to camp on mainly because there is a trail that goes all the way around the lake