Best Equestrian Camping near Macdoel, CA

I knew nothing about this place before going here. I was just here as a base camp to scout for elk, which I saw none of, for an upcoming hunting trip. This place was absolutely beautiful! They offer day use, horse use, and overnight use. The overnight use has 6 available spots at $10/day which is a deal given that the sites are ample with awesome picnic benches and fire pits. I’m never excited to use a campsite bathroom but this was immaculate and never smelled. Cleanest public bathroom I have ever encountered. There is a small stream that flows through the area coming from a beautiful meadow. All sorts of wildlife loves to visit, even deer. The camp is surrounded by a barbed wire fence to keep cows out, I’m assuming. There are cattle guards at both entrances of the site as well. This is my new favorite spot.

The Wildcat Campground in Oregon is great, however it does get pretty busy during the summer months. My family and I visited this campground for a few days at the beginning of August and it was packed. Thankfully we went early on Friday morning and got a spot before the rush of people came. It is a "first come first serve" campground so you are not able to call ahead and reserve your spot. You just have to get their early! The campground is located in the Ochoco National Forest. It is definitely a beautiful place to camp. It is relatively close to town, which is why I think it gets busy during the summers. There were a lot of college aged students camping, which did make it pretty loud. My family has a camper, which is allowed in this campground. They have spots for campers, and spots for tents. Each campsite does have a picnic table which is nice. We always bring extra chairs because we are a family of 5 so the picnic table gets a little overcrowded. My family and I really enjoyed doing some hikes nearby (can't remember the names of the hikes), but we looked everything up beforehand. Gorgeous views, but lots of ticks on the hike. Thankfully we all wore tick repellent and smothered our dog in it as well. One thing I wish this campground had was a river/lake within walking distance from the campground.

When we first moved to Oregon, my family and I wanted to get out of a hotel while we searched the area for housing! The staff here was friendly, and easy to work with. They have clean bathroom facilities with nice hot showers! The camp sites are a bit close, but the location is surprisingly not frequented often from what I’ve noticed. There is a boat launch, and other areas where you can simply fish off the banks. Short trails are here as well! If you’re looking for longer trails there are plenty all around that you could do a short drive to or walk along the highway (don’t worry, the camp itself is not directly on the road!). The small town of keno is not far from camp either, so if you are in need of more ice or propane, they have small town “stores” to get your essentials from! Or, if you are in need to restock larger items, Klamath Falls is only 25 mins away. There’s lots of wildlife here as well! Deer, fish, birds, rabbits, the occasional mountain lion as well. Have fun, be safe!!

I picked a spot right on the lake where I chose a comfy log to sit and enjoy a book. There is lots of wildlife around the lake; dusk coaxed several deer out to the water, lots of birds throughout the day, and the sound of frogs at night.

This campground has bathrooms and showers, though the bathrooms weren’t the cleanest for such a well-developed campground. Fire rings are available, but bring firewood with you. There’s plenty of wood laying around to burn, but I’m not sure what the campground’s policy is for foraging.

The lake was too low to use the boat ramps and warnings of leaches and skin parasites made the water itself uninviting, but the campground itself was great and there’s plenty of options for hiking nearby.

Oh yeah, the road up the mountain coming from I-5 was made of narrow switchbacks straight up along the side of a cliff. I white-knuckled it the whole way in my little car... not for the faint of heart. The views were breathtaking though.

We had the place to ourselves for a week at end September/beginning of October which was great. We enjoyed the shaded campsites with a tent and the rest of our party parked their RV with ease. There are pit toilets, garbage cans and well with a hand pump.

Hiking in the area is nice with a 3.5 mile loop to the lake and back. There’s additional trails and tracks across the road from Lily Glen. We came just before hunting season… be mindful of hunters if exploring the BLM lands during season. The night sky was gorgeous.

The only drawback was the constant noise of logging trucks at night. They were coming from Keno Road so the noise included them gearing down to the stop sign and then getting back up to speed when passing the campground.