Mount Hood National Forest Armstrong Campground - TEMP CLOSED FOR FIRE

We booked this site last minute for fourth of July. As expected, most campsites were already booked, but there is a handful of small campgrounds on the Clackamas river that seem to always have last minute availability. This is one of them. We came out here for one night to get out of the city, and it was a pleasant stay. The campground is relatively small and close to the road, but the proximity to the river is great. There's a flat part of the river that everyone brings their camping chairs to in order to sit in the river. That part is quite nice. Beside that, it's a place to pitch a tent. I would consider this again for an escape from the city, if the larger state campgrounds are already filled.

The campsites are mostly private with decent spacing between them. The water moves swiftly by the campground so swimming with children isn't available but there is a very small beach like space under the highway bridge where you can access some slower water for playing. Best sites in my opinion with privacy and easy access to water are number 10 and number 4.

Situated on the Clackamas River in the Mt. Hood National Forest. River is easily accessible from most riverside sites. Hiking trails nearby (I enjoyed the Fish Creek trail just up the road). Vault toilets were in good shape in April 2019 and there is water available via hand pump well.

This is a beautiful campground nestled down by the Clackamas River. You can hear it rushing by the campsites, which are right down by the water. Each campsite has a nice sturdy picnic table and a fire pit with built-in grill. The restrooms at some of the cleanest, nicest-smelling pit toilets I've ever seen at a campground, conveniently located within the campground.

Each site was generously roomy. Our camping trip was, in part, a chance to test drive the new Chevy Blazer SUV. It's a big car but there was no problem maneuvering it through the campground or parking it at our site. We might have even been able to fit another, smaller vehicle too if we had more than one party with us. We had no problem pitching two two-man tents and getting out two camp chairs, and would have had room for a third easily. And although the campground is in sight of one of Oregon's classic pretty bridges and there is some road noise, it's balanced out by the white noise of the Clackamas and wasn't a problem.

Nearby Fish Creek campground was much busier than Armstrong on a rainy Wednesday night, but we had Armstrong almost entirely to ourselves. A vanlifer left sometime that evening and a camper in a pickup truck with two kayaks appeared close to bed time. Other than that, everything was quiet, secluded and just right for relaxing. We even got to see a bald eagle the next morning!