Best Dispersed Camping near Canby, OR

I was running in an ultramarathon race in September in the Mt Hood National Forest and all of the local campgrounds managed by PGE around Timothy Lake were closed due to the end of the season.  I was able to use map layers in The Dyrt PRO to identify where I was within National Forest boundaries and was able to confirm with local officials that I was in a free, dispersed camping zone. So, using the map layers and the search function on The Dyrt I looked for an area near the race start at the Historic Clackamas Ranger Station to park my RV for a 2 night off-grid stay.  The location was a wide gravel area on the side of the road that allowed for enough space to park, put out my awning, set up some chairs and a propane fire pit (no live campfires - propane only) while being within a few hundred yards of the Ranger Station.  There was room to walk along the road on the shoulder and you are very close walk to the Historic Clackamas Ranger Cabin with a beautiful meadow view, the Joe Graham Horse Camp, and just a couple of mile drive from Timothy Lake.  Clackamas Lake Campground was nearby as well with many accessible miles of hikable trails, including access to the Pacific Crest Trail, for hikers of all levels. There was some smoke from local wildfires but that went away as the fall rains arrived that weekend.  If you are looking for a place to park your RV near all of these amazing views and experiences this free, dispersed camping site worked great for me and my family for a couple of nights.

I stopped for the night while traveling and found a huge dispersed camping area right off the road. Unfortunately, some disgusting, disrespectful, immature family left a ton of garbage and feces all over the site. There were three sites with piles of feces and toilet paper right on the camp site. Not 100 feet away, not buried. It was disgusting. This makes me lose faith in humans.

Great place to disperse camp. Lots of pulloffs and the views are stunning!

The Cedar Creek Rd area offers a nice variety of dispersed camping sites with some good views if you drive far enough, and fairly easy gravel roads for access. However, the signage could use improvement, making it a bit tricky to find your way around. Heard some OHV noise at night, and target shooting in the distance at sunrise. Be aware that Verizon cell service is nonexistent in the area. Not a bad place to stay, but you’re likely to run into others also looking for some nature.

There are many park campgrounds in the Mt Hood NF but also tons of dispersed camping in the forest.

We camped off FS 2656 just south of Trillium Lake in August 2020. There are many other locations. Many are separate drives off a forest road but some side of the road spots too. Lake Trillium gets super crowded.

Download the forest map from Avenza for accurate locations of all the forest roads and trails.

The Mt Hood NF is amazing, with tons of lakes, creeks, waterfalls and hiking trails as well as great views of Mt Hood.

No amenities for dispersed locations but you can use nearby campgrounds for water, trash and dump stations.

There was decent Verizon service when we camped there.

Would definitely camp here again.

Diamond Milld rd is a tight logging rd with a kinda steep danger zone cliff on this edge. If you get to spot (the coordinates on dyrt arent exact but close) you will see basically the only part of the rd with a pull aside areai prob for two vans or cars. Its a nice view but kinda creepy if alone IMO. The dispersed camping for this St Forest applies to tenters mainly being 1 mile away from a paid campground. But for just car and van camp youd have to chance it at day area or drive way in to the forest down a rd.

Tillamook Forest has so many amazing dispersed camping opportunities! We turned onto Ben Smith road and then took logging trails up the peaks. We found a perfect spot that looked like we were on the edge of a cliff but was actually still very safe for our toddler. No cell service, so we just unplugged for 3 nights and enjoyed the time together. We could see the northern lights the first night we were there, and it was absolutely incredible. We had a lot of privacy. One hunter walked by, I assume he was using the nearby trail. We heard some ATVs over the days, but it wasn't disruptive. Totally recommend it, and we'll definitely be back.

Ended up backpacking up here on a whim right before I headed back to Utah. I started at the Top Spur trailhead and hiked the clockwise route up to McNeil (a little longer but saved be the scramble through rocks). On my way I ended up going to Muddy Fork which added about 4 miles to my overall trek up. I ended up camping at the point rather than further down, which was a challenge to carry my pack up, but so worth it in my opinion. It’s dispersed camping so solitude is easily reachable considering not too many people stay the night. This was easily one of the top 5 most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen. The mountain range is unbeatable and waking up to Mt. Hood as your veiw is incredible. It’s a challenge with the best reward.

This place is dreamy, lots of different routes to camp spots, we found an isolated area with a small opened peak overlooking the forest which was amazing. You can hear the highway in the distance (quietly) and occasional aircraft but it was overall peaceful. It is quite a steep incline so be cautious, I would not recommend with snow or sleet, but we definitely want to go back to explore the other routes! There is absolutely no cell service, if you have a hot spot I would recommend it, but once you enter the forest there is poor service.

I camped on another spur road off of FS 2656. Definitely download the mvum from Avenza beforehand to make things easier. Peaceful, quiet, and I had cell signal. Road can be rough in some places but 4WD not necessary. Not many pull-in camping spots so you’ll have to search around. Overall decent spot and close to Trillium Lake

We wanted a beginner backpacking trip (10 to 12 miles round trip) close to town - this one is a pretty hike with views at the end (theoretically, we saw fog). We passed up the best camping spots because they were too early in the trail (at the creek) and ended up setting up camp in wider part of the trail (about 3 miles in, after night had fallen). The other hikers were friendly, though, and didn't seem to mind us making camp pretty much anywhere. In our situation the camping was definitely not the main event! We came for the hike and slept along the way. The camp spots at the creek would have been quite nice for camping itself though.

FS Rd 2656 across from Trillium Lake Campground. Follow 2656 up a couple miles. Turn left on porcupine Trail. There is one small campsite on your left approximately 100 yards. Then a larger one at the end of porcupine Trail. This one is much larger and will accommodate four people. 

Free, quiet, and new. Show up whenever you feel like - it belongs to everyone. Just make sure you clean up after yourself!

Such an awesome find! The first campsite is small and perfect for a couple tents. The second site could easily fit 3 or 4 tents and has plenty of additional space for parking, kitchen set-up, etc… both sites also have really nice fire pits. Also don’t let the Trillium Lake camp hosts scare you. They told us the gravel road to access the sites was “rough as hell” and were completely wrong. Nothing more than a few potholes. Any vehicle could make the trek.

We stopped here for the first time for a hike and to check out the camping situation. The hike is just under a mile long, one way. Keep right at the fork early on to go the right way. Really pretty and shaded. You cross a few foot bridges and it opens up to a fairly good sized camping area with some scattered fire rings. It was surprisingly sparse camping wise for a saturday. Great view of the water just across a dry creek bed and over the hill. Good number of people enjoying the river and a few kids swimming but it was freezing so i dont know how they did it!

Parking lot was fairly full, there might be room to park on the road but im not sure.

I wouldn’t want to camp here because of the foot traffic and how close you have to camp to other people. Might work out good for others though!

Also just a reminder to please pick up your trash and toilet paper. I saw it all over the place at the sites along 224 and its just gross.

This spot is pretty remote, so it was very quiet. There are a few downsides to this spot though: there appeared to be a few semi-permanent campers along the route, the actual gps spot has a bunch of trash and has been used as a drug-up spot (broken syringes and caps), and the route to this spot via Google Maps takes you down the wrong road at first. I can’t recommend this spot because of all these things, but it did have some pleasant views and was quiet.

Went up at the end of the snow season and I couldn't quite make it. My 4wd rav only has road tires and I eventually got to a point I wasn't able to make it. My brothers 2022 Outback did completely fine but regardless we had to turn back. I plan to revisit the site here in about two(ish) weeks. The area surrounding the site is trafficked regularly by the looks of it, lots of people coming out shooting, HOWEVER the area is patrolled very heavily by Sheriff Department. I was told by a guy more akin to the area that the spot is a pretty normal spot for locals and that some better areas are farther up.

A lot of back roads some very rocky, some paved roads. We were able to find the best spot at like 2 am away from everyone.

This area is at the Trillium Lake turn off of highway 26. Very easy to get to and the road is paved until you near the area that you can begin camping. I would say smaller/lower vehicles will have to drive slowly and carefully, but most compact SUVs and larger can make it just fine. You can’t hear any traffic out here—just nature. Keep in mind that this area will be closed to vehicle traffic when the Trillium Lake gates close for the snowy season.

There’s a large gravel area that’s higher up and it’s nice to watch the sunset there. If you don’t plan to camp, the drive back to 26 isn’t creepy at all in the night. It’s dark, but not scary, and the road isn’t lighted but there are scattered reflectors on the trees.

I have T-Mobile and I had full 5G service out there. (I don’t know how to submit that info anywhere else, haha)