Best Dispersed Camping near Gardiner, OR

I love heading out that way. I have seen reviews of the place talking about tweaker the place but I have not had any encounters with anyone like that. And I love that it is dispersed camping all around there. I travel a little bit up the creek past the pond. Beautiful area a good fishing.

The views around the pond are very nice. Campsites are okay; some better than others. There's one bathroom facility but it's towards the entrance and the beginning of sites at the pond so be prepared with a shovel and TP. There are so many logging roads at this camp ground/mountain with dispersed camping available anywhere with flat ground you just might not be close to the pond. I went on a Friday and there were alot of people but the sites were spread out nicely you didn't really get bothered by anyone. My site was the last one by the water before it turns marshy though you could pass my site and drive for miles on logging roads. Fishing from shore is not advised; at least from my camp site. There's a large tree that runs out into the water which looks like a great place to fish but as you walk to the end of the log you'll see fishing lines all over. I lost 3 lures at that log and I think many others had too. Even watched one guy from camp try and fish there but he too got some snagged though he went in after them. A paddle boat or kayak is best; no motorized boats allowed. There's not a whole lot to do at this place. No trails that I could find so my dog and I walked on logging roads for a couple miles. This trip was spur of the moment and just wanted to get away for a night. I don't think I would come back. But some of the pictures and views were highlights of the trip.. there is a convenient store right before the entrance of the grounds though I never went but I'm sure you could get some essentials if forgotten.

Very secluded but spacious sites. From the start of Marlow Creek Road to where I chose to camp was 8.5 miles. There are several forks in the road that you can follow to more campsites, but I opted to camp right off the main road. I was the only car out there. Really beautiful spots aside from the trash that was unfortunately scattered in several sites. Worth the long drive in.

The Elliott State Forest has more than 550 miles of roads and trails, but only a primary network has been maintained over the past 10 years since the 90,000 acre area was shut down with environmental lawsuits. Many of these roads lead to excellent camping sites, including old lookouts, fishing holes, secluded springs, and an undeveloped campground favored by local mudrunners. Met organization has worked with the local Community College the past seven years regarding recreational research on the Elliott, with our most recent (and likely final) focus being on historic trails and primitive campsites. The pandemic caused much of this work to be documented on student-level videos, indexed on YouTube: http://www.orww.org/Elliott\_Forest/Recreation/index.html and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1JyKCHg2GmHjLtQzXXDks4Rb-LE9HoJ-

Nice pull off dispersed place to camp. Some sketchy people around but availability to get away from people up the road

Campsite: was lovely

Location: about 20 feet from the road where we parked, right along the pond. 

Things people may want to be aware of: there were a few logging trucks and such using the road by the campsite, the bathrooms were not super close to the site, and campfires are not permitted.

Super large campsite! I think only one other car passed by the whole night/morning. Ground was relatively level and decently cleared.

Our weekend at Hult Pond was unforgettable. I know because I have tried.

Disbursed camp sights sprawl along this man made log pond and nightmarish horror movie set along a footpath seamingly designed to dump its evening travelers into the muck that is Hult Pond. Jagged old logs poke out of the stagnant water as a reminder that someone used to get paid to spend the day here.

 If this doesn’t sound like the most picturesque of settings I would direct you to the strange log loading equipment rusting just on the forbidden side of a gated barbed wire fence. Upon closer inspection you see what must be tetanus’s way of luring barefoot boys and girls into a summer of drooling lockjaw.

The access road is a still functioning rock quarry road that hosts a never ending parade of old rattling dump trucks and loaders. Nothing says ,”getting away from the hustle and bustle”  quite like a convoy barrelling down a narrow road spilling basketball sized boulders before returning bouncing back up  empty and clearly attempting to meet a quota.

The whole thing gave me an uneasy sense of nostalgia. Reminding me of the days we would gather by the dozens with red solo cups full of Hams. We would drink ourselves into a vomiting delirium in a parking lot off some old logging road. We would wake up with profanities drawn on our faces as punishment for succumbing to alcohol poisoning sooner than at least one of our classmates. 

In fact I believe that’s exactly what the 58 kids in the campsite right next to ours we’re doing each night of our trip.

The girls  learned all sorts of colorful language and I believed, based on the way my ten year old son  was drooling that the tetanus had succeeded. I was not relieved to discover on our final morning, him wreaking of cheap beer and cigarettes and moaning how horrible he felt while proffering his undying love to a high school girl named Tiffany. 

Not recommended.

It was a cool place to camp. We just drove about 4/5 miles down Marlow creek and found a small pull off to camp. No phone service but the Forest was beautiful! We walked through the creek for a little bit. Not to many good pull off options. It was super damp and rainy while we were there so we’re unable to start a fire. The road had quite a few pot holes but still pretty nice.

We stayed all day but decided not to stay a night. Our day stay was due to the road being too steep for my 1993 truck camper. It got too hot and blew the transmission, made a nice long trail in the steep road.

We made it to the 6 mile marker, where a nice couple of people stopped and went into town for us to get what we needed to not be stranded.

If we could have drove further up I’m sure our experience would have been different.

We stayed for a night on our way down the coast. Nice and close to Bandon. No trouble accessing in our midsize suv. It was muddy at the site, and unfortunately, those before us left a lot of trash. Did my best to clean up when was left behind. There was a fire pit but we did not use it due to fire restrictions. Nice misty views over the trees in the morning.

Nice, cleared spots, not too many other people.

The sites are sling the right side of the of the road, the road that leads along the left (west side) of the lake. There are several sites, we stayed in H2, which is painted on the road. It's a short 30 feet walk to the site from the parking spot. We had a lakefront site which was private and spacious. There was easy access to the lake, which us full of jumping fish. We had a great time, people were friendly and it was relatively quiet. We are glad to have made the trip to "Horton Lake". Definitely recommended.

We got there a little after noon and the hood spots were taken that are on the lake. However I drove further up and camped at H5. It was a lot more private, and we had the creek to ourselves.