Best Campgrounds near Gates, OR

The marker on the map is where the information kiosk is. If you follow the road to the right of the reservoir there are some developed campsites/boat launches with a fee (and composting toilets). Keep driving. This area is freshly burned, but there are still very treed dispersed sites past the more developed ones. Pass the sign for Mona campground but before the bridge and signs that warn about falling rocks. On the left side there are five dispersed sites along the river. There is a small marker "180" at the entry to the turnoff. Beautiful and quiet. Minimal trash that we cleaned up, steep routes to the river. We were there early March, no snow.

Just starting to plan my summer trips and Dyrt is very helpful

In the past few camping visits, I have witnessed a cis man in the women's upper pool bathroom. The first time was in November 2024, I was exiting the shower completely naked and he was standing in front of the bathroom stalls looking at me. I was shocked and told him he was in the wrong bathroom and he said he "made a mistake". The second time was this past weekend in January 2025, and I was just using the bathroom and he walked out as I walked in. I reported to the front desk and they said it wasn't the first time this had happened and sent someone to look into it. I was so upset by it happening multiple times that we left a night early. I emailed the owners who said they never heard anything about it, blamed me for feeling unsafe, and said they couldn't/wouldn't do anything different to address the safety concern. If you're a woman, you know how vulnerable this is. The upper bathrooms are 24/7 and unmonitored. If you are going to go, and you need to use the bathroom after 9pm (when the lodge bathrooms close), I'd say bring mace and have a safe person stand outside this door. This is not overreacting. Sexual assault happens, Belknap should do better.

What can I say? Silver Falls is a magical place and everyone should experience it.  You can just get lost in the beauty of it all.  The cabins are small but comfortable with heat, lights, and beds.  Covered porch is nice to sit and listen to the rain.

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.

Ok site. Not especially scenic, but good outdoor space with lots of owl and bug noise at night.

Right next to road. Cars come by somewhat regularly, at some speed, kicking up dust.

There is an open spot suitable for solar and starlink.

As of Oct 2024 - still shut No access to bathrooms but can pay 5 for day use of their picnic benches

The river is loud you could hear it from both sides of the road. I actually looked, and there are rivers on both sides of the road. It is out of the way there is no light pollution. At night cars rarely come by. The campsite was clean and relatively level. However bring an extra block for your tongue jack. The only reason it wasn't five stars is because there's absolutely no T-Mobile cellular internet service. There is cell phone operation.

We went as a group of 8+ families, booking a number of different campsites in two groupings, one on the riverfront, one on the backside of the loop.  The campground layout is a large loop with a road down the center, so was great for kids riding bikes around and playing.

The riverside sites were beautiful but ours was very close to an outhouse that was extremely full and smelled very bad.  It really needed to be cleaned out and clearly hadn't in a long time.

Also the river was super cold and very fast moving, which at times was a little scary with a ton of young kids running around.

Camp Sherman was only a mile away and has fresh donuts in the morning.  I was able to ride over on my electric skateboard and it was a beautiful enjoyable ride.

There was also a small bridge 7-10ft above the river that folks jumped off of which was fun.

We didn't have any major problems with bees or mosquitos as some other folks mentioned that they had in previous reviews.

We had one morning evening where fog was rolling across the river and it was uniquely beautiful.  Overall it's a great spot, but would have been perfect if the maintenance had been better and the outhouse smell wasn't so bad.

Closed due to fire damage

It's a wonderful app for finding quick stays. I stayed at steelhead falls and it was perfect

Camping along side gravel road some spots better than others. Gets really busy on major holidays so go claim a spot early.