Best Glamping near Mt. Hood National Forest

The park just added two nature playgrounds that are pretty fantastic. One of the new playgrounds, right before the boat launch, features a trail with a mud kitchen, two a-frame tents and a big area where you can use fallen logs and branches to build shelters.

The other nature playground is right across from the old playground (still in use) and has a wooden water course with a hand pump and an elevated wooden plank course.

Camping can be a little loud since it's a popular spot and there are no pets allowed, but it's barely 30 minutes away from Portland and right on the Sandy River.

This is a very secluded campground in the Mt. Hood National forest. It is located down a bumpy NF road. It has nine sites half of which have direct access to the lake. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. There is one pit toilet that was amazingly clean when we were there. The sites are dirt but are quite lovely. They are all heavily shaded. When we were there the Rhodies were blooming. It was pretty beautiful. There are various trails in the area and you can hike to another lake to the north. You can kayak or canoe on the lake. We saw some huge crawdads but didn't bother trying to catch any. You can fish the lake. You cannot reserve sites in this CG. Bring bug spray in the spring and summer.

This place is incredible. First to cover the basics.

The internet is super fast - I was getting 75mbps up/down when I was in my tent.

They have power/water hookups at each parking spot. The glamping tents have heaters, lights etc. There are heated indoor bathrooms with nice free hot water showers just a short walk away.

This place is at a year round camp/school that has multiple skate parks, trampolines, mountain biking courses, all season ski jumps etc. it’s an action sports camp.

They provide things like firewood and ice which they put in your cooler.

The people are super nice and accommodating. Ask for Jim - he handles all the camping stuff.

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!