Best Cabin Camping near Philomath, OR

Smith Creek Village is such a great place for easy lodging in nature. My family stayed in one of the tiny cabins. The cabin was very clean and well kept. The cabin was nearby a few other similar cabins, but everything felt very private. There was nice walking paths and a large grass area supplied with lawn games.

We decided to take the easy route this particular trip and ate all our meals at the Big Leaf Coffeehouse. The food there is fantastic and the building has a cozy lodge vibe.

Another thing that I loved about Smith Creek Village is that although the Silver Falls state park is always busy, Smith Creek Village is not. It feels like a hidden gem inside the state park. We definitely plan on coming back.

This campground is one I wanted to visit for the chance to check out the hiking trail nearby that has tons of waterfalls along it (Ten Falls Trail). I wasn't sure I would be able to hike very far and I was right. I hiked down into the canyon to walk behind South Falls. It was spectacular! I’m glad I hiked that particular trial since I only had enough energy for that one. It was quite steep down into the canyon and wet in most areas. Watch your step! The full trail is 8.2 miles. They had a nice place to buy snacks and meals, a gift shop, and had nice printed trail information posted at the trailhead. The campground itself isn’t huge and was fully booked, but it is decently laid out (sites have nice space between them). Most sites are shaded. They sell firewood, have a pavilion with picnic tables, a playground for the kids, and have a few small cabins you can rent by the night. The campground is kind of close to a somewhat busy road, but the noise wasn’t too bad. The bathhouse was clean and approximately 100 yards from my campsite down a footpath. The only thing I was disappointed to see was that two of the 4 showers were out of order. I had fantastic cell service here (AT&T) and was able to text, call, and go online on my phone (which is nice since I work online). Given the fact that I was unable to physically do more hiking this trip, I would definitely come back to this campground to try another section of the trail to see more waterfalls since the trailhead is only 1.5 miles from the campground.

We had a great time staying at River Bend! This was our first trip here and won’t be our last, we’ve already made reservations for next year.

The sites were maintained very well and the camp hosts were very friendly. In addition to the paved driveway for our trailer, there always a nice, large concrete pad for the picnic table with a fire pit built on to the corner. The neighboring site on the right was 20-30 yards away and the site on the left was 100+ yards away. Lots of trees all around, good shade for those hot August days.

The bathrooms for the loop were a nice walk but not too far and they were cleaned 2x per day.

We spent most of our days at the river swimming, floating in tubes, skipping rocks and looking for crawdads. It was an easy walk on well maintained trails to get to the river.

The playground and adjacent field were fun for playing and games in the evenings.

Being a long, hot year there were no fires allowed in the fire pits. That was a small bummer, but the fire danger was so high that it wasn’t a big deal. We used our propane fire ring instead and that was great. Kind of nice coming away from a camping trip and not smelling of smoke 😁

The South Beach State Park Campground is at the mouth of the Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon. The first thing you'll notice is the wind on the way in. Generally, north to south in the summers, the wind is strong, always strong, like 30 mph or more pretty much all the times according to the locals. It felt like it was raining, but it was just water being blown off the ocean. However, once you're in the campground you don't notice it at all since it is well protected by surrounding dunes and tree line.

There is a Tim Burton-esque trail system surrounding the camp leading out in all directions to the beach and bay. Some trails are blacktopped, some sand, and some horse accessible. Google maps struggled to get me to the correct entrance so pay a little more attention when arriving.

My visit was during Oregon Parks day so camping was free. The Hiker/Biker area is just inside the camp entrance across from the hospitality yurt where you can get hot tea, coffee, ice cream, wood bundles, stickers and Oregon Parks merchandise. The camping (all of it) area itself is pretty open with minimal privacy or separation from your neighbors, but everything is very clean and organized. 

The campground was packed, and the RV/Tent area was essentially a parking lot. It seemed like a lot of families to come to the same place, the same weekend every year. However, it was a well regulated, and well behaved campground. The nice thing about this campground is the location. There are hiking trails, beach access, and it is close to all the amenities of Newport. Once you left the camp on a trail you could wander the trees without seeing anyone for awhile if you needed to get away.

Hiker/biker area had faux fencing built up to separate sites and wood platforms to get tents off the ground which I haven't seen in any other hiker/biker camps. The fences were a bit weird but made it easy to lock up a bike, hang some laundry and would a good stop if I were traveling with a hammock.

Amenities include:

• Camp Store
• Storage box with usb charging station
• Raised wood platforms for tents
• Flush toilets
• Hot free showers
• Access to beach & trails
• Walking distance to Rogue Brewery, Yaquina Bay State Park, South Beach State Park, 
• Bike Stand and tools
• Fire pit and picnic tables

Pro-Tip: In Newport, just across Yaquina Bay, is the Newport Bike Shop. It is one of the few bike repair shops along the coastal Oregon Route. If you get a $35 bike tune up you can take a break in their upstairs lounge with tv, wifi, fridge with beverages, and washer/dryer.

The park is beautiful, I made sure to see all the falls (except of Winter Falls which wasn't running), and the hike was great. The park is pretty big so you do have to drive from your campsite to the trailhead, not quite hike-in.

We stayed in one of the cabins, which was quaint and nicely separated from the rest of the sites. The cabin has two small rooms, with a dining area and a sleeping area. There's no fancy appliances but we brought an electric cooler to keep our food cold, and the bathroom and parking was a short walk away. The site was outfitted with a fire pit with grill and picnic table.

On the first night we were awoken to rustling through our stuff in the other room and when I checked it out a mouse booked it out of there. Not a big deal but my fiance and I found it a little hard to sleep after that. Be sure to keep any food in your car rather than the cabin. Another night an army of raccoons made its way through our campsite, despite all our food being put away. On our way out we told the ranger about the mouse in the cabin and they didn't seem phased by it, I don't expect they did much to fix the hole (which we spotted the next day and tried to cover). Would have preferred just to stay in a tent and save a bit if the cabin is so obviously penetrable.