Best Cabin Camping near Umatilla National Forest

We stopped for a night in a rustic camping cabin at Emigrant Springs in July of 2015. It was a welcome dose of green after a long day of brown along the interstate through Idaho and western Oregon. The cabin was rustic, the shower house was in good repair with nice hot showers. There seemed to be good space and shade around the sites offering some privacy. Great spot! Take the time to stop in Meacham on the West side of I-84 tomstop at The Oregon Trail Cafe - literally the ONLY store in this teeny town. Wonderful hospitality, the local ‘scoop’ and great breakfast.

When we arrived after dark the 200 ft path to our cabin was cleared and we could easily drag our items stacked on a tarp to our cabin. The cabin does share a wall with another party but it was funny to hear the children laugh and play. It was below zero but the electric heater kept us toasty warm. The bathroom and shower is about 300 ft away if you walk through two feet of snow. We brought a collapsible toilet to have on the covered porch. Drove up to the bathroom when needed. The park ranger spent all day moving snow and keeping the roads through the campground excellent. The bathrooms and showers are always clean. The day we left the park ranger came and moved another foot of snow so we could easily pack out. We brought our instant pot and warmed are already prepared foods. If you don't want things to freeze you got to keep them in your cooler. We brought lots of cozy blankets and could hotspot the computer to watch movies. Make sure you follow trip check for closures of i-84 if camping during snow.

First, the office staff was stellar! Very friendly & helpful! The park & bath house are tidy & clean. Appreciate that dog poop bags are conveniently located, and wide grassy strips around the perimeter provide places for potty walks (unlike some RV parks where the only grass is at campsites). Great big kudos to other dog owners for cleaning up after their dogs, too! However, for the price, we were not impressed with the rest of the park. Only 2 showers in each restroom with a cramped, shared dressing space. We also were disappointed with the soaking pools, which were small for this size park. Even tho a huge grassy area at one end of the park could be a lovely off-lead dog area, sadly it is not, and dogs are not allowed off-lead anywhere. For those of us with active/young dogs, a safe place for them to RUN, jump, play, & expend energy after a travel day is hugely appreciated.

This location is pretty nice with full hookups and a fair amount of space per site. I’m not sure what the policy’s are but during booking I was told there was only one side available and it was a full hook up RV site that was the most expensive rate. I didn’t need that being fully contained in my truck camper, but I though having electrical and water would be nice. When I arrived o found 95% of the campground empty and saw only 3 other campers over the course of the weekend all in spots right next to mine even thought nearly all spots were vacant.

We stayed at Grande Hot Springs RV Resort in June and September 2021. We really enjoyed our stay at this park. We stayed in site 2 which was a large pull-thru site for our fifth wheel. Sites are long, flat, and level with 50 amp, water and sewer hookups. We enjoyed the great walking paths around the perimeter of the park to walk our dogs. The pool and hot tub are heated geothermally and are warm, soothing, and oh, so relaxing. We can’t say enough about the professional staff, who were warm, friendly, and helpful. We even had some packages delivered here, which was a big bonus for us. We a lot of other friendly campers here. The WiFi is top-notch. This is our favorite Oregon campground and we highly recommend a stay here. For videos on the campground, visit YouTube: Jeff & Steff’s Excellent Adventure.