Best Glamping near Umatilla National Forest

We stopped by Anthony Lakes on our way back to the Willamette Valley from Baker City. The campsite is on a property that becomes a ski resort in the winter (it's at over ~7000 ft). The campground was immaculately maintained and had lots of recreation options. On weekends in the summer, the ski lift becomes a mountain biking lift, there are hiking trails, and of course lakes. The lakes themselves are pretty small, but big enough for some kayak adventuring and swimming. We got caught in a summer thunderstorm, so we were glad we had a shelter to pop up.

Our site was private with access to the lake trail. Pit toilets, but everything was very clean. There are also walk-up sites around the back of the lake which had more mosquitos, but were very spacious.  It looks like there is one yurt on top of the mountain. The mountain bike path goes by it, and it looks like it has great views.

This was an easy drive from Baker City, a little far from Portland unless you're going to make a multi-day vacation out of it. On the way through the mountains, there's plenty of gold mining history, a historical dredge, and some ghost towns to stop by. 

Lots of chipmunks, so watch what you leave out (even momentarily).

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.

Oregon always has beautiful state parks. This one is no different. It is close to Hwy 84, so there is road noise. The campsites don't seem to be as on top of each other as some places.

Excellent 1/2 point between home in Idaho and the Oregon Coast. Tent and full hook ups with helpful campground hosts.

Yes, you can hear the freeway from the campground - so it may not be recommended for tent campers.

This has been a historic place to stop on the way through the Blue Mountains since the Oregon Trail. It has a fair amount of freeway noise these days, though. Reasonably private sites with good shade. I would recommend it as a traveler's stop, but probably not as a multi-day vacation destination.

We have stayed here many times. 10 years ago was one of our favorites. Our families came from all over Oregon and Washington, even California. We came from Missouri. What an amazing family reunion. The park rangers were so nice. They had informed classes about animals in the forest. The Jr rangers program for the children was wonderful and hands on.

We stayed here in a tent site (no hookups) on our way back to Portland from Nevada. As an overnight cut-off campground, it’s lovely: Nice-sized sites set in beautiful Oregon forest (we’d been out of state for a couple weeks and REALLY appreciated the trees); clean bathrooms and showers; long “tent” sites that allowed us to back in our 18ft trailer without uncoupling for the night.

However, it’s right on the interstate. While you kind of tune it out after a while, the road noise is constant and definitely interferes with any sense of “wilderness”.

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.

We headed this way to get away from smoke caused by the 2020 Central Oregon fires.  It was a great choice.  Still hazy long distance views but had great views of the stars at night.  Peaceful and lovely spot.  We paddled on the lake, hiked around it, drove up to the top of the ski area for the view and part of our group hiked down from there.  We were able to drive through the campground with the 27' trailer we had rented but none of the spaces would have accommodated us (that we could see). We were lucky, though, they let us stay in the group camp since there were no reservations for a few days.  It was a little snug, but worked out beautifully.    The campground proper looked very pretty as well.

Nice campground, with cabins that you can rent. Lots of nature to explore! Nice big bathroom area at campground. Lots of space for picnics at the day use area

We stopped for a night on our way to Joseph. It seemed like a good stopping point near the highway. The campground is very well kept with nice touches such as a lit pathway through the woods to the washrooms. It is a shame that the campsites are directly by the highway. A half-mile into the forest would have made all the difference! The noise was very loud and traffic did not slow down at night. Eventually we got used to it and it faded into the background as white noise. Convenient but not idyllic.

This campground is great. We’ve stayed twice - once in a tent and once in a cabin and had a wonderful experience both times. We must have lucked out, because the nights we stayed traffic noise didn’t seem bad at all. Bathrooms are nice and clean. The surroundings are so pretty and walking through the campground is so peaceful!

So much history in this area. A nice little camp with full hookups, cabins and tent spots. LITERALLY right next to the freeway. Camp host was not friendly and the noise never stopped. Keep on going down the road and look for something else if you’re looking for a true outdoors experience.

We stayed at a cabin toward the end of the park. The cabins are great and super comfortable and the bathrooms are clean. Saw park staff cleaning and taking out the trash frequently. It is about 10 feet from the highway so loud all day/night.  Interesting history but the springs themselves have mostly been paved over by 84.  Hiking trails a bit confusing and mostly gas line right of ways.  Would recommend if you need a comfortable place to stay on a road trip but not exactly a "camping" getaway.

I just needed a stop on my way to Wallowa Lake. This was on the way. Heard the big trucks going by all night. A safe and decent place to spend the night, I wouldn't want to do more than that.

This is a really nice and maintained campground but the traffic noise from the interstate was awful. It was sometimes hard to carrying on a conversation because of the noise. I probably will not stay here again.

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.

This is a beautiful area and clean campground. There is too much road noise to enjoy the outdoors.

Beautiful setting in old growth timber. Freeway is literally adjacent, so entire campground is road noise. Some spots are directly looking over the freeway (A06) so try to get ones further west. The bathrooms are clean and there are a few short hiking trails. Maybe good for an overnight or if you plan to go elsewhere during the day. But not a place to spend much time.

We spend a night there in July on our way to Boulder Colorado. The campground is quite nice and bathrooms were clean and providing all needed functionality. Large and tall trees provided a very welcome shade during the heatwave we were going through. The only issue was that, we were tent camping and being close to the highway it was quite noisy.