I was in the area to hike the nearby "Iron Mountain" to see the unbeatable views of the Cascade peaks from the lookout at 5500 ft. elevation. You can see from Mt. Hood to the north, down to Diamond peak in the south; on a clear day. I unfortunately got a view of the west's own smokey mountains due to all the wildfires in the area. Good excuse to come back and top it again someday.

House rock was one of a few grounds that are right off hwy 20 within 10 or so miles from this and many other hikes. It is down a short gravel road from 20, so just far enough away to only get faint road noise. It is nestled in an Old growth forest with many Douglas firs and Big leaf maples; among other plant species.

Being the busy season in Oregon all of these campgrounds had the "full" signage at the entrance. I've learned not to trust these signs, as anything can happen, and with all of the campgrounds, these signs sometimes don't get flipped daily; especially if there is not a host on site. This visit is a perfect example, there are only about 10 sites in this two loop small primitive campground. All of the sites had been booked weeks out with tags behind tags on the site posts. I did luck out as the last empty spot I checked was a walk up site and the previous campers checked out and left; so I snatched it.

This is a pretty cool campground right on the Santiam river, with a few swimming holes, a waterfall and nice short and longer hikes. The shorter is to the cascading falls across a long wooden foot bridge. The longer is a trail that follows the old Santiam wagon road from back in the 1800's. You can still see the ruts in the trail at some points and you even pass by a large "House rock" with a cave that was used by pioneer families back in the day to seek refuge from storms. This trail continues on across and down a gravel road and then becomes a trail once again. You can follow this trail for about 4 miles one way to white mile post marker 5 and take a spur trail to the right. Take this to the top of "Knoll" viewpoint, here you get amazing views of the valley, Cone peak, Jumpoff Joe mountain, and if you plan to hike Iron mountain you can size up the challenge here before you tackle it. Although, Iron mountain trail starts at the trail head at Tombstone pass further up hwy 20.

I stayed here peak season and on the weekend, so there were some large groups that had booked a few sites together. This meant some whooping and hollering into the night, but also meant a peaceful early morning for me.

At $18 a night I was surprised at the lack of amenities, these include: 3 all gender pit toilets, garbage service, and an old fashioned water pump, that's it.

For me this was a great place to stay the night to prepare for the hike the next day. That way I could get up early and start my hike and have the mountain to myself. I'm glad I only stayed one night, I feel like this would be a good shoulder season campground, when there is still some snow on the mountains and not as busy.