Mt. Ashland campground offers higher elevation (6,000 ft.) camping with great views and access to the nearby Pacific Crest Trail. Located along the Siskiyou Crest near the Mt. Ashland ski area, the crest is known for wildflowers, butterflies and bird watching opportunities.  The campground has vault toilets, but no potable water, and no garbage service.  Please "pack it out".

Mount Ashland Campground

I stayed at Mt. Ashland Campground on the second night of my month long backpacking adventure along the Oregon section of the PCT. Therefore, I accessed it completely on foot and didn't have lots of amenities with me. That being said, this was a decent Forest Service campground. Let me start off with the the positives. 1) It is free! You can stay in Forest Service run campgrounds for up to 14 days within a 30 day period which is awesome. 2) Easy access via car. You can drive right up to the spots and there is at least one parking spot per site. 3) The views are amazing of Shasta. We had a beautiful sunset and clear skies so Shasta was glorious. 4) It has all your basic amenities for a campground: pit toilets, picnic tables, fire pits (some are normal pits and some are cooking pits). Now the negatives: 1) It is free so you can get an interesting group of people staying there and there is no reservation system. So, if you get there late you could possibly be SOL for a spot. 2) There is no water. Remember to bring your own or you can walk to the bottom of the road and filter in a slow seasonal stream. Related to this, there is no camp host so you need to provide any wood for fires. 3) The pit toilets were not really maintained. They were there which is great but not very clean or supplied.

All that being said, it was a great site that I would visit again if I was car camping. The views were great and the spots were spaced out enough that you didn't feel right on top of your neighbor. The spots were relatively small, however. One perhaps two tents max. It also lends itself to some great sections of the PCT and other hiking trails.

Mt. Ashland Campground

We enjoyed staying at Mt. Ashland. It is a marked campground that is FREE. Simply follow the road past the ski area and you will find it. All of the spots with fire rings were full when we got there, but there was space to park in the turnoffs or off-road past the campground for more private camping spots. It was quiet and peaceful. We stayed one night and we would stay there again! Great view from the mountain. 

Great free campsite

Nice little campground tucked up on the mountain that I stayed at for 3 nights. It has two pit toilets that were still open as of 10/20, little smelly but always stocked. There’s about 3 camp spots you can pull up to with nice fire pits and tables. Then there’s about 6 spots that are meant for tents/hike in spots. The sunsets are GORGEOUS and stargazing is amazing but it is WINDY and I mean, drops 20 degrees windy, rocks the van windy. Had 2-3 bars of LTE for AT&amp;T and met a lot of nice people who stayed. Saturday night was packed full, the rest of the nights it was me and maybe 1 other camper. Overall, definitely would come back. Not meant for big campers or large RV’s. Bumpy 1/4 to the campground and very tight turnaround spots in the pull in areas. Oh, and it’s FREE. You can stay up to 14 nights. 

Fabulous but small campground 

We were headed to this campground but the last 1/3 mile was blocked by gate and snow covered road so we ended up staying in the large parking area which was actually not bad and we stayed 3 nights.  Website indicates campground is temporarily closed.

  

Signs stated that a permit is needed to park in the parking lot from Nov 1-April 30.  The ranger we ran into on our hike to check out the campground said that it gets packed in the summer. The PCT runs near here so it is a place for thru hikers to stay. 

  

Campground has 2 unisex handicap accessible vault toilets.The sites are tucked away and for some you’ll need to park and walk. RVs or trailers would have a hard time finding a spot that would fit them, though we saw one or two that a small rig could squeeze into. There did not appear to be a good turn around so it is advisable to walk up the road to assess to see if your rig has a space or will even fit. The sites are not very level except for maybe smaller tents. The road coming up the hill was paved, but just beyond the gate the road turns to dirt. It branches off so you’ll want to stay to the right to reach the campground. 

  

The views are STUNNING with Mt Shasta in the distance and forest land extending as far as the eye can see. Very quiet and peaceful even in the parking area. There were a few other campers some with tents in the parking area so it is a common practice to crash here for a night or two. Good hiking or biking and in winter snowshoeing and cross country skiing, not to mention the Mt Ashland Ski Area is right here as well. 

  

Good cell service with ATT, Verizon, and TMobile.

Beautiful Area!

This site is amazing, with great views, fairly separated sites, cell service, and toilets (although those seemed to be fly breeding grounds at the moment). Each site has a picnic table, charcoal grill, and fire pit. We had an odd shaped site but still managed to fit a four person tent. There are only a few sites so I’d say the odds of getting a site depend on the night, we managed to get the last one of the night and arrived around 8. There were no bugs at night (though this is probably due to the high winds) but in the morning they all came out to play. From this site you have a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta and neighboring mountains. You do have to walk down a hill to get to each campsite also. Overall this place is beautiful and I would definitely recommend staying here!

Beautiful Views

Mt. Ashland had a campground at the peak, most of the year it has snow but those couple of months are really pretty, lots of wildflowers and mushrooms to pick! High elevation and strong winds. Pretty view of Mt. Shasta!

Only open a couple months out of the year 

The camp ground itself is fairly primitive but very reasonable for being FREE. There pit toilets with toilet paper and picnic benches + fire pits at each spot. Bring your own water!! The view alone is worth it for at least a night, can see all the way to Mt. Shasta, truly spectacular!! 

Amazing view!! 

I was told by the park ranger they shutting down the upper campground opposite the restrooms and refurbishing the whole campground. When doing that they should put 5 mph Traffic signs on either end of the campground due to the dust from bike transports and other vehicles speeding through and Creating massive amounts of dust! The cooler temperatures are great and there’s water access near the lodge to fill up your Hydro flasks￼