Established Camping
North Fork Catherine Creek Campground
About
The North Fork Catherine Creek Campground is a unique facility since the campsites are spread out for over 1 mile beginning at the Buck Creek road up to the North Fork Catherine Creek Trailhead. Each campsite is set back in the cool evergreen forest and is a popular area in the summer months for those wanting to escape the heat, enjoy the sounds of the stream, view wildlife, or take a short hike along the creek. Also located nearby is the North Fork Catherine Creek Group Campground.
Access
- Drive-InPark next to your site
Stay Connected
- WiFiUnknown
- VerizonUnknown
- AT&TUnknown
- T-MobileUnknown
Site Types
- Tent Sites
- RV Sites
- Standard (Tent/RV)
- Group
Features
For Campers
- Picnic Table
- Firewood Available
- Toilets
- Pets
- Fires
welcome to the boonies
It's a nice little spot, but very few sites. Get there early or have a backup. We ended up in an unnamed spot just up the road.
Peaceful and free to camp
Lovely location in the mountains of Oregon. We drove a few thousand feet up a gravel road to get to this campsite. Easy access for my little sedan. I typed the latitude and longitude (found on the website) into my gps but lost service maybe 15 or 20 minutes before we arrived. Luckily it still was able to track our location and tell us “you have arrived” but as the campsite description said, these sites are spread out along the road, so it took us an extra 10 or 15 minutes to find the site we were going to stay at. The easiest campsites to find are at the trailhead of the North Fork Catharine Creek trail, which has a large parking lot with a minimal parking fee. The vault toilets are at this parking lot. For us, we crossed the bridge right before the parking lot and found a pull-off loop that had a few trailers with what seemed to be seasonal campers. They were cheerful and friendly. We went to the very back of the loop and found a nice secluded spot that was literally yards from the river. It was a primitive spot; it had no picnic table and only a fire ring made of rocks but since we had chairs we didn’t mind.
The forest floor was extremely easy to drive stakes into, and the river made a lovely background noise to fall asleep to.
The only thing I didn’t like was a couple bags of trash sitting on the side of the loop. We figured they were from the seasonal campers who put them at a distance so they didn’t have to deal with the smell. Not a great idea since an animal could get into it though. That’s something to keep in mind; THERE IS NO DUMPSTER so you have to pack all trash back out.
We stayed in the middle of July and it was delightfully cool, in the mid 70s during the day and dropped down to the upper 40s over night.
All in all a lovely overnight trip. I would go back.
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Location
North Fork Catherine Creek Campground is located in Oregon
Directions
From La Grande, Oregon travel south on Highway 203 for 14 miles towards Union, Oregon; in Union turn left on East Beakman St. and follow the signs to continue on Highway 203 (also known as Medical Springs Highway); From Union travel southeast on Highway 203 for 11 more miles to Catherine Creek Road (which becomes Forest Road 7785); Turn left on Catherine Creek Road and go 5.5 miles to campground entrance sign on the right;
Coordinates
45.1330002 N
117.62700082 W