Gales Creek Campground

Lucked into an empty spot, host was great and it had everything you need (bathroom, water, trails, fire pit).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zsbtamvRM9I&feature=share

Video of our trip to Gales creek campground. Awesome little campground near PDX. Spaces are fairly small so no campers over 25ft I’m guessing.

I love this campground it’s about 40 minutes from Portland and is a perfect retreat from the city life; that being said there is no cell service whatsoever. There’s lots of trails and a couple bathrooms. The spots are nice especially on the B loop but too close together for my liking. Other than that I highly recommend this campground!

Came here early on a Friday, trying to find a place for the weekend. Only 2 sites left. Neither were level, but I used my levelers for the first time. 

The creek is pretty small. Young forest of beech and maple. Nice hiking trails. Lots of families. Very peaceful.

Took my family here for the first time and it was very pleasant! The spots are nicely spaced out to provide privacy and each have a fire pit and picnic table. The spaces range in size but every space that was open was more than enough to accommodate my family of 5.

There are ample amount of trails that lead down to the creek where kids can splash around in. If you want to get a more swimming vibe there is a pool of water in the creek at the day use area which is a 5 minute walk from anywhere in the campground.

You can’t beat this place for $20 a night!

This campground was right on Gales Creek, with lush vegetation providing nice privacy. It was completely full when we were there and fairly loud during the day. I felt that there were not enough bathrooms to accommodate a full campground, and as such, the vault toilets were rather unpleasant.

This campground is absolutely beautiful. Tons of greenery and places to splash in the creek. Not many sites though and usually prettt full on summer days. Get there early!

Just off highway 6 (between Portland and Tillamook) is a series of lovely campgrounds in the Tillamook State Forest. Gales Creek is the first one you'll find on your way coming from Portland, and it's one of my favorites. The sites are surrounded by trees, and, if you're lucky, you can grab one next to the cute river than runs through the camp. Enough fun things to do like hikes or play with the water pump. The bathrooms are nothing fancy, and there's no showers, but the price is also right ($15). The main issue is that all sites are first-come/first-served, and there aren't too many sites, so hard to get something on a nice weekend or a holiday. But if you can snag a spot, you're in for a nice time.

Awesome hiking for miles and miles right from the campground. Pics are from winter 2017 after major blowdown. Forest was a real mess with bridges and trail in need of lots of repair work. Summer 2017 will be better for camping than hiking here

This was a very nice campground on the way to the Pacific Coast from Portland about 30 miles. The fees were $10 to drive in and $5 to walk in. We parked outside the gate and walked to a campground. We then realized we could not pay because there were no envelopes to put the money in and take the tab. The ranger came on Sunday and left envelopes. He told everyone that the campground is closed when the drive in gate is locked. We did not see this message on the website, that we checked before leaving home. There were some real good hiking trails. One was also for single track mountain biking. There was pump water and vaulted toilets.

This campground is constantly crowded. I've been through here while hiking the Gales Creek trail on occasion. I camped there after a 11.5 mile hike from Timber. There was only 1 walk in tent site available. (Others who had driven in were taking up the other walk-in sites) There is a water pump, but I highly recommend filtering/boiling the water. It smells bad. The camp site was clean at least.