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Camping
Pacific Northwest National Forests offer a range of overnight opportunities from camping at rustic campgrounds with minimal amenities to sites that have full hookups with space to park your RV, or renting a cabin or lookout!
Find Camping Opportunities
- Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
- Deschutes National Forest
- Fremont-Winema National Forest
- Malheur National Forest
- Mt. Hood National Forest
- Ochoco National Forest
- Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest
- Siuslaw National Forest
- Umatilla National Forest
- Umpqua National Forest
- Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
- Willamette National Forest
Rent a Cabin!
![[PHOTO and LINK: Photo of Summit Guard Station and Vicinity - Click for Larger Photos]](/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/fsbdev2_021432.jpg)
Whether it is winter, spring, summer, or fall, you can experience all of the seasons in a historic Forest Service cabin or fire lookout. Once operated as fully staffed lookouts or remote ranger stations, many of these rentals provide an opportunity to live the life of a ranger or fire lookout.
These recreation rentals are offered to the public under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Rental fees are retained locally to help maintain and preserve these historic properties.
All reservations are through the Recreation.gov. Visit www.recreation.gov or call 1-877-444-6777.
View a list of recreation rentals in the region.
Many of the cabins and lookouts that compose the Recreation Lodging offering in the Pacific Northwest Region are the historic representatives of a once- extensive system of protective structures designed to detect wildfires and to house fire guards, "smoke chasers", who formed the front-line defense in fighting those fires as the initial attack.
![[PHOTO: Fairview Lookout Interior - Umpqua]](https://origin-fs.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/fsbdev2_021576.jpg)
The cabins were "Guard Stations" intermediate protective facilities between the Ranger Station and the back country. Guard Stations were strategically located, to afford the maximum contact with people headed into the back country to check permits, provide information, and caution about the use of fire. Guard Stations also placed fire guards closer to forest so that no time would be lost in getting on the trail when a phone call came in from the lookout locating a "smoke" (fire). Many of the trails that are now recreation trails began as fire trails to connect and supply fire lookouts, and to reach far into the back country.
Fire lookouts were fixed point fire detection stations, built from a sequence of standard plans, the designs for which were technical and functional. At first, fire lookouts were located on high peaks such as Mt Hood and Mt Adams, and in the fore country. However, the high peaks were often above the clouds and didn't provide a routinely good view of the surrounding forested lands. Access to the back country was gradually increased, and after its formation in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built many lookouts, both ground houses and towers, in areas of the forests not previously covered. At its zenith, the fixed point fire detection system covered virtually every stream drainage, often from two or three points, so that almost all forested lands were visible. More recently, other fire detection technologies have largely supplanted fixed point fire detection stations.
Oregon - Other Recreation Opportunities
