Hilgard Junction State Park

Some road noise but otherwise quiet and a great place to stop over for the night.

While I can't recommend this park as a destination in and of itself, it's a nice place to spend an overnight while passing through the area. Situated adjacent I-84, with a pleasant river flowing through, it's much quieter than one would expect with a major freeway passing within a few hundred yards. There are informational displays about the Oregon Trail, and a decent-sized open area for young ones to get out some energy after a day's traveling. Bathrooms were clean. Not a huge amount of privacy, but at least the gaps between sites are large enough to not feel like you're on top of your neighbours.
Oregon's state park web page bills this as more a layover campground, and it fits that purpose very well. Much more pleasant than a Walmart lot!

This park consists of one short road with rv spots on both sides (18 total). No hook ups, but backs up on a small river. The spots are well spaced and it's really quiet. There's firewood for sale as well. Our best memory of the park was the camp host - he was super nice and really tried to make everyone's stay great.

This is a great little stop-over spot on Hwy 84. It's close to the highway, so it gets consistent (day and night) noise but the setting is beautiful. Right by the river with lots of green and trees. Several campsites even have direct river views. Small campground, only 18 sites all back-in and no hookups. Good, level (paved) sites and large enough to fit rigs up to 40-feet. Only negative...NO CELL signal at all. Just the barest little trickle of 1X on Verizon (even with booster) and absolutely nothing at all on ATT. For this reason this park is just a stop-over spot for us, not a place for a longer stay.

After a long drive east through the Columbia River Gorge, fighting high winds all the way, and a 3 hour "back roads short cut" south of Pilot Rock to Spring Creek on NFD 21 we were beat. Since we needed to stop in La Grande the next morning before continuing on to Joseph, we opted to camp at Hilgard Junction.

A large family with 6 vehicles and dozens of children dominated the choicest spot at the top of the loop by the river. We chose a spot closer to the rest room about half way along the straight stretch of road. A few other campers were in residence, and everyone departed early the next morning.

The campground is sandwiched between I-84 and the Grand Ronde River. There's no Verizon coverage in this park, and the road noise from I-84 might be difficult for some to sleep through.

All the pads are paved and flat and generously spaced. A corresponding day use park is opposite the campground, accessed by crossing Hwy 224. Picnic tables are available on both sides of the park for visitors.

Two flush toilets are available on both the men's and women's side, but would be challenging to access if you're in a wheelchair due to the very narrow width of each stall.

Had we known about the more scenic and quiet Minam State Recreation Area just 40 miles further, just outside of Elgin, Oregon, we would have kept going and stayed there instead.

If you need a quick inexpensive stopover along the way, this is the place for you. The sites were level and spacious, the restrooms were clean and stocked, and you can even take a nice walk along a fire access road on the other side of the river to stretch your legs. Although it is right along the highway, we weren't bothered by traffic noise in our RV.

Camped here Apr. 29. Someone said they thought is was closed due to high water but although the river was high the campground was open. I believe I read on their website that it opens on Apr. 18 (at least this year). This is a great little stopover spot. The traffic noise isn't too bad even though it's close to the highway, if you use your imagination you can think it's just the waves crashing on the shore... well, maybe not! ;) We did not have any cell service, the campground is kind of in a bit of a hole, I suspect that's the reason, but at this time of year we had the campground almost to ourselves.

First the downside.

No hookups, bathrooms were pretty much pit toilets (clean but smells) and almost no cell.

We had a great site at the end of the loop. The river was flowing right behind our trailer.

We had no issue with our 30’ trailer and truck. Guessing about 47-50 foot max on sites.

This campground is well taken care of with park rangers and friendly host.

Gas and groceries are only 8 miles away.

If you can live without hookups, this is a nice campground. There is some road noise from the highway.

I’m in a travel trailer. It’s a beautiful little camp area, right next to the river, well-maintained, bathrooms were fine, canp host was great, but it is very very noisy. You are right next to the freeway, and although it did quiet down somewhat at night, daytime was super noisy. So if you’re arriving late and just to sleep, I would recommend It. I felt very safe. But I had to turn on music loud so as not to hear the traffic truck noise until about 10pm. Could only get 2 to 3 Verizon bars that worked sometimes with the phone, but could not get apps to come up. The host said it depends on where you’re sitting. I then used a Verizon cell booster, which worked great.

We stopped here as our first stop into Oregon at the end of September. It was beautiful! The fall colors and the moss and the river were amazing, and I wish we could have stayed at least a few more days.

No hookups, but trashcans at each individual site. Everything was very clean and the camp host was very friendly.

Plenty of good walking space for the dogs.

The only downside was there was a fair amount of traffic noise, but not enough to interfere with sleep or peace.

Would definitely stay again.