Riverside Campground

This is one of series of small campgrounds up the Clackamas river system in the Mt. Hood National Forest. This one, with 16 sites is one of the few to take RVs. It is definitely our favorite. We visited last summer, in June 2019, and were there over the weekend. We reserved in advance to get one of the 3. RV sites...(it is on Recreation.gov, with an $8 reservation fee). It was full all weekend, but the other campers were quiet and well behaved. A campground host was on site.

Sites 1-4 are tent only, on the river; you park your car and walk in. We were in site #14, also riverfront, although the river was down a rocky embankment from our site. With the federal Golden Age Passport we paid half of the $20/night fee. We had a nice view of the river.

One of the reasons this place is so popular is that next to site #15 is the terminus of the "Riverside National Recreation Trail". The other end is at the Rainbow Campground, with the official trailhead just off the road between Riverside and Rainbow Campgrounds.It is 5 miles one way between the two campgrounds. The trail is very scenic, and just a short distance from the Riverside Campground is a very nice beach. People were playing in the water there. Another feature is its proximity (14 miles by car) to the Bagby Hot Springs.

Amenities included water from a hand pump, vault toilets, fire rings, picnic tables, trash collection, and a host. Don't count on your solar working...it's heavily wooded.

We would have given it 5 stars, except during our visit, a logging company was removing timber via helicopter directly over us continually. It was quite annoying.