Trillium Lake Airstrip

This spot is extremely popular with locals, so don't expect quiet and peace when you come here on a holiday weekend (Labor day for us). There is plenty of space and for the weekend we spent here there were at least 30 different parties present. The noise was accordingly, plus illegal campfires in extreme fire danger.
But the rangers were patrolling, sometimes 2 at a time, to keep the worst at bay.

The spot itself is beautiful, just a short 1.5 miles to the lake and no more than 10 minutes to the Timberline Lodge and fun hikes up Mount Hood. Depending on where you camp the mountain looms over you.

Since it was an airstrip you have the choice of hiding in the trees or full solar exposure. It is pretty dusty, but that's a central Oregon thing. Easy access for larger rigs too, plenty of space to turn around. And it was, even with so many people, one of the cleanest boondocking spots we ever camped at.

Cell reception was awesome, even with so many people around. The lake was too crowded for us but the less popular Frog Lake is just a short drive south.

Even with the crowds it is the perfect basecamp for exploring Mount Hood and surrounding areas. Especially thinking about Trillium Campground down the road that charges $20+ for a nights stay.

Nice spot close to the actual National Forest campground. Lots of makeshift fire pits already there. Good spot right off the highway.

We stayed there twice this last summer. The first stay we had planned on staying 14 days however the Rangers came through & told us because we were homeless we had to leave. They don't want the homeless living there, we weren't living there, we were camping like everyone else They didn't say anything to the 3 rvs that had been there over 2 wks It was another week before 2 of the rv's left.
We came back a month later because I had come back up to Mt Hood the week before was staying at Frog lake when my tent was broken into, 4 fishing poles, kaypak, and other things were stolen. I didn't feel safe. After being there for 4 days rangers came through and told us we had to leave. Because they walked into our campsite & they saw my BF bong sitting next to his chair. (It's federal property so NO POT) they searched our tents looking for other drugs, they didnt find anything they dumped everything that was packed in back packs on the floor of our tents. We were told we couldn't come back for a month. Even though they didn't find anything. We really liked the campsites but we didn't like the treatment from the Rangers

Drove down from Canada to snowboard at Timberline the next day and arrived here at 11pm only to discover you can’t actually access the airstrip/lake area at all. This is probably super obvious to everyone from the area but was a bit of a nightmare for us since we’d just driven about 10 hours and had nowhere else to go! We ended up parking up in the car park for the night which wasn’t ideal but served its purpose. I’m sure it’s a lovely spot in warmer months but definitely don’t try and stop here in winter/spring!

Went here for my first RV overnight with my rig. Easy access for tents, large and small RVs. Lake is close by with a 2 mile hike/bike loop. Also, there are some other decent Mt. Bike trail accessible from the camp site.

Private camping on Chimney Rock road, which is West of the air strip, just South of the cabins.

There's not many dispersed camping areas this close to Mt Hood, that offer access to trails and lakes. So guess shouldn't be surprised at how busy this area is. Every inch of this stretch of dirt is taken during the week; we set-up earlier in the day and were completely surrounded by evening. There was the usual mix of full-time traveling families and destitute octogenarians living out of their Astrovans. But Friday and Saturday were absolutely crazy! The whole strip became a parking lot and several parties raged into the night (accompanied by the expected arguments and fist fights at midnight). Then everyone was gone by noon on Sunday (leaving much of their trash of course).

There are no amenities close by so come full of water. Mobile signal is strong. You can easily walk or ride down to Trillium Lake. We wouldn't want to post up here again, but would if in a pinch or maybe in the off season. Think one of the nearby Son-Parks would be more clean, peaceful and secure.

We stayed here 12 days during July. We arrived on a Saturday to a full campground. The campsites were full in every from the beginning of the road to the end. The noise level was at a 10 with loud music coming from 3 sites. They partied until 2am and then woke up by 9am, packed their stuff, left their trash and left by 10am Sunday morning. The airstrip was EMPTY left with only full timers and homeless people.

The weekdays were nice though. Quiet for the most part. There is a nice homeless man that lives there (over 2 months) names Bruce. We camped next to him the 12 days we were there. He was very social and just wanted someone to talk to.

Saying that, the Forrest service rangers drive by once a day but don’t stop. There are RV’s that have been there 3+ months while working at the local lodge. Very nice people.

If you stay here, I highly suggest taking a walk down the main road to the Summit. There is a beautiful view of Mt. hood with a gorgeous meadow.

Other than the cleanliness issues and the noise issues, it’s a steady place to stay. Bring water in because there is no access. The rest stop will let you fill up containers if needed though.

We posted up here for two weeks in August to check out recreational opportunities around Mt Hood. It's hard to come by official dispersed camping options in this area, but you can use the Sno-Parks for no charge in the summer months. We would have rather have gone that way, but Trillium Airstrip is higher elevation (thus cooler) and gets better AT&T mobile service. But we found this place to be half 'party central' and half homeless camp. The party scene was only on Fri & Sat nights, but literally drew hundreds of people. The dust alone was unbearable; kinda like Burning Man, but not as cool. The cast of destitute characters where harmless, except when they butted heads with Natl Forest Service rangers, which happened twice. And there was a man who traveled across the country to Trillium Lake to live out his last days...

We only stopped here for a night and it is big and there are lots of little books you can pull into- but it still not really private and there are lots of neighbors-some of whom you don’t really want as your neighbors.

That being said it’s free, conveniently located and has AT&T signal