Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
The Cove
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · OR · 45.11091, -121.79991
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 5700000 (Oak Grove Fork Rd.), 10 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as bituminous surface treatment surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 5700000 (Oak Grove Fork Rd.), 10 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles Apr 2 – Nov 30. That season ends after Nov 30.
MVUM record for FR 5700000 (Oak Grove Fork Rd.): “04/02-11/30” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at The Cove
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,264 ft.
Fire & smoke — around The CoveNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater7 mi
- FFuel11 mi
- GGrocery11 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- OOutfitter14 mi
- @Mail14 mi
- MMechanic18 mi
- HHardware27 mi
- ShShower29 mi
- RxPharmacy29 mi
- DDump30 mi
- PPropane30 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- LLaundry31 mi
- AAir-up42 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 11 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — The Cove
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
3,264 ft
Ground slope
7.6% · gentle
State
OR
Coordinates
45.11091, -121.79991
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureTimothy Lake · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townGovernment Camp · ~13.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~6.9 mi
- FuelChevron · ~10.7 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~29.7 mi
- Dump station~29.5 mi
- GroceriesFood Mart · ~10.7 mi
- PharmacyHi-School Pharmacy · ~28.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicSandy Health Center · ~29.7 mi
- HardwareWamic Hardware Store · ~27.1 mi
EV charging — from The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.3 mi straight-line N — WCEH Government Camp · EVCS · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 86 within 50 · 255 within 100 · 431 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)31.1 mi — Detroit Lake, OR - Tesla Supercharger, Detroit
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.3 mi — WCEH Government Camp · EVCS · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 73444 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletThe Cove · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPine Point Picnic Site · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPine Point · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMyron Blank Westshore Day Use · ~0.4 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — The Cove · Mt. Hood National Forest · OR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Timothy Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 7.6% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open The Cove elsewhere
Other camps near The Cove
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Pine Point~0.2 mi · fee
- Stone Creek~0.8 mi · fee
- Stone Creek Group Horse Camp~1.0 mi
- Oak Fork~1.1 mi · fee
The unit that manages The Cove
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at The Cove are set by Mt. Hood National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — The Cove
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-22: no nightly camping rate applies at this pin, and this row needs a human decision. Our coordinates land within 0.001 mi of what Mt. Hood NF now publishes as Cove Day Use (Timothy Lake) -- a DAY USE area, not a campground. Its only published fee is a day use charge of 10 dollars per vehicle per day, payable onsite by cash or check, and there is no overnight rate to quote. Supporting that: the Forest Service recreation-site layer no longer contains any site called THE COVE, and our stored source id (usfs/6259) is gone from it, exactly like the retired record found on Big Creek in an earlier pass. The nearest actual campground is Pine Point Campground (Timothy Lake) 0.17 mi away, at 28 dollars per night -- but that is a different facility with its own identity, so its price has deliberately NOT been copied here. Someone should decide whether this row is a day-use area that ought to be reclassified or unpublished. Checked https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mthood/recreation/cove-day-use-timothy-lake and https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mthood/recreation/pine-point-campground-timothy-lake.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about The Cove
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — The Cove
What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Fire rules & restrictions →Camping with a dog →All field notes →