★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFS · dispersedFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)

Willamette National Forest

Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Marion County, OR · 44.76067, -122.16716

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Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on U.S. Forest Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.

A secluded, primitive clearing with a small fire circle nestled in Willamette National Forest, surrounded by moss, ferns, and conifers. French Creek flows audibly just a short walk away. Some cell service. Enough room for two vehicles. A lovely setting that is not too far from pavement. Visible from forest road. Good place to stop between Portland and Bend. Recommended.

A night on record

Dave slept here on 9 January 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site itself (the road season below is the road's), so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.

Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR

The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 2225000 (Marten Butte Road), 110 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as crushed aggregate or gravel surface and maintenance level 2 – high-clearance vehicles.

Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 2225000 (Marten Butte Road), 110 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.

MVUM record for FR 2225000 (Marten Butte Road): “01/01-12/31” 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

USGS topographic map of Willamette National Forest

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Aerial image of Willamette National Forest

Weather outlook — at Willamette National Forest

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,838 ft.

Fire & smoke — around Willamette National ForestNIFC · 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 Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR

▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.

Nearest of each

FFuel2 mi
GGrocery2 mi
OOutfitter2 mi
EVEV fast charger2 mi
@Mail2 mi
ShShower2 mi
WWater4 mi
+Urgent care15 mi
MMechanic22 mi
PPropane33 mi
HHardware34 mi
RxPharmacy34 mi
LLaundry34 mi
DDump37 mi
AAir-up42 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Willamette National Forest

Access

Drive-up

Land

U.S. Forest Service · dispersed

Elevation

1,838 ft

Ground slope

5.6% · gentle

County

Marion County, OR

Coordinates

44.76067, -122.16716

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureFrench Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
Nearest townDetroit · ~1.9 mi
Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.8 mi
FuelFuel · ~1.7 mi
Propane / LPGPropane · ~22.2 mi
GroceriesMountain High Grocery · ~1.8 mi
Hospital / clinicClinic · ~15.2 mi

From the field — what Dave saw, in person

Cell service

Had a signal

Getting there

Any vehicle managed it

Fire ring

Yes

Toilet on site

Tent friendly

Yes

Verdict

Recommended

EV charging — from Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger1.8 mi straight-line SE — Detroit Lake, OR - Tesla Supercharger (at a grocery store) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
Public DC fast stations within reach7 within 25 mi · 56 within 50 · 270 within 100 · 343 within 150
Nearest listing CCS1.8 mi — WCEH Detroit, Detroit
Nearest listing CHAdeMO1.8 mi — WCEH Detroit, Detroit
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)1.8 mi — WCEH Detroit · 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 102372 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Vault / pit toiletUpper Arm · ~1.5 mi SE · USFS
Vault / pit toiletHumbug · ~1.6 mi SE · USFS
Vault / pit toiletDetroit Flats · ~2.3 mi SE · USFS
Vault / pit toiletPiety Island · ~2.7 mi S · USFS

Coming out here — Willamette National Forest · Willamette National Forest · OR

Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps French Creek as a perennial stream, ~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 5.6% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 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.
Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
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 Willamette National Forest elsewhere

Google satellite →Gaia GPS →CalTopo →Back to the map →

Other camps near Willamette National Forest

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

Humbug~1.6 mi · fee
Detroit State Park~2.0 mi · fee
Piety Island~2.7 mi · fee
Cove Creek~3.4 mi · fee

The unit that manages Willamette National Forest

Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Willamette National Forest are set by Willamette National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.

Willamette National Forest →

How we know this — Willamette National Forest

Source

Dave's own travels

Confidence

Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.

How it was placed

FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Marion County, OR). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.

A night on record

Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.

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

Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 9 January 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.

What we don’t know about Willamette National Forest

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
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 — Willamette National Forest

Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →

Is this page wrong about Willamette National Forest?

This page was built from a public land record, not from a visit. If you have actually pulled in here and it does not match, that is worth more than anything we can read off a map. Tell Dave what is off — it goes to him, not onto the page.

Anything else, in your own words (optional)Your email — optional, and only so Dave can ask you a follow-up. It does not go on a list, and nobody is promising you a reply.

A reader report is not a fact, and this one will not change a word of this page by itself. Dave reads it and checks it against the agency’s own record, because that record is what this site says. If reader reports are ever shown here they are labelled “reader report, unverified” with the date, and they are never merged into the agency fields.