Notes from the field
Almost every spot on TentSpots was mapped by a few of us, most of them in 2019 and 2020. At some of them we left a note. These are a few, as we wrote them.
“From here you can see both a field of lupines and Mt Adams. There are trees and a creek nearby if you want to hide your tent or hammock. There are some biting flies, but they are everywhere on the mountain.”
The south side of Mt Adams, WA · photographed August 2016
“Pity they had to cut the tree down :( Now it’s a sunny spot.”
In September 2020, the Beachie Creek Fire burned straight through this campground.
Site 11, North Santiam State Recreation Area, OR · photographed July 2019
“Great view, but not much else. Watching the sunrise over the gorge was wonderful. The site can handle multiple groups, though you need to leave the car at the gate and walk a quarter mile to the site.”
Fourteen months later, the 2020 Riverside Fire’s mapped perimeter took it in.
Above the Clackamas River near Estacada, OR · photographed July 2019
“This is our all-time favorite campground in the Olympics. You have to go around 20 minutes into the mountains, but we were always the only ones here.”
Slab Camp, Olympic National Forest, WA · photographed May 2019
“Spacious and well hidden under huge trees. The creek is close, but not too close to bother you at night. Though the access to the creek is a ninja walk over fallen trees. Follow the path for the best access.”
Lost Creek, on the McKenzie Pass highway, OR · photographed June 2020
“The best spot with a beautiful view, but accessible only in the end of summer as it is a creekbed.”
Scott Lake, on the McKenzie Pass, OR · photographed October 2022
Stand in our favorite site
Slab Camp, in the foothills of the Olympics above Sequim, is our all-time favorite: “you have to go around 20 minutes into the mountains, but we were always the only ones here.” This is the site we liked best there, by the creek. Look around: the creek is behind the fire ring, and if you look down, the shadow waving back is one of us.
One of the 350 places we photographed in 360°, so you can see the ground before you drive there. This site on the map · Slab Camp, site by site · All of them, by campground
Campground guides
Which site to take, from our photos and pins and the land manager's own page.
Most campgrounds in the mountains are closed until spring. Three in our guides stay open all year: Champoeg on the Willamette, 47 minutes south of Portland, where B Loop, the yurts and the cabins stay open; Dairy Creek at Stub Stewart, 51 minutes west, with twelve walk-in tent sites; and Sunset Falls on the East Fork Lewis, an hour northeast, with a waterfall inside the campground. We photographed all three outside summer: Champoeg in October, Dairy Creek in April and Sunset Falls in November.
McNeil Campground
Out of season: in 2026, open May 22 to September 21
Slab Camp
Sunset Falls Campground
Open all year
Scott Lake Campground
North Santiam State Recreation Area
Reopened after the 2020 fire
Ripplebrook Campground
Reopened after the 2020 fire; closed again by the 2026 Austin Fire
All 22 campground guides, by area · Tent sites by the water near Portland · Walk-in tent sites
Pitch a tent outside any campground: the Sandy River near McNeil (89 spots), the Clackamas River before the 2020 fire (15 spots) and the Nisqually River below Mt Rainier (9 spots)
Late October, other years
Where we were with a camera in these same weeks of other years. The whole map was made like this, one day at a time.
Why we made this
It started with us and our friends struggling to find a place for the tent, on road trips and on summer weekends. So in 2019 we started writing it down: walking campground loops site by site, flying a drone over them, and pinning the places in the forest where you can pitch a tent outside any campground.
On two Fridays in July 2019, the 19th and the 26th, we photographed eight campgrounds up the Clackamas, one after another. Fourteen months later the Riverside Fire burned down that river, and the Beachie Creek Fire through North Santiam. We kept them all on the map, with the photos from before and a note on what has happened since. And the fires kept coming: since 2020 the lines of twelve fires have taken in places we pinned, from Morrison Creek on Mt Adams to the upper Clackamas again in 2026. What reopened, and what did not.
We still go. In June 2026 we went back to a spot on the Nisqually below Mt Rainier that we first pinned in 2020, and the review we left was two words: “Still great!”
- 1,695
- spots on the map
- 683
- photographed
- 350
- in 360°
- 34
- campgrounds, site by site
Every photo we can date in Oregon and Washington was taken on one of just 59 days outside, from July 2016 to June 2026. How old this is
Earth is a big place, and there is always a tent spot for everyone.
Most of the map is within a few hours of Portland: Mt Hood and the Clackamas, the Santiam and the McKenzie, the Cascade lakes, Mt Adams and the Gifford Pinchot, and the Olympic Peninsula.
Open the map