Lazy Bend was a Forest Service campground on the Wild and Scenic Clackamas, just off OR 224 and a little over an hour from Portland, at a long bend in the river. Our photos, all taken on July 19, 2019, show big dirt pads off a paved loop under tall firs, a table and a fire ring at each, and from a few of them the far bank through the trunks.
The 2020 Riverside Fire damaged it extensively. The Forest Service says repairs are ongoing; Lazy Bend is one of the seven Upper Clackamas campgrounds it is redesigning, with the goal of starting construction in 2027, and it is not among the campgrounds it has repaired and reopened. These are its sites as they were the summer before.
Quick facts
- Run by
- Mt Hood National Forest
- Now
- Extensive damage from the 2020 Riverside Fire; repairs ongoing, in the Upper Clackamas redesign
- Sites in 2019
- 21 on our map, numbered 1 to 23
- Fee
- $22 a night, $8 for an extra vehicle, the Forest Service lists
- From Portland
- About 39 miles, an hour and five minutes, up OR 224
In 2019, before the fire
- Closest to the river: 22, 23, 5, 6, 20 About 140 to 210 feet from the Clackamas; our second photo of 22 is the path from it to the water.
- Furthest from the highway: 13 About 280 feet from OR 224; most of the others are 150 to 200.
- Side by side: 16, 17 Their pins are about 10 feet apart; 2 and 11, about 25.
Every site, as it was in July 2019
| Site | To the Clackamas | Next site | In our photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 320 ft | 80 ft | a table beside the paved loop, ferns and boulders behind |
| 2 | 360 ft | 20 ft | a table and fire ring beside a big fir |
| 4 | 150 ft | 70 ft | no photo |
| 5 | 210 ft | 70 ft | a big pad in leafy shade, a table and fire ring |
| 6 | 210 ft | 70 ft | a table and fire ring in the sun, brush around |
| 7 | 320 ft | 70 ft | no photo |
| 8 | 310 ft | 70 ft | a table at the edge of thick brush |
| 9 | 330 ft | 100 ft | a wide pad, the table off to one side |
| 10 | 360 ft | 30 ft | a table and fire ring in the shade |
| 11 | 350 ft | 20 ft | a big pad under firs, the far bank through the trunks |
| 13 | 260 ft | 80 ft | a table and fire ring, light through the trees beyond |
| 15 | 320 ft | 100 ft | a table on the pad, the far hillside through the trees |
| 16 | 260 ft | 10 ft | a table and fire ring under tall firs |
| 17 | 260 ft | 10 ft | a table under tall firs, the river light behind |
| 18 | 290 ft | 50 ft | a table and fire ring among firs, a young fir in front |
| 19 | 240 ft | 80 ft | a table and fire ring by the post marked 19 |
| 20 | 210 ft | 30 ft | the post marked 20 with its OPEN tag, a table beyond |
| 21 | 200 ft | 30 ft | no photo |
| 22 | 140 ft | 50 ft | a table and fire ring in the brush; a path through the trees to the river |
| 23 | 190 ft | 50 ft | a pad with a fire ring, a big rock and a stump |
| Unnumbered | 230 ft | 130 ft | a table and fire ring under tall firs |
Distances are straight lines from each pin, to the water and to the nearest neighbor, so read them as “about”. Photos from July 2019, a year before the fire.
Questions
- Is Lazy Bend open?
- The Forest Service says the Riverside Fire damaged it extensively and that repairs are ongoing, and it is not among the Upper Clackamas campgrounds the Forest Service lists as repaired and reopened. Check its page before you go.
- Will it come back?
- It is one of seven campgrounds in the Upper Clackamas redesign. The designs and construction packages are due in 2026, the goal is to start building in 2027, and the Forest Service is still looking for the money.
- Where can I camp nearby instead?
- Promontory Park, about two miles down the river, is open in summer by reservation.
Nearby
- Promontory Park Campground about 2 miles down the river; open in summer
- Armstrong Campground about 3 miles up the river; reopened after the 2020 fire; closed for a time by the 2026 Austin Fire
- After the 2020 fires every campground the fires reached
The places to camp outside the campgrounds on this river, photographed the same summer
Checked October 2026 with Forest Service: Lazy Bend Campground, Forest Service: Upper Clackamas campground redesign and OpenStreetMap (the Clackamas River). Been there since? Tell us what has changed: support@tentspots.com.
Amenities
ACCESSIBLE
WATER
22 Camping Spots
