Burnt Ranch Road (Bridge Creek) Dispersed Camping

This was a great place to stay to see the local attractions. There were cows roaming the area all day and into the night, but they never bothered us. This was our first dry camping experience, and we will be doing many others because of this one. It was a little wet in the beginning of May, and the river was at flood stage, but we got our 33-foot trailer in and out no problem.

If you can dry camp, this is the place to stay to see the painted hills.

There is a pretty good rut at the entrance. We made it with our 34’ Class A and tow car but go slow. Not sure what it would be like during or after a rain, could be muddy!

After we entered, we took the left loop and parked around on the front. Plenty of room.

If you go to the very small ranger station, there is wifi.

Getting into the campground was easy enough, even at dusk when we couldn't see much. The turnoff immediately off the highway is quite bumpy, with some fairly large potholes but our Promaster van handled them like a champ. The turnoff itself is on the left side of the road with no signs but two large wooden fence posts, but there's some signage right before the campsite on the right side of the road.

As you get in, on the right side is a smaller loop/lot with a large tree and on the left is a much larger loop with lots of little spots. Some of them are right next to the creek that runs through the back of the campground. There are some fire rings set up. Pack in your own water, no bathrooms, etc. This was also a good reminder for us that we needed to buy some leveling blocks for our van, as finding a perfectly level surface was a little tricky. Getting around the campground in the van itself was easy; the bumpiest places are right at the opening of the campground.

The area is beautiful, with a view of the canyon turning all sorts of amazing colors at sunrise and sunset. It's also very remote, with zero cell service for miles around so be sure to download your offline maps, etc. to navigate here.

We needed a place to park overnight on our trip to Mt Hood. This was a great little place to stay. Right off the road, there are no signs but it’s obvious. We have a 38’ fifth wheel, it was a little steep coming in (our fifth wheel hit our truck side rail a little bit and popped off a small plastic ring we have attached to the bed rail for our soft top canopy). The fifth wheel did no damage to our bed rails, it was just tight! Once we got down the incline it was easy enough to maneuver and park. There’s a great little river and it’s lovely. There were three other motor homes parked and a tent camper - it was a great place to stop in! Just be weary of long fifth wheels if you’ve got ‘em, other than that all other rigs should be good.

We stayed at this location the first weekend in June. It was already scorching hot and only two of the spots have shade. The signs are on the right hand side of the road but the turn is on the left. You go through two posts and there is one big individual or 3 rig group spot on the right (best spot), or you could probably make 5 "spots" on the left. In the immediate area there isn't much. There is not easy access to the creek going through, but it does create great relaxing sounds in the evening. You can walk across the road and walk up it a bit and then it ends in about a quarter mile. We arrived Friday afternoon and only 1 spot was left. If you have something smaller, like a van or c class, you could go closer to painted hills, but not within the unit to camp. There was one c class we saw on the right side of the road on the way that had a pretty epic spot, but we didn't see where he accessed it.

There is zero cell service here, even in the town of Mitchell there is nothing. The brewery does have really good free wifi.

The best part is that it is close to Mitchell and Painted Hills (oregon natural wonder) and a small reservoir past painted hills. However, I don't think you need an extended stay here. Painted Hills is awesome but will take you a half day to explore the entire unit (go in the evening to have to yourself) and then go to Mitchell for dinner at the one brewery and then you have seen it all. I should say that I have spoken to road bikers and they love biking back there. Not a lot of traffic and beautiful sites.

As I said earlier this area gets really hot so best in March or April (wildflowers) or fall. That was one reason we decided to leave early.

All in all, this site is good for 1 night, maybe 2. If you are wanting to see John Day Fossil national monument I would move closer. We have a 31' fifth wheel and we were able to easily get in and out and turn around.

We arrived at the Burnt Ranch Road boondocking site on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We were surprised to have the entire area all to ourselves. On Saturday things got busier and 7-8 other campsites set up, but the area was large enough that we didn’t feel crowded. On Sunday we were totally alone again. Go figure.

We had no problem getting level and there were several fire rings scattered around designating previously used sites. Riley enjoyed the creek, but the wild roses made access a bit tricky. We did find several spots where you could get down to the water to play.

We used Burnt Ranch Road has a base to visit both the Clarno and the Painted Hills Units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We also hit Tiger Town Brewery in Mitchell, the beer and wings were excellent and yes, they will make them HOT. 😊 A few doors down is a café that makes a very good milk shake (an excellent idea if your mouth or other body parts are on fire after the wings).

We had no Verizon service.