Motor Vehicles and Campfires Banned in Tillamook State Forest

With the fire danger rising across northwest Oregon, the state Department of Forestry announced a ban on using motorized vehicles and campfires. They’re prohibited on the eastern portion of the Tillamook State Forest and state forest lands in the Sunday Creek area of Yamhill County and in Columbia County around Camp Wilkerson. The ban took effect today, Wednesday, August 11th.

This impacts the following areas of the Tillamook State Forest:
On Highway 26 from milepost 29 (Sunset Rest Area) east
Highway 6 from milepost 25 (Kings Mountain Trailhead) east

A waiver is being issued to allow specific campgrounds and day use areas to remain open. The following sites are remaining open because they are close to paved road and more accessible to firefighters in the event of a fire start. Campfires are still prohibited in these areas.

Gales Creek Campground & Trailhead
Gales Creek Overlook
Rogers Camp Trailhead
Deyoe Creek Trailhead
Summit Trailhead
Elk Creek Campground & Trailhead
Kings Mountain Trailhead
Reehers Camp Campground & Trailhead
Four County Point Trailhead
Steam Donkey Trailhead
The forest remains open to foot traffic, and the non-motorized trail networks accessed from these sites will also remain open.

Activities restricted in these areas include:

Driving any motorized vehicle on forest roads, including passenger and off-highway vehicles
Campfires, including in designated fire rings at developed campgrounds
Smoking

“Given the extreme fire danger and extensive drought throughout the Northwest, ODF is taking this step to reduce the number of human-caused fires and allow firefighting resources to focus efforts on the current large fires as well as new fires likely to emerge,” Northwest Area Director Andy White said.