Rock Creek Campground

If you’re lucky enough to live in the Vancouver, WA area, you are lucky indeed, because you have Rock Creek Campground almost in your backyard. Popular with day riders and horse campers alike, Rock Creek provides access to some truly delightful trails.

The Riding

• Trails are easy to moderate
• 40+ miles of trails
• Elevation 1,050 feet

The Tarbell Trail is a 25-mile loop trail that runs from the campground and into the nearby hills.  It also provides access to other trails in the area.  The Yacolt Burn State Forest is a working forest, so as you ride you’ll travel through shady forest, through tree plantations of all ages, and through clear-cut areas with abundant wildflowers and panoramic views.

From Rock Creek Campground, you can ride to Cedar Creek Falls, a small but pretty waterfall about three miles from the campground.  From the falls, you can continue along Cedar Creek for a nice 10-mile ride.

Or, you can ride up onto either Bells Mountain or Larch Mountain, with their excellent views of Mt. St. Helens and the Dole Valley below you.

You can ride to the spectacular Hidden Falls, which drops 92 feet off a rock ledge into a pool right next to the trail bridge that crosses the creek.  It’s easily the most scenic spot in the entire Yacolt State Forest.

The Tarbell Trail system is popular with mountain bikes, so keep a sharp eye out as you ride.  We understand that the Washington Department of Natural Resources is working with local trail groups to create some new bike-only trails in the area, which should take some bike traffic off the existing trails.  

The Camping

Rock Creek Campground offers very nice equestrian camping facilities, with 13 of its 19 sites allowing horses.  Each equestrian site has a 2-horse corral (some in a 4-horse configuration shared with an adjacent campsite), a fire ring, and a picnic table.  Most sites are pull-throughs, and several have room for two trailers.  The campground has vault toilets, manure bins, stock water troughs, and a camp host.  It also has two small day-use parking areas, an accessible mounting ramp, and a group shelter with barbeque grills.   A Discover Pass is required for overnight camping or day-use parking.  The campground and trails are open year-round, though the trails can be muddy and slick during the rainy season.

More Information

Rock Creek Campground and its nearby trails are covered in more detail in Riding Southwest Washingon Horse Trails, by Kim McCarrel, available at www.NWHorseTrails.com.