Barton Campground

Joanna Chen

10/04/2024

Very bad experience. Can’t believe this actually did happen at Barton campground owned by Clackamas county in Oregon. I did read some bad reviews about this campground and thought it might overstated until it happened to us tonight. We were doing our road trip touring volcanic lakes in Oregon. We camped at diamond lake campground last night. The ranger was very nice. We asked questions about the site and fees. Because we don’t have enough cash, he helped us out by reducing it. We went to Paulina lake, east lake and also clear lake. We are going to Lacamus Lake tomorrow and want to find a campsite on the way to tomorrow’s destination. By the time we found Barton campground and arrived there, it was around 8 pm and it’s dark. We drive around inside the campground and found a few of campsites were closed and only site 60 to 98 was open. We drove in and found there were about 5 or 6 RV trucks parked there. We found one close to other RV and parked there trying to camp for the night. We had a tundra pick up with a camper and rooftop tent. Because it’s too dark, we decided not to use the tent instead we set up mattress inside the camper and slept there. Everything all set and we enjoyed the place very much as it is warmer than last night. The only we worried is that we hadn’t paid the camping fee yet because we don’t see any ranger around and was going to the gate to pick an envelop to put in cash. We met a neighbour who had a beautiful neon light by his RV and talked to him. He told us not to worry, the ranger will come I. The morning and charge the fee. We asked how much, he said about over $30. We thanked him and felt ease to go to sleep. When my husband went asleep and I was reading online book, I heard some knocking on our window. I woke my husband up and we opened our back window to see what’s happening. A woman was outside and ordered us to leave the campsite. I looked at time, it was 10:05 pm. We had everything set up and sleeping. She was ruthlessly saying “you have to go, go, go”. I asked her why. She said this is only for RV. No other vehicle or tent allowed. I said we had a camper truck and we are sleeping inside. It should be considered as an RV. She said no, tent or truck is not allowed and we have to leave. I asked her whether this is a state owned campsite, she said it’s county owned. I said since it is government owned, it should be some humanity grounds and we would pay extra to stay overnight. It’s is also so late and we are already sleep, please let us stay for tonight. She said no any exceptions. Then I said why don’t you come early to make sure that we know the rules before we set up everything. We were here since 8 pm and no one came by to give us this ridiculous rule. We asked other campers and they don’t know the rules either. She sad other campers have no rights to grant us stay and we have to leave. I was so upset and said, if we don’t leave, what will you do? Are you going to tow us away. She said she will call deputy and kick us out. I said then go ahead and call deputy. I never saw anyone so rude like this woman. My husband said “this is like a rotten rat ruin the whole pot rice. Don’t let her ruin our vacation . Just search and find a nearby motel and we will go there”. I was lucky that I found a place 20 minutes away from this campsite and we left. However, I need to write this bad experience on google review and hoping clackamas county will be reading this. They should find out who this female employee is and teach her how to do client service job. She ruins the reputation of the county or Oregon state ( unless county or state doesn’t care about their reputation). If we all wrote out this kind of bad experience and give bad reviews, hopefully someone in charge of Barton campground would pay attention and change things around. People would enjoy their vacation more and visit Oregon.

adamltw

07/04/2023

Beautiful campground with level paved sites that have decent spacing between sites. Close to Multnomah Falls. Bathroom is clean. Shower is moldy and no place to put clothes except one seat. Great 5G cell service with Verizon.

Shelby Grochowski

09/22/2024

Stayed here one night and had a terrible experience. Ranger drove by several times and host was off duty all day but did yard work in front of my site in the evening. No one said anything to me. Around 10pm when i was asleep the ranger and host came by and were angry with me for sleeping in my fully built out 4Runner. It’s a camper! It has no passenger seats, a generator, etc, etc! They were going to kick me out on the road until i told them i have 2 tents with me (backpacking and an old one for shade) and they made me show them the tents because they said they didn’t believe me and made me set up a tent in the dark after they woke me up and were very rude about the entire process. There were no signs saying there is a tent / rv only policy and only a sign saying the host will check you in at their convenience if the front booth is closed. It’s a terrible, discriminatory way to treat people and not have anything disclosing this matter upon entry. If this was disclosed i would’ve respected the rules and avoided conflict and set up a tent or moved on somewhere else. It’s also $37/night and they tried to charge me $49 for being from California. The website linked here does not disclose the tent / rv policy either. Who knows what other crack pot rules they’ll try to enforce on you.

Jake McClain

06/30/2024

Nice area for having a picnic, bathrooms are very well maintained. I appreciated the parking for our reservation being blocked off to keep others from taking our spots. It made loading and unloading all of our gear very easy. The park Rangers were friendly and removed our trash at the end of the day. The police patrolling the area, however, harassed my friend, which I found annoying as he wasn't harming anyone.

Shredaholics

09/15/2024

DO NOT STAY HERE! If you have an emergency after 10pm and need to leave you are out of luck. You are locked in until morning. The Rangers are extremely power hungry and if you read the other reviews very rude and randomly drive around to bother the campers. I have always been a fan of the forest rangers for protecting the parks but this was very very different. Be sure to read the other reviews as well.