About this place
Quartzville Creek runs wild and scenic. It is a quiet place. You can walk here, camp, fish, or just watch the water come down.
The creek is named for the gemstone mined in the area. It is named for a ghost town too, one that was the center of two short gold rushes in the late 1800s.
Recreational mining is allowed along the Bureau of Land Management stretch of the Quartzville Back Country Byway.
Camping is limited to marked campsites. Those go first come, first served.
Fires go in the steel fire rings or grills provided. You may not collect firewood at developed campgrounds.
At undeveloped sites, you take everything home with you.
The Quartzville Back Country Byway runs alongside the winding river. It gives views of old-growth forest and wildlife, and easy access to picnic and camping sites, developed and not.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Stay limit
- 14 days
- Type
- Set campsites only. Camping is limited to those
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
From Sweet Home, go east on U.S. Highway 20. About a mile out of town, turn left onto the Quartzville Access Road, signed for Green Peter Reservoir and Quartzville Creek. Old Miners Meadow is about 25 miles up that road on the right, a mile past the Yellowbottom Recreation Site.
Coordinates 44.5864, -122.39757
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Quartzville Back Country Byway Directions
- Keel Mountain Directions
- Santiam State Forest Directions
- Detroit Lake Directions
- Mount Jefferson Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Gates, OR Directions
- Mill City, OR Directions
Mill City is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.