Just 34 miles west of Portland is the best backyard imaginable. Set on a forested hillside, Stub Stewart State Park offers a variety of camping opportunities and boundless trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.
Enjoy a family gathering at Hilltop Day-use Area, where you can enjoy the grand westward view or set off to explore the trail system. A picnic shelter is available for groups and can be reserved. Your dog can romp freely in our off-leash pet area.
Just east of Hilltop are two mountain-style disc golf courses. The nine-hole course is beginner-friendly while the 18-hole course challenges intermediate and advanced players. Buy discs at the Stub Stewart Welcome Center, where bike helmets, water bottles and more are also for sale. Next door is the Discovery Depot, where information awaits on the area's flora, fauna, and park history.
Nearly 30 miles of trails wind through the park’s 1,800 acres, many with names recalling the area’s logging history. Equestrians can park at the Clayhill Horse Staging Area to access miles of horse-friendly trails. The park also boasts some of the best mountain bike trail riding in the state parks system, with 15 miles of trails for all skill level. The paved 21-mile Banks-Vernonia State Trail also passes through the park and is popular for walking, biking and horseback riding. Park trails connect to the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, or park at any of its six trailheads.
Note: Trails are multi-use and shared by equestrians, mountain bikers and hikers.
Three EV charging stations are available at the Welcome Center parking area. Learn more
Whatever your preference, Stub Stewart has a campsite that fits your style. The Dairy Creek Campground offers a typical camping experience with both full hook-up sites and non-hookup tent sites to choose from, each with fire ring and picnic table. Our rustic cabins provide a bit more comfort, with four walls, electricity and heat. We even have hike-in sites for a more primitive experience. For more details on all site types see the campground map under 'Brochures and Maps' below.
Campsites and day-use facilities can be reserved up to 6 months in advance at our partner site, oregonstateparks.reserveamerica.com.
The park has 15 cabins (5 pet-friendly). Reservations are required.
It’s a short .3-mile hike to the Brooke Creek Camp, but the 20 sites feel a world away from the park’s more developed areas. The camp has two vault toilets and two large communal fire rings. Half the sites are reservable; the other half are first-come, first-served.
The camp’s 13 well-appointed sites have full hook-ups and four-stall and six-stall corrals with nearby manure bins. Access miles of multi-use trails straight from the campground. (Note: you must have a pack animal to stay in the horse camp.)
Hilltop Picnic Shelter
Dairy Creek West Meeting Hall
Mountain Dale Cabin Village Meeting Hall
ADA Accessibility
Each facility has nearby ADA accessible parking. Paths to Hilltop shelter and Mountain Dale meeting hall are paved. Path to Dairy Creek meeting hall is compacted gravel.
-Restaurants are in Banks and Vernonia, 10-11 miles away.
-Fuel is in Banks, or in Vernonia.
-Grocery stores are in Banks and Vernonia or a small convenience store near Manning (near the DQ on Hwy 26).
At the registration station from a park ranger.
Stub Stewart State Park and the Banks-Vernonia State Trail encompass what is called a stacked-loop trail system. This means that you have the ability to start at the easiest trails and progress through the trail system to the most advanced.
All trails at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park have elevation changes and are moderate in difficulty. Always pace yourself, wear sturdy footwear and be flexible when planning your route.
You can always shorten your hike with a shorter loop or choose to do an out and back trip instead of a loop.
For more information about trail difficulty, please visit the Discovery Depot Welcome Center.
The Discovery Depot hours vary due to volunteer availability. Please call the park office Monday - Friday (except on holidays) 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. for current days and hours of operation at 503.324.0606 ext. 221.
18-hole Course:
-Park at Hilltop Day-use Area.
-At the beginning of Hooktender Horseshoe is where Hole 1 is and there is a trail that leads through the 18 holes.
9-hole Course:
-Park at Hilltop Day-use Area.
-The entrance to 9 hole is just to the left of the entrance to the 18 hole course.
Little-3 Course:
-In the woods on the north end between West and East Camp.
-Access from the trail that links the two camp loops on the north side, just south of the Amphitheater.
-We only have small creeks and seasonal streams with no swimming holes.
-Nehalem River in Vernonia has a designated swimming area.
-Fishing at Vernonia Lake is pretty good.
Due to COVID19 The Discovery Depot has set up an entrance only and exit only for one way traffic. Please follow directional arrows on the floor.
The Discovery Depot and no contact Interpretive Visitor Center is located at the Stub Stewart Welcome Center. The Discovery Depot has park and local information, interpretive displays, and items available for purchase through the Friends of Stub Stewart State Park and the Banks-Vernonia State Trail. The Discovery Depot hours vary due to COVID19 restrictions and volunteer availability. Please call the Park Office Monday - Friday 8 a.m - 4 p.m. for current days and hours of operation. 503.324.0606 ext 221
ATV Permits are available online at www.oregonstateparks.org.
All reservations are paid in full for a campsite or cabin. Check the "Incoming Reservations" list to ensure your campsite or cabin. Complete a self-registration envelope with site, name and primary vehicle license plate information, tear off top white copy and put it on the dash of the vehicle, drop the envelope in a pay box and proceed to your reservation.
One vehicle is included per site. If you have additional vehicles coming in, have them pay as they arrive ($7 per night) and register the same way.
Any available tent, RV or cabin site can be reserved online at the park using a personal digital device or with help from a park ranger if space is available.You can make a reservation up until 11:59 p.m. for tent and RV sites and 5:59 p.m. for cabin or yurt sites online. For more information, please read the feature article on our website.
We do not make advance reservations at the park. Call Reserve America at 1-800-452-5687 or go online.
Upon arrival, register vehicle and extra vehicles either at Registration Station or with Self Registration Envelope and place it in one of the Pay Boxes located at the head of each loop. Extra vehicles are $7 per night, and you are not able to pay for this when you make your reservation. Please pay for extra vehicles within 30 minutes of arrival.
-Maximum of 8 people in a campsite.
-Maximum of 5 people in a cabin. Washington County building code regulation.
Check-in is at 4 p.m. Check-out is at 1 p.m. for all reservations. If you arrive before 4 p.m. for a reserved site please wait until 4 p.m. to enter your cabin or campsite.
Firewood and kindling are available for purchase in each camp and cabin loop from 5 - 8 p.m. The price is $5 for ~7 split pieces of dry wood and $3 for bundled kindling. If you pay at a paystation show the on-duty hosts your receipt or provide exact payment in person. No change can be given.
Ice is available for purchase at the camp loops for $3 per bag and at the Discovery Depot Welcome Center during operational hours. Block & cubed options are available. Ice sales benefit the Friends of Stub Stewart State Park and the Banks Vernonia State Trail. Proceeds come back into the park.
- No, it is required that you have an equine or pack animal in the corral in the campsite.
- Please horses or pack animals must arrive on the first day of the reservation and stay for the entire reservation.
- Contact the Park for questions.
-If the visitor is here to only recreate on the BV Trail, then direct them to one of the 6 trailheads on the trail.
-If they would like to access the BV Trail from Hilltop Day-use Area, then there are a number of routes via the natural surface trails.
-Stub Stewart State Park was not built with a specific trailhead for the BV Trail, just a loading zone and 2 ADA parking spots which require displaying a day use pass or annual State Park Pass..
-Natural surface trails are great for mountain biking and are multi-use.
-Advanced riders should look to North Caddywhomper Way (21N) for singletrack trails designated for cross-country and freeride mountain biking.
-The Banks-Vernonia Trail is perfect for street bikes and users of any age.
Stargazing is allowed after hours. Visitors must display either a day use pass or annual pass and complete and display the Star Gazing Permit located at Hilltop Day-use Area kiosk. The permit is free. No overnight camping is allowed at the Hilltop Day-use Area. Those staying in our overnight facilities may still walk to Hilltop Day-use Area to stargaze.
Currently the ONLY location that drones are authorized in L.L. Stub Stewart State Park and the Banks-Vernonia Trail and all adjacent trail heads is at the Hilltop Day Use Area inside the park. If the operator of the drone is asked to stop flying or is bothering other guests, then flight must STOP immediately.
We ask that you refrain to having mail delivered to camp sites due to the diffculty to getting mail to the recipient or having to try to forward mail if you have departed.
No, we do not have a dumpstation but there is one in the town of Vernonia for a fee.
No, unless you are a camper you may not fill up your fresh water tanks. There is a place in Vernonia that you can get water for a fee.
A person may operate an Electric Assisted Bicycle (E-Bike) on roads and trails eight feet (8') or wider unless otherwise posted. Currently the only trail within L.L. Stub Stewart Management Unit and the Banks-Vernonia State Trail (BV) is on the BV.
Electric Assisted Bicycle as defined by ORS 801.258 -
1. Equipped with an electric motor, power output no more than 1,000 Watts and can go no faster than 20 miles per hour.
2. Has a saddle (seat) for the rider.
3. Is designed to travel with not more than three wheels in contact with the ground.
4. Has both fully operative pedals for human propulsion and an electric motor.
5. Is designed to be operated on the ground on the wheels.
No, the leash law applies at all times unless you are in a dog off leash area. The only dog off leash area at this time in the park is at Hilltop day use and it is fenced.
COVID19 may affect hours
Summer - May 1st to October 1st - 7 AM till 9 PM. Restrooms are open from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Fall/Winter/Spring - October 2 to April 30th - 7 AM till 5 PM
Opened in 2007. Named for OPRD’s number one supporter, Loran L. “Stub” Stewart, who served nearly 40 years on the State Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission. Hares Canyon Horse Camp is named for Joseph Coulson Hare, a long-time Washington County resident who served as a mayor of Hillsboro and operated a successful lumber business. The campgrounds were the first built by OPRD since Cape Blanco State Park’s campground opened in 1972. The park lands were acquired through exchanges with the Oregon Department of Forestry, Washington County, the Oregon Military Department, the Division of State Lands, the Oregon Department of Transportation, Longview Fibre Company and a private land owner.