About this place
Big changes are coming here. The Bureau of Land Management has decided to take the dam down. It is past its safe life, and the town of Horton and Highway 36 sit below it.
Once the dam is gone, the reservoir will be drained, and Lake Creek will run in a natural channel again. A new bridge will carry the road where it now crosses the dam. The work was set to start in 2026 at the earliest and take about three years, in the summers, when the water is low. Check with the Bureau before you go.
Fishing and boating on the pond will end. Camping, walking and wildlife watching around it are meant to carry on, and the Bureau plans a new day-use area, campsite and trail.
For now, this place still goes by several names. Horton Lake, Hult Marsh, Hult Reservoir and Mill Pond are all the same water. It was built for logging. The reservoir and the wetland around it cover about 40 acres, and a lot of wildlife, fish and plants live there.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Stay limit
- 14-day stay limit in a 30-day timeframe
- Type
- Specific campsite
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
28 miles northwest of Eugene and 5 miles north of Horton. You get there on Highway 36 and Lane County Road #3640. From Horton, follow the paved road #3640 for about a mile until it joins BLM Road #15-35. Then follow that gravel road about a mile to the recreation area.
Coordinates 44.241184, -123.495426
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
Nothing nationally famous is close. These are the landmarks nearby.
- Peavy Arboretum Directions
- Marys Peak Directions
- Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge Directions
- Grass Mountain 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
- Alpine, OR Directions
- Junction City, OR Directions
Junction 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.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
You can camp here for 14 days. After that you have to move on, and the Bureau of Land Management usually wants you at least 25 to 30 miles away. So the free campsites closest to you are the ones you cannot use.
Nothing in this guide sits within 25 miles of here anyway. The nearest one you could move to is Vincent Creek Campground, Oregon — 34 miles in a straight line, but a 65 mile drive.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
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.