Packsaddle County Park

Located nearly 40 miles east of Salem on the North Fork of the Santiam River, Packsaddle County Park is a modest, 6-acre riverside destination.  Formed from an easement that Marion County leases from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers near Packsaddle Creek, the park features a few picnic tables, a vault toilet, some shallow waters for wading during mid-summer, and its primary function and amenity, a boat ramp.

More than anything else, Packsaddle County Park is one of the key put-in and take-out points for the North Santiam.  Drift boaters, fisherman, and kayakers who put-in here commonly make the 8-mile voyage (Class II to III+) down to Mill City, and those taking out at Packsaddle often put in at Big Cliff Dam, a 4.7-mile river journey featuring Class III-V rapids.