Carmen-Smith recreation sites reopen after nine years on Upper McKenzie River

Campers, hikers and day visitors finally have access again at Carmen-Smith, where recreation sites on the Upper McKenzie River reopened May 1 after nine years of closure. The payoff for Lane County is immediate: Trail Bridge Campground is back in play, the Trail Bridge Day-Use Area has new facilities, and the river corridor that has felt locked behind construction fencing is once again usable for summer trips.

The Eugene Water & Electric Board said the sites were closed since 2017 so construction crews could safely renovate generating units at the Carmen Powerhouse. The work was tied to the Carmen-Smith Hydropower Project, which includes three dams, three reservoirs and two power-generating plants. EWEB says the project supplies roughly 6% to 9% of Eugene’s electricity needs depending on the water year and can generate enough power for nearly 16,000 homes.

For recreation users, the most visible changes are at Trail Bridge. EWEB said the day-use area reopened with a new visitors pavilion, fishing platform, vault toilets and picnic tables. KLCC also reported additional signage and more accessible features at many of the facilities for people with mobility issues, a practical upgrade for families, older visitors and anyone hauling gear down to the river.

Trail Bridge Campground reservations opened on Recreation.gov on April 1, and the first reservable date was May 14. That timing matters for the summer season on the McKenzie, where early booking and a reopened campground can shift traffic back from scattered pullouts and overflow spots to a managed site with established amenities. EWEB, the USDA Forest Service and Linn County Parks are all part of the management picture, which means the reopened sites are returning to public use within a broader federal and local recreation system.

The reopening also lands in the long shadow of the Holiday Farm Fire, which began September 7, 2020, about three miles west of McKenzie Bridge and burned 173,439 acres. The fire damaged or destroyed homes, businesses and facilities in Blue River, Finn Rock, Nimrod, Vida and Leaburg, turning the Upper McKenzie into a landscape of closures, repairs and recovery. Against that backdrop, the Carmen-Smith reopening marks a rare moment when a long work zone is becoming a destination again.

EWEB said the project received a new 40-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission operating license in 2019, allowing it to operate through at least May 2059. The recreation investment totals $10.8 million, part of a licensing agreement that involved fisheries and wildlife agencies, environmental groups, Native American tribes and recreational organizations. For Lane County families who know the McKenzie as a summer ritual, the return of Carmen-Smith means one more stretch of the river has moved from recovery into regular use.