Lava Lake Campground

Lava Lake is not for those that glamp. It’s real camping with dirt, pitch, dust and bugs - and it’s pretty cool. There are several lakes to paddle on, many trails to hike and conveniently located not to far from Sun River.

We stayed in site 35, which is a back in. The site was easy to get into and level. Privacy was about a 5 out of 10 only because there is a walking path next to the site.

Days can get hot and nights can get cold - pack accordingly.

The fire rings in my opinion appear to be on good shape, but the picnic tables were worn; exposed legs and checks may get a splinter or two :(

Camp host was friendly but didn’t hover. Bathrooms were clean and dumpsters were not over flowing (dumped regularly it appeared).

We used solar panels to charge the trailer batteries and had no issues.

We camped at Lava Lake for 4 nights. The campsite is small, which was nice. I think there are about 40 sites total. The lake was so beautiful, with nice views of sisters and bachelor. The Lava Lake store rocked too. Open 7 - 7 and they have everything and anything you could need. They also rent fishing boats and paddle boards. The only bummer is that the lake has quite a bit of algae. We were still able to to enjoy paddle boarding but it wasn’t a great swimming lake.

There seems to be some confusion or mixing of campgrounds in the Dyrt reviews.  There are only two campgrounds at Lava Lake and one at Little Lava Lake which is right next door.  

I did not see any dispersed campsites. However, there is a private campground run by the Lava Lake Resort and you can only make reservations there by phone (541-382-9443).  Their campground is the only one with full hookups, power, water and sewer.  This is also the only dump site in the area and costs $10.  They also have propane, gasoline, showers and a small camp store.

The NFS Lava Lake Campground has nicely spaced sites, but not large parking areas.  They only have 2 or 3 drinking water sources and because they are not threaded you will need a bucket or 'Water Bandit' to fill you fresh water tank.  I saw only 1 or 2 places tent campers could dump their dishwater.  There are no showers, but the vault toilets were exceptionally clean, odorless and well stocked with TP.  We were able to get 1-3 bars on our Verizon phones that took a while to eventually send photos.

We were there mid June, 2021, and the mosquitoes were moderate, but well controlled with repellant.  The lake had a toxic algae bloom and was closed to swimming and pets.  What we really enjoyed were the many trails that were nearby along the Cascade Highway, like Blue Lagoon and Lucky Lake, non of which required advance reservations.