Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Crater Lake National Park

Campsites are nestled among large pines.  Your site may not see much sun but the trees add their own warmth.

The campground is not far from Crater Lake National Park, about 25 miles so it is conveniently located to visit the Park.

Nice, fairly new restrooms and showers.  The campsites for the most part have good separation. 

We ate at the pizza/brewery place across the road and it was great.

We stayed for one week in site#23 with 50-amp electric service and water. Only the middle row of the park has full hookups, although the park has been making improvements since the current owners took over a couple of years ago. The manager and camp hosts are terrific! Very welcoming and very friendly. Most of the sites are small. There are a couple of sites that are a little bit bigger, especially those sites facing East. Site#11 is the best, in my opinion, as your patio would be right on the river! Aside from the size of the small site, the only downer for us is there weren't a lot of places to walk our dog without driving somewhere and no enclosed dog area. Otherwise, the park is dog-friendly. Plus, you and your dog can swim in the Williamson River that is there onsite. Cell signals from AT&T and Verizon provided enough connectivity for us to work during the week. AT&T, in particular, had a very good and strong signal.  As the park is only about 40 minutes from Crater Lake National Park's South Entrance.

This is a great campground only about 45 minutes from Crater Lake National Park. It is a very large campground with spots on the river, sunny spots, spots with rock fireplaces, very large spots, a wide range of spots to choose from. There was heavy smoke from nearby forest fires and fires from California that caused a lot of people to not visit the campground, making it very quiet and relaxing for those of us who did visit. Due to the smoke, I did not visit any of the nearby hiking spots but did take a photo posted on the information board. However the park is so large with many roads and paths that just walking around the park was great. There were also several people and kids riding their bikes around, I definitely recommend bringing bikes. The small village of Union Creek at the entrance had a couple restaurants, a food truck, a general store, an ice cream shoppe, and another campground. The general store sold bundles of wood for a couple bucks cheaper then the Campground Host, and the Huckleberry ice cream at the shoppe was a perfect summer treat.

I was in spot 78. It was a large spot with the river running about 200 yards behind it. There was enough room for several tents. The path to the river, led right to a private sand bar in a slow moving part of the river. Great for families. The bathroom was also fairly close to the spot.

The cons for this spot, the water and trash were very far away. If you were filling up anything more then a water bottle you would have to drive to fill up on water. There were also only a couple locations that had trash bins making it possible to walk to, but again if you had a large amount of trash or leaking trash bag you would have to drive.

Overall I highly recommend this campground, especially the spots near 78.

North umpqua trail runs through this campground. Beautiful lake/river. Toketee Falls is a short hike as well. Crater Lake National Park was about an hour. We stayed in the large group spot as the rest of the campground was full. Rustic campground without water.

Crater Lake National Park itself is an amazing, unique place. The campsites were nothing special and a bit close together, but a great perk was the neat show in the amphitheater at night. Bathrooms were an average cleanliness. Location is the key to making this a 4 star campground.

Beautiful Ponderosa pine setting. Very nice uncrowded site with access to the more famous Collier State park nearby via hike or drive. Super cheap National Forest service land ($10 per night). Pit toilets, fire pits, picnic tables. Wonderful alternative to the Collier State Park next door.

Great location as it's near the doorstep to Crater Lake National Park. Also not very far away from Klamath Falls.

Going to Crater Lake National Park has been one of my goals and I finally made it there. I’ve seen pictures but to see it for my self was magical. We enjoyed lunch at the gift shop. We drove around the rim to see it from different angles. We were supposed to take the boat tour but the boat was broken down. But we still enjoyed the hike down to the lake side.

My group and I found this campground after spending a day venturing around Crater Lake National Park. Our site felt really private since we couldn't see any other campers through the dense forest. Pretty buggy the first weekend of July, so packing some bug spray is a good idea, especially if your site is next to the water. Sitting out by the creek while the sun was coming up in the morning was a definite highlight.

My wife and young son and I stayed at Union Creek Campground in June 2016. The campground is really well cared for and clean. There are quite a few sites that we would consider top shelf - large tent space, large campfire and table space, privacy, and view. There is a small restaurant and ice cream shop near the entrance if you need a break from roughing it. And it is a great basecamp for a day trip to Crater Lake National Park. Love this campground and will be back.

We stayed in Broken arrow with our Scouts in July of 2021 and found it surprisingly cool at night for it being July. Temps dropped in the the low 30's both nights we stayed at the campground.  This is a nice large campground with paved roads and parking pads.  Restrooms with running water and showers is a big plus.  The campground sits in a nicely forested area.  Water spigots through out the campground and locations to dump your dish water.  Nice large sites with picnic tables and fire rings.  It's a short drive to Crater Lake National Park from the campground.  We were also surprised that he campground was just over half full in the middle of summer.

For us, Umpqua’s Last Resort was, well, a last resort! This was all about location for us. Close to the North Umpqua? Check. Camping Cabin? Check. Available? Check. Expensive? Nope. It worked, but there is nothing fancy about this place. It is fairly small, was definitely quiet, had lots of blackberries ready to pluck, and has a little store down the road where we were able to get what we needed. The cabin was fine, but the shower house had seen better days. Trails and creeks were accessible from the property and it is in the neighborhood for a great day rafting, fun swimmin’ holes and Crater Lake National Park. In 2015, cell reception was spotty.

The Mazama Village campground at Crater Lake National Park is located 7 miles south of Crater Lake's rim. A small grocery store, restaurant and gift shop are all within walking distance of the campsites, making for a well-sourced camp stay. Campfire wood is available at the office, as well as hot showers (bring quarters). The campsites are spaced throughout a wooded area, and some sites have more privacy than others. Bear boxes are located in every campsite for storing food. While you probably won't see a bear, you will see plenty of chipmunks and ground squirrels scouring the campsites for food, so keep it locked up at all times. Each time I've stayed here, Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers were coming through on their trek from Mexico to Canada (or vice versa).

Mazama Campground offers a serene retreat nestled within Crater Lake National Park, surrounded by a lush forest that provides privacy and tranquility. The reservation process requires you to provide your dates and size of RV and are assigned a site when you arrive. As I walked around it appeared pull-through sites were for RVs and trailers, and back-in sites that were assigned to tent or car campers. The pull through sites were long, some are asphalt and others dirt. Our site D5 was asphalt and level. The amenities, including clean bathrooms, accessible water spigots, and regular trash collection, contribute to a comfortable stay. The general store is a convenient spot for registration, fuel, and showers, it's also the starting point for exploring the breathtaking Crater Lake via tour bus or personal vehicle. Even though a forest fire limited visibility of the lake, Mazama Campground remains a memorable destination for its natural beauty and well-maintained facilities.

This campground is an excellent choice for an overnight stay when visiting Crater Lake National Park. The sites offer flat ground, making it easy to set up a tent. Although it is close to the road, it is secluded enough to provide a peaceful night's sleep. Be aware that during our visit, we encountered many hungry and persistent mosquitoes, so I highly recommend bringing insect repellent and other mosquito-prevention measures.

The tent sites can be found by following an unpaved road downhill from the large parking lot. There are two basic restrooms located at the entrance, but there is no potable water available, so be sure to bring your own. If you don't use the entry restrooms, please practice Leave No Trace principles to keep the area clean and natural. The proximity to Crater Lake allows for convenient early morning starts to explore the park. Overall, it's a great spot for both solo travelers and families looking for a comfortable camping experience.

One of two campgrounds officially in the park, outside of a backcountry permit, Mazama Village is certainly not a place of solitude, notching in around 200+ sites, but if amenities are your m.o.—camp store, restaurant, showers, gas station—for $21/tent site, you won’t find a better option, other than the historic lodge on the rim of the lake. 

Combined with RV spots, and the popularity of Crater Lake as a Seven-Wonder of Oregon bucket-list spot, the village is pretty much at capacity all season long, as such you’re bound to have a diverse social experience from tourist to family to rowdy glamper, but in my handful of experiences here, everyone pretty much respects the 10 p.m. quite hours in favor of waking up to those gorgeous ponderosa pine blanketing the grounds.

Otherwise, re: solitude—giddy-up a dash for Mazama’s much more low-key, tent-only 16-site sibling a few miles closer to the rim, Lost Creek, which ditches reservations entirely, instituting a first-come, first-served option, and Pro-Tip 🤫 : is only $10!

Campground Review: Mazama Village Campground at Crater Lake National Park

Despite the crazy-hazy smoke surrounding Crater Lake, my family had an absolutely amazing time camping at Oregon's only national park. We made our reservation less than a month in advance for a Thursday night and managed to grab one of the "12x12-foot" tent sites. We'd read about the reservation process beforehand, so arrived around 1pm at the Mazama village store to receive a map and told to look for any "blue" post camp sites that were open. We headed straight for the tent-only loop (G) and grabbed what I think is one of the best spots in the entire campground. Absolutely huge campsite for a national park, amazing views, and near a water spigot. We were pretty far from the flush toilets, but otherwise quite perfect.

Mazama "Village" is right at the entrance to the campground and has a small store, showers, laundry and a nice enough restaurant. We were 4 miles from the National Park headquarters where there's a video of the lake and junior ranger activities and another 5 miles after that is Crater Lake with its tiny store, nice lodge and a few lookouts. The days we were there the smoke from regional wildfires was so bad we couldn't see the water in the crater, but we still had a great time and are excited to try again next year with hopefully better visibility.

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