Looking for the best tent campgrounds near Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests & Crooked River National Grassland? The Dyrt helps you find campsites near Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests & Crooked River National Grassland with tent camping. Search nearby tent campgrounds or find top-rated spots from other campers.
2021: Open with capacity limit due to COVID-19. If you enjoy scenic views of deep river canyons or rock climbing, Smith Rock State Park is the place for you. There are several thousand climbs in the park. More than a thousand are bolted routes. We also offer miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. Along your trip through the canyon, you might see golden eagles, prairie falcons, mule deer, river otter and beaver. Note: Some climbing areas are closed or have limited access from about Jan. 15 to Aug. 1 to protect nesting raptors. Drones are also not allowed during this period. Check the park advisories on this page for exact dates and affected areas. Due to the uniqueness and fragile aspect of the park, park rangers enforce the animal leash law and ask all park users to stay on trails. Bivouac Camping Camping is open early spring through late fall, as weather allows. Walk-in bivouac area for tents (No reservations) Showers (overnight guests only) RV camping, sleeping in vehicles and open fires are not allowed
$8 / night
Formerly known as the Tangent area, the sno-park was renamed in memory Virginia Meissner, who taught cross-country skiing in Central Oregon for many years. She also wrote several books on hiking and skiing in the Cascades. This sno-park is one of the most popular winter recreation sites in Central Oregon. Summer usage is light with road access to many popular bike trails. There are restroom facilities at this site.
Many people enjoy the solitude and primitive experience of camping away from developed campgrounds and other campers. Dispersed camping is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground. Dispersed camping means there are no toilets, no picnic tables, no trash cans, no treated water, and no fire grates. If you are dispersed camping in the winter, recognize that the Forest Service does not plow or maintain Forest Roads in the winter, so plan your trip accordingly. Typically, dispersed camping is NOT allowed in the vicinity of developed recreation areas such as campgrounds, boat ramps, picnic areas or trailheads. There are extra responsibilities and skills that are necessary for dispersed camping. It's your responsibility to know these before you try this new experience. If you are going to an area where others have camped before, pick a site that's been used before. Plants, soil and wildlife are impacted by new campsites, so using existing ones will minimize your impact on the forest. If there is no existing campsite, then follow these Leave No Trace guidelines: Camp on bare soil if possible, to avoid damaging or killing plants and grass. Do NOT camp within 200 feet of any water source, plants near water are especially fragile. Don't camp in the middle of a clearing or meadow. Make your campsite less visible so that other visitors will see a "wild" setting. Don't try to level or dig trenches in the ground at your campsite. Select a campsite with good natural drainage. Visit the Leave No Trace website for more information.
Unlike most of the other campgrounds along the Crooked River, this 14.5-acre campground is set back some from the Lower Crooked Back Country Byway, providing some isolation. Campground facilities include fourteen mostly broad, spacious campsites, vault toilets and an accessible fishing pier. All but one of the campsites are at river level and accessed by a single-lane road.
Open year-round on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations are accepted. Potable water is available year-round at the upriver Chimney Rock Campground, 0.8 miles north on State HIghway 27. Cell phone service is not available in the campground. Watch for bicyclists: the section of State Highway 27 between Prineville and Bowman Dam is designated as the Crooked River Canyon Scenic Bikeway.
The site takes its name from nearby rock outcrops composed of basaltic lava which form the steep, formidable cliff faces across the river from the campground. ADA Access: Accessible fishing pier and trail.
This campground offers 3 walk-in sites on the west side of Todd Lake overlooking the water and featuring spectacular views of Broken Top. The sites are about a 10 minute hike from the Todd Lake Day Use Area parking lot. Camping is allowed only in designated campsites. Activities at this site include fishing, picnicking, and horse/hiker access to the Three Sisters Wilderness.
Traveler
The best thing this park has going for it, is also a negative. The campground is in Sisters, OR., which is a great little town in Central Oregon, a jumping off location for lots of outdoor activities. Sisters also is yupped up with several cafes, bistros, art galleries, breweries, and tap houses too numerous to list here. It's also the home of Preston Thompson Guitars! The negative is that US Hwy 20, a main East/ West artery and vein for Oregon runs right through the middle of Sisters, and within just a few yards from this campground. So, you do get a lot of highway noise. However, the speed is low there and so that helps.
The campground manager was the friendliest manager that I've ever met. She makes it feel like home for you and genuinely wants you to like the park as much as she does. Mind you, she is probably a city employee as the the campground is part of Creekside City Park. But, she treats it as hers, and she wants you to come back. We had a FHU unit which rocks after spending several nights on the Oregon Coast in State Parks w/o FHUs.
The sites are close to one another, and the road around to the sites serpentines throughout the campground. Be mindful if you pull off in your rig in front of the office, as that gravel parking lot also serves as a drive out for the dump station. You very well could block off someone who wants to leave the dump station. I had an altercation with such a RVer because a Class A pulled right behind me, blocking the guy in, while we were getting directions from the manager. But, he saw it all as my fault and that is where the rub was. He wasn't very nice about being blocked in, even if it was for about a minute, and certainly ruined my day.
ScoutQuiet, close to Bend, numerous sites in Ponderosa forest.
TravelerI have stayed here a couple times on motorcycle trips around Oregon. There are lots of sites that have been used and it's a great place to spend a night or two. It's close to Sisters so you can grab what you need.
You're close to the Rodeo grounds so you can hear what's going on if there are any events there. Overall, great free place to camp if you're in the Sisters, OR area.
Guide
This is an active shooting range, so if you're looking for peace and quiet or a spot that is not littered with pulls of trash, you've come to the wing place.
On the upside, when there is not shooting, the quarry is an ok view (if you can get past the litter), and there is endless space and open skies for solar or starlink. It's also easy to reach and rig friendly, but not far from main highway for access.
GuideNice open spot with some shade. Quiet and close to town. May get busy during day with riders. A good parking spot.
GuideLong term campers and trash. Some interesting folks for sure. Prob harmless but camp at own risk.
Guide
Well groomed, park like sites, with a backdrop of this epic lava flow, and Davis lake water.
Toilets nearby, away from main highway.
If you get the right spot at edge of campground, there is ample sky exposure for solar and starlink
Guide
Only about 70 yards from main road. Super fine dust, everything will be dirty.
Tall trees so no good vantage point for starlink or solar.
No water features right at site.
Guide
Amazing views. Access to water. Gorgeous sunsets. Not far from toilet if you're up for a walk, or have wheels. Firepits. This site has it all.
Room to back in 15' trailer to camp or of.
Early October, 70 f during day 30 f at night.
Traveler
Friday night rest stop boondocking. All to ourselves. One jeep came out after we set up and 2 trucks went past us in at 20:30. Lovely sunset nice place to let dog run.
ScoutThere are several spots off of the road to the Spark Lake Day Use area. The road is very rough, but taken slow does not require a 4wd.
Traveler
We went as a group of 8+ families, booking a number of different campsites in two groupings, one on the riverfront, one on the backside of the loop. The campground layout is a large loop with a road down the center, so was great for kids riding bikes around and playing.
The riverside sites were beautiful but ours was very close to an outhouse that was extremely full and smelled very bad. It really needed to be cleaned out and clearly hadn't in a long time.
Also the river was super cold and very fast moving, which at times was a little scary with a ton of young kids running around.
Camp Sherman was only a mile away and has fresh donuts in the morning. I was able to ride over on my electric skateboard and it was a beautiful enjoyable ride.
There was also a small bridge 7-10ft above the river that folks jumped off of which was fun.
We didn't have any major problems with bees or mosquitos as some other folks mentioned that they had in previous reviews.
We had one morning evening where fog was rolling across the river and it was uniquely beautiful. Overall it's a great spot, but would have been perfect if the maintenance had been better and the outhouse smell wasn't so bad.
Guide
i was in campsite 3 very short walk to see the river very quiet $28 dollars a night
Ranger
Never again, hovering campground hosts kept the place clean but they made us feel like we were on the watch list. Campers left the campsite and no joke, the hosts were in raking the dirt as the people were vacating.
Guide
This is across river from Big River Group campground. Only about 10 sites. Most of the Sites are small. Pit toilets. Fire pit. Picnic table. Close to road. Somewhat on the dirty side. Some sites back to Deschutes River.
Ranger
Stayed in one of the cabins, it was clean and made a nice getaway for a couple days.
Bathrooms are a long walk in the middle of the night so I should have chosen a cabin with a bathroom, my mistake.
Campground sites are tightly packed and lack privacy. If you like to take nice long walks there are hiking paths as well as the paved roads in the campground.
Guide
A good open area with lots of nice smelling juniper. Theres parking at the few trailheads or off the road. The best spot, with some nice features such as lava rocks, is the 3rd right from the main road. Some folks may be particular about their "spot". No toilet, trash nor water but good trails. About 20 mins into town. Didnt see any snakes but was checking just in case. Prob best for RV or car camping. High desert gets to 40s at night this time of year.
Scout
This spot was close enough to town that we could call an Uber to Hayden Homes after we set up, then Uber back when the concert finished. The main red dirt road is gorgeous with various pull offs spaced decently far apart. I saw one or two neighbors to the left and right of our spot but it was far enough that our spot felt private. Really quiet and felt remote while still accessible to town and had cell service.
Traveler
We stayed here twice with a short gap between our 2 times. Comfortable park, very clean. Big rig friendly especially in the center areas without trees. If you're using Starlink this would be a good choice. Able to do laundry both times we stayed (credit card instead of quarters!). Full hook ups (we paid $50 per night). Good location for visiting Redmond and Bend.
Traveler
We were only there one night. We had a pull through which was nice. Sites were gravel and there was grass in the park, also nice trees. Sites were fairly close together. Nicely stocked shop available. Pool looked nice but we didn't use it. We could smell cigarette smoke which was unpleasant so the park must not be smoke free. Part of why we only give it 3 stars. We felt like it was on the spendy side but park was easy to get to and camp staff seemed pleasant.
Scout
Our friends had very positive reviews about this park, so we definitely want to visit it soon. I think it will be a great getaway. The only thing I wanted to mention is that the provided map in PDF format didn’t open on my PC for some reason. But I was able to convert it online, and the issue was resolved. Using https://pdfguru.com/html-to-pdf, you can convert HTML to PDF, vice versa, and into many other formats. So I find this editor to be a great service if you need to work with PDF files. It might be useful to someone else, just like it was for me.
Legend
Found this small spot after searching entire area for a last minute campsite. Multiple fires around south of City Of Bend so not many choices tonight. Very quiet spot, only one camper close by but can't see them from thus site. There is a fire ring built by rock but no open fires allowed. Great last minute spot.
Ranger
This small, primitive campground is just about a mile from the McKenzie Pass on Hwy 242, the old McKenzie Hwy. it has 9 sites, 2 of which are walk-in. Lava Camp Lake is a small alpine lake and most of the camp sites have views of the lake. You can also see Mt. Washington and Black Crater from most places in the campground. Part of the area is a burn scar from a 2017 (I think) fire in the area. But there are a lot of trees around the campsites and plenty of shade. Lots of deer. One well-maintained pit toilet. No water.
We stayed in site 6 in our small camper van. It was mid-week in early September (after Labor Day) and there was only one other camper there for one night. It was so quiet and peaceful. perfect.
Scout
They don't allow vans but they will allow teardrops.
Hypocritical
Van campers are good campers too.
Guide
Although it's in the middle of the desert, this campground has amazingly soft parade grounds for for tons of outdoor games. The trails around the golf course and the views of the canyon and river are amazing. There is local restaurants and taphouses within a few minutes drive. There is a pool available to you for your stay that has a snack bar directly adjacent to it. If you are bringing an RV or travel trailer, I recommend bringing blocks for your stabilizers as some of the sites have a decent slope to them.
Guide
EDIT: We had a park ranger stop by and inform us that this location is closed to passenger vehicles. No passenger vehicles are allowed past the boulders. We are currently parked at the one and only camp slot that passenger vehicles are allowed, so this is a 99% dispersed camping location that you have to walk to your camp site location. The Park Ranger also reminded me that all BLM land is a 14-day stay for recreational camping only, and if you are living out of your RV, you are liable to be harassed more often then others.
Original Review: We parked in a space close to the main road. Minus the sounds from it, the place is very peaceful. There's lots of sage bushes, and trees are plenty but not clustered. There is a lot of wildlife in the area if the animal bones are anything to judge by. There are a lot of ant colonies and other burrowing creatures in the area as well. If you choose to walk off designated paths, watch your step, or you might end up in a shallow hole like I did. Some spots are more solar friendly than others, but none of the trees are overbearingly tall to completely block out the ability for it. Flies aren't too bad compared to other places, and honestly, I'm not sure if the ones we are dealing with are from here or left over from our 1 night stay at another location. The river is only a shortish walk away, and field mice do live in some of the boulders in the area.
Scout
Was by myself on motorcycle. Clear directions, plenty of tables, leveled spaces for tent. Gets cold at night.
Road here was a graded packed dirt, so a but bumpy but 2WD would make it no problem. Enjoyed my stay
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests & Crooked River National Grassland?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests & Crooked River National Grassland is Smith Rock State Park Campground with a 4.8-star rating from 36 reviews.
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