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$10 / night
$19 - $88 / night
The Macks Canyon archaeological site is a large, prehistoric village locale overlooking the Deschutes River in north-central Oregon. The site is characterized by shallow, circular, semi-subterranean house depressions, surface artifacts, and riverine shell deposits. Limited excavations conducted in the late 1960's indicate that the site was the location of a winter village occupied by Sahaptin-speaking people of the Columbia Plateau. Although the main period of occupation appears to have occurred within the last 2,000 years, the site may have been occupied as early as 5,000 BC. A campground and boat ramp are situated at the end of the Access Road along the east bank of the Lower Deschutes River. The area is popular with boaters and fishermen. The route to Macks Canyon is also a National Back Country Byway. ADA Access: The archaeological site itself does not have accessible facilities. However, the nearby campground has an accessible campsite, vault toilets and parking.
$8 - $35 / night
This recreation area is part of Willow Creek
$8 - $12 / night
Fall asleep to the sound of crickets and frogs chirping and croaking and wake up to Blue Gill and Rainbow Trout jumping at the bit. This campground is set on the shore of Penland Lake, which also abuts private land and land owned by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). Penland is popular on summer weekends and offers access to fishing, boating, and swimming opportunities. There are seven campsites and two vault toilets on the National Forest portion of the campground, with more campsites located on the adjacent ODFW property. There is also a boat ramp, fishing dock, and benches located on the dam. Picnic tables are available for Day Use on the lakefront as well. There is no potable water or garbage service; please pack out all garbage and dispose of it at home.
Ranger
Stayed 3 nights and had a great time rafting on the river. Lots of options for RV and tent camping. Group sites are available (3). Restrooms could use an update but functional. All camp staff hosts are helpful and friendly. Will come back again. This campground is popular and books up quickly.
ScoutOverall experience was great…. with a caveat. It’s a small camping park, sites are small and close to each other. However the park is clean and well maintained. Our only issue is that our first night, at about 2am, I was woken up by footsteps outside our trailer window. I looked out to see we hat appeared to be a younger adult male dressed in all black who pulled the coolers and chairs out from under our trailer and pulled two booze bottles out of the cooler and had them on the picnic table getting ready to take them. I opened the door and scared him into running by yelling at him. This is my first time, in 40+ years camping that I’ve had anything like this happen. So at 2:15 this morning, I was outside hauling all of our gear into the trailer. Joke was on him though, the bottles were filled with water to freeze and use as ice. Just beware, this is a nice little park, but don’t leave your valuables out overnight.
We reported it to the office, who told us they’ve been having the issue recently, that they think it’s local teens, but their hands were being tied by local police on how to catch the thieves. I called local non emergency and reported the incident to them in hopes they might step up patrols or something.
Traveler
Loved this spot. Across the river we watched wild horses. In the river there were birds. During the day rafters come down.
No water available unless you boil river water.
The road down was STEEP! I really overheated my motorhome breaks. Plus a scary, low and narrow tunnel at the bottom.
Traveler
Really good spot to get off the grid while still having most amenities. Stayed here for a few days and loved it. About 20 miles of gravel road will take you here and some small Rockwall to semi-worry about. Other than that most people you'll bump into are fisherman or overlanding.
Traveler
Pretty amazing State Park, lucked on weather. Trails on either side are both nice cruisers on bikes - green runs, but can make them more work, and the views are sublime.  The park amenities were top-notch, including a nice windbreak. Stars at night were spectacular.
RangerWe were here in 2021 and thought we’d try again. The campground is clean, and hardly anyone here. Lots of space for established camping. One other site occupied out of 18. Here’s the but. I go off-road a lot. I have never experienced a washboard road as bad as this was for 6-7 miles. I thought the doors were going to blow off the truck. Not an exaggeration. Usually you can adjust speed to plane the wash. Not this time. If they grade the road would have been 4+ stars.
As before the wind kicks up (strong) around 7:30p to 8:30p.
No cell service👎 Starlink 👍
ScoutThe park is extremely well maintained. We used what was labeled a “primitive” campsite. Each site is huge and well maintained. There are provided wind breaks and covered picnic tables as well as dedicated fire pits and firewood ready for sale. Be aware of fire season as there are no open flames allowed during certain times of the year. The river was beautiful and flush full of fish and crayfish! We will be making this a regular visit for our outings!
Traveler
LegendStarted our recent road trip with 3 nights at Cottonwood Canyon State Park in the Lone Tree Campground. Best time to be here! So much green and great weather. A bit of rain but plenty of pleasant sunshine! Large sites, generously spaced. Would perhaps prefer the sites around the perimeter but all we’re fine. No hookups. They have cabins as well. There were several possible walks and hikes at varying levels of difficulty. Lots of stars at night. Great area and reservable!
ScoutThe camp ground has 2 sides. One heavy with RVs and Trailers and the other more for tents.
Prices are reasonable but it is popular so often very busy and lots of campers.
Our dog doesn’t like slow moving cars, bikes or other “weird” things…. So this park is a last resort if we can find open BLM.
This is close to the train. I personally love it. I camp in the area often. The train runs once or twice a night. Sometimes it wakes me, most of the time I sleep through it.
The folks that run the camp ground are nice and the place is clean. They have great hot showers if you are staying for an extended time.
TravelerThis State Park is absolutely a beautiful part of the country. The canyon is steep and unique with the John Day river running right through it. The campground is nestled right near the water and has gorgeous 360 views. The campsites are well kept and have all the amenities for a nice pull in site to camp with either a trailer, van, or tent. The only downside is how windy this canyon can get. The state park definitely took this into consideration and provided each campsite with a wooden wind break for tents. So they make it manageable but be prepared! Heads up, there's no cell service at this campground.
ScoutThis is an excellent string of campsites that run right along the beautiful Deschutes River.
It is far enough down the canyon that car traffic is infrequent, but when the Salmon Fly hatch is happening in May the adjacent road is rocking and rolling with anglers driving looking for trout water. The road is washboard dirt, so all the traffic (and typically wind) makes this campsite a bit dusty during the high season. (May-August)
RangerThe campground was just what we were looking for. Minimal people, desert, fishing. We went during weather transition from rain to clear. The result, high winds in the canyon. This only lasted the one night. Fantastic weather the rest of the time. A slight bit of small trash around. Plenty of trash cans. $8 weekdays $12 weekends. None of the other campgrounds had anyone. Next time I think we’ll stay at Rattlesnake Campground.
RangerCampground right off the forest service road on the Deschutes. If you prefer a little more privacy from the road, go a few miles further to Beavertail Campground.
ScoutTracks are very close and trains pass every couple hours throughout the night. If I had known I would’ve gone elsewhere.
ScoutThe tent camp runs along a river which is nice and there is grass and each site has a table. The problem is they pack the campground like sardines and only have one facility at one end of the campground.
Guide
I was very disappointed with this camp site. The one positive note is that there are a few campsites further away from the water so you're not so crowded. The campsites near the lake are tent sites with a parking area. Unfortunately, there were rvs parked in the parking area which took up most of the parking space. The tent sites were extremely close to each other and the water so I would image, come evening the mosquitoes would be awful! If you go further into the campsites area you will find a dirt road and a few more campsites near the water. Very tight and looks difficult to get an rv in, but there was a small one parked there. There was another site that looked like it had long term residence with trash and alcohol bottles spread out around their place. We found a nice place to wade our feet in the water and play fetch with the puppers. It smelled awful and wasn't really the ideal wading water but we made it work. Unfortunately, when we got out of the water we found leeches attached to our feet. So I would say this water isn't really meant for swimming and more for fishing and boating/floating. Then while we were cleaning our selves of the leeches, someone asked if they could have our spot since we were only day visiting. Made it awkward and felt like we had to leave.
GuideJuly 2020 - We stayed one night on our way to another campground. We were pleasantly surprised. All the campsites with drive up parking were taken so we stayed in the hiker's/backpacking area. There is a parking lot with wagons to haul your stuff to and from the campsite. There was also a small bathroom and trash can. These sites did not have their own campfire but it looked like there were shared areas for the fires. It is a great spot for star gazing and overall beautiful.
TravelerA great place to relax with friends and family
TravelerVery nice place to camp with the family. Exceptionally clean facilities for bathrooms and showers. Great bike trails too.
ScoutYou can do pretty much anything here from kayaking to fishing to swimming and overnight camping. Has a vault toilet.
LegendWe enjoyed a return to this campground and found it less populated in April than it had been when we were here during late summer a few years ago. It's located right along the Deschutes River with a landing used by rafters and fishers. There are lots of trails and roads to walk on, so it would be easy to spend a few nights here. You can't make reservations, although when we found it full last time we were able to share one of the larger sites with a guy who had somehow fit his Class A motor home through the very small tunnel you have to fit through to get here. There's no drinking water, so make sure to bring your own, or be prepared to purify the river water. There's a fair amount of ground cover, so you feel like there's a little privacy between sites. This site will stay on our list of easy favorites in Central Oregon.
RangerI don’t recommend coming here during the summer due to heat. This is more of a winter camping destination. We had clear skies and beautiful sunny weather. It got cold at night. I like that there are solar charging stations all over the park and free showers. There is no cell service so it’s great if you want to truly unplug.
RangerI spent two nights here and made sure to explore as much as possible with the limited time I had. There are plenty of trails for hiking and biking. You can fish along the River. We saw big horn sheep on one of the ridges. Can’t wait to come back to see more.
LegendWe were so glad we kept driving down this road until the very end. Along this road (Lower Deschutes Access Road- which is pretty bumpy but we did fine with our camper) you will pass several other campgrounds- Twin Springs, Jones Canyon, Beavertail Recreation Site, Rattlesnake Canyon- and then at the very end of the road, you will find Macks Canyon Recreation Site.
It was fairly empty when we arrived and we got an awesome site along the river, site 11. The view of the river was amazing and we watched lots of fishing boats and rafting boats go by. There is also a railroad track across the river and it was fun to watch the trains go by. No AT&T phone service here.
The only negative is that it can get super windy. At one point we were frantically trying to get our awning down from the Cricket and things were flying everywhere. The wind lasted about an hour and then things calmed down again.
From the end of the Lower Deschutes Access Road just above the campground, you can hike along the old railway line. Again, amazing views of the Deschutes and the canyon. We did about 5 miles road trip but you could go further.
One of my new favorite places to camp in Oregon!
ScoutCottonwood Canyon is a beautiful, well-maintained state park. We have not camped here because it is not our camp vibe (too developed), but I just want to clarify that there is NO dispersed camping here. This page incorrectly states there is dispersed camping in Cottonwood Canyon SP. There are a handful of what the park has called “hiker” spots, which are about 25 feet from a parking lot. Campsites on literally on top of each other. Camping is prohibited essentially everywhere else on park land, which is frustrating because it’s over 800 acres and there’s plenty of room to accommodate the handful of adventure seekers to disperse. Piggybacking what others have said: canyons get very windy and tent camping can be tricky in these conditions.
Overall, a lovely campground for families and campers who prefer less primitive amenities.
TravelerThis campground in along the John Day River with access to the river from the campground but no water views. Most sites have a pergola over the picnic table for shade and a sturdy wooden fence, I assume for wind protection. The sites are nicely spaced but the wind, blowing dust and heat made it pretty uncomfortable to be outside. The river here is broad and shallow so not deep enough for watercraft. The water was pretty warm. There are several hiking trails along the river.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Fossil, OR?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Fossil, OR is Lone Tree Campground — Cottonwood Canyon State Park with a 4.4-star rating from 28 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Fossil, OR?
TheDyrt.com has all 7 glamping camping locations near Fossil, OR, with real photos and reviews from campers.
