Best RV Parks & Resorts near Powell Butte, OR

 This campground in Willamette National Forest is operated by Linn County but is a forest service campground. It has narrow access road off hwy 20 but is paved. 

The campground sits along Trout Creek and has semi private sites with picnic tables and fire pits. There are pits toilets and pump water and garbage cans throughout, no recycling. 

Heavily shaded with sun peaking through throughout the day. Many sites available on Sunday morning when we were there and some pull throughs. 

Reservations can be made but also there is first come first served. There is also a picnic and day use area as well.

$20/night Open May 21st-Sept 

NO fires at this time 

One bar ATT service but no TMobile or Verizon

Pelton park was clean and well taken care of during our visit. The park is very family-friendly, with easy physical access to restrooms, the docks and playground equipment. Pet-friendly too, stocked poo bags, poles by restrooms to hold leashes and a small fenced-in area to let the dogs run and play. Docks were clean and safe. Rental boats were well-maintained. The yomes are small, 6 people and 2 dogs is tight and gear had to stay outside with that many people, but we all fit. The lake itself is beautiful, good fishing, and appreciate the 10mph speed limit throughout the majority of the lake.

Our first time here at East Lake Campground in the last week of September 2023 just 1 day before the park closed for the season. Because East Lake Campground is 6500 feet in elevation the nights were very cold, from 44 to 31 degrees but normally the days were in the morning windy and about 62*. The camp has 29 sites and NO hookups.

There is flush toilets, NO showers, but had drinking water. East Lake also had 1 boat launch but the water was very low, some 40' down from the edge of the bank to the water. Great fishing and a great place for kayaks. Each site has a picnic table and fireplace. Most Sites on the lake side has pull-thru that were about 50' long. Some back-in sites were only 35'. Very quite campground and not too close to each others camp site. We camped at East Lake Campground in a Travel Trailer.

Restrooms Flush toilets, faucet water. No hookups, No electric, No water hookup, No sewer hookup. You can fill your water tank FREE at the ($10) Dump Station so you don't have the weight in your rig. Dog-friendliness Lots of space to run and play.

Beautiful location with good sized camping spots for travel trailers and RVs. Almost all spots are wooded so shade is plentiful for hot Summer afternoons. Safe for bike rides in park with 5mph posted. Great location for easy access to Sunriver and Bend. Paulina Lake and East Lake are within a 30 minute drive for kayaking, fishing and hiking.

Electric (30 amp) and water at all spots. No sewer hookups. Internet works fairly well. Good cell phone reception for Verizon and ATT.

Facilities are decent, but need some care. Neither the pool nor laundry were available and no work is active to open either. Staff are friendly but management seems to be focused elsewhere.

While staying here in August 2024: -Dog friendly -No hookups -2 bars on Verizon -No shade -Madras, OR only 10 minutes away. -1 acres fenced in dog park in Madras OR (15 min. drive) -Used my credit card at the automated self pay station (super convenient). -fairly clean bathroom (toilet only). -From travel trailers to Teslas, they all have made down the road and plenty of room.

Situated on the banks of the Deschutes Wild and Scenic River, Mecca Flat Campground is located just a mile and a half from Oregon State HIghway 26 near Warm Springs. The site features 13 individual campsites and one group use area. The southern terminus of the 7-mile long Trout Creek Trail can be accessed directly from the campground.

Know Before You Go:

All campsites, including the group use area are open year-round on a first-come, first-served basis; no potable water is available. The 1.6 mile Mecca Flat Road is narrow with few pullouts; use caution particularly when pulling a trailer. Access the nearby non-motorized Trout Creek Trail which fronts the Deschutes Wild and Scenic River for 7 miles where it terminates at Trout Creek Campground. Cell phone service is not available in the campground. Goathead, also known as puncturevine, is present in the area; protect your pets and bicycle tires Point of Interest:

The Deschutes Railroad ran on portions of the nearby Trout Creek trail and Mecca Flat Road for several decades, competing with the Oregon Trunk Railroad before abandonment in the early 20th century. Look for the historic, now-abandoned tunnel near Highway 26 - but stay clear of this degrading and unstable structure.

A few miles from La Pine, this 5-site campground sits along the Deschutes River in the Deschutes National Forest. The campground is pretty bare-bones in terms of basic amenities; there is no tap water available and there are two pit-toilets. There is also no cell service. However, the campground does provide great access to the river and even has a cement boat ramp for easy access.

Each campsite has a picnic table, a fire pit, provided firewood (at least when I was there), either a pull-through or back-in parking space, and a view of the river. If you make a reservation (which are required for at least 2021), the camp manager will post this on the site marker so that your site isn’t taken by another party. The campsites themselves are somewhat dusty/sandy, but are otherwise clean. Sites 1-2 and 4-5 are right next to each other, whereas site 3 is probably the best site for privacy.

One more thing to consider if you are staying in a vehicle is that not all of the sites have flat parking spaces. I was able to make something work with my van in site 1, but site 2 would have been unpleasant for sleeping in a van. Sites 4 and 5 seemed to have the flattest parking.

Blue Bay Campground (Suttle Lake) Site 15 description from Recreation.gov, which I found to be accurate: “Driveway Entry: Pull-Through Driveway Length: 110 Driveway Surface: Gravel Is Equipment Mandatory: Yes Max Num of Vehicles: 2 Max Vehicle Length: 40

This site will accommodate one 40-foot and one 30-foot vehicle (total vehicle length). In addition to the above space, there is parking for approximately two extra vehicles (total vehicle length less than eighteen feet each).”

What is not mentioned, that I could find, is the driveway is shaped like a horseshoe and to pull through your RV or trailer might be tough. There are several large boulders and wood bollards on the right side of the driveway that may make it difficult to swing the front end of your vehicle wide enough to clear the trees on left. We ended up backing our trailer (32’) into the site vs. trying to pull through it.

Site 15 is spacious and mostly private that has 2 picnic tables. Plenty of space for several tents in the site and to set-up if your outdoor games. There is some road noise, but it was not overwhelming. The boat dock is a short walk from this site - short enough to walk with your SUP board, kayak or canoe. The dumpster is close to this site, but it was not overflowing and the garbage service came on Friday of the holiday weekend.

Blue Bay campground appears to be the smallest of the three campgrounds on Suttle Lake and it appears that several of the sites are semi-private to mostly private. It was mostly quiet during our stay, the loudest noise heard was the occasional barking dog and excited child.

The dock at the campground is small, but perfect for smaller craft launching and close to Suttle Lake Boat House and lodge. The lake is gorgeous and no wake for a generous part of it. Perfect for paddle boarding. The trail around the lake gets a lot of use - walkers, runners and bikers.

Accessing the campground is easy, just off HWY 20. The campground road was in good shape and we found that we had no issues pulling our 32’ trailer through the campground.

We did not utilize the restrooms (pit toilets) during our stay, but they were directly off the campground ground road and we walked by them several times and did not notice an odor.

The campground host was off duty during the holiday weekend (odd?) It looked like, if on duty, firewood might have been available for purchase. However, we did not get close enough to the wood bundles to inquire if there was an alternate pay system (leaving cash in a box vs. paying a person). There was not much Forest Service (FS) personnel presence, we saw a FS vehicle once.

We have AT&T as our phone carrier and received and made calls without issue. Text messages mostly went through, however internet was slow and iffy most of the time.