Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Tygh Valley, OR

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.

We arrived on a Monday afternoon of a long holiday weekend in October and the campground was about 1/4 full with half the sites closed for the season. Lots of trees, level paved pads, and electric and water hookup at all sites. $33 per night as of October 2020. Everything was clean and well maintained including a nice, roomy trash/recycling station and dual dump stations with lots of room for lines. Good distance between sites and the campground was very quiet. There was a separate grassy fenced dog area as nice as some of the dog parks in our neighborhood in Portland. We usually go for a more rustic/dispersed setup because we don’t want to be right on top of our neighbors when we camp, and we were pleasantly surprised by how idyllic this site was. Would stay again!

We followed our RV GPS and WAZE, which agreed until we got near the state park. We checked out the confirmation email, which stated to follow the signs. We could have gotten to the campground(CG) following either our RV GPS or WAZE but held steady on following the signs. We arrived at the upper Crooked River CG early, so there was no one at the check-in; however, a ranger pulled up just as we were looking at the information board and she checked us in. We then proceeded to back-in site E61 with water and electric(50/30/20 AMP). We had no problem backing into our site, and the pad was just long enough for our 40’ fifth wheel and F450. We only paid an$8 online booking fee with the Oregon State Park Disabled Veterans Pass. The utilities were in the middle of the site, so that was convenient. The water pressure was close to 60 psi, and we used a reducer. Verizon was 1 bar, and as we were on the northwest edge of the CG, we had no problem getting a north shot for Starlink. There are mature trees in the CG, mainly on the interior sites, so satellite could be iffy in some sites. We were here the first week of October; only the first loop and the associated bathhouse were open. Sites on the NW edge of the CG from E71- E41 could be good for north or south satellites. Sites E65- E55 on the edge provide very nice mountain views. They have a large(about 1/4 acre) fenced dog park on the east side of the CG. Madras, 15 minutes away, has your major amenities. We enjoyed seeing deer moving around the CG, plus amazing views of the mountains and canyon.

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.

Decent campground, nicely kept, clean, very friendly rangers. Really nice and big dog park. Nice hikes right from the campground. We couldn't go to the water, since we only have an RV and no tow car, and it seems that the water is the main draw to this campground. Lots of jet skis and boats and screaming kids.

Cell reception was ok.

We went up to the upper campground on our way out to dump, and there is no water spigot there. Heads up. We flagged down a nice ranger who hooked us up but you may not be able to fill your tanks here.

Sites in this campground vary in size. We fit into one of the tent sites in our 26ft class c. You'll probably have to drive through the loop first before picking a site if you're trying to stay here in an RV.

There are 2 campgrounds in The Cove Palisades; Crooked River Campground, which is the upper or rim campground, and Deschutes Campground, which is the lower campground at Lake Billy Chinook level, another 5 miles drive down into the canyon past the upper campground. This review is for Deschutes Campground.  We stayed at Deshutes a week with our travel trailer in loop A in mid May.  We would stay here again.  I would not want to stay here during wildfire season due to the smoke and low visibility (personal preference), plus I'm not crazy about hot weather and it would certainly be hot in the high desert in summer as well as crowded which is also not my thing. Every time you come and go from this campsite, you have a 5 mile drive in or out of this canyon. I have Republic Wireless on Sprint and had no signal within the canyon but did at the top.  Husband has Cricket on AT&T and had a signal in the canyon. Our antenna did not pick up any TV channels so download some Netflix to your device before coming here, or maybe have a better antenna than we do if you desire to watch anything. The hosts take great care of the grounds. I do not know the condition of the bathrooms but heard and read they were very clean as well. We spent most of our time away from the campground but the time we were there was pleasant and quiet.  Our spot backed up to the road which was slightly above us so didn't really affect our view and there were some trees and shrubbery between us and the road.  Occasionally a vehicle would go by that was quite loud which would be louder and more frequent in the busy season. We had a large gap between us and the campsite to our right as well as a view of the palisades on that side.  We usually travel with our dog, but she recently passed away unfortunately so this trip was dogless, but I still view things from the eyes of a dog owner.  They had a large, grassy, fenced-in dog park that would be a great respite as the campsites aren't that grassy, mostly dirt with some juniper trees, sage, and boulders.  Watch for foxtails which we saw in spring, as well as rattlesnakes.  We didn't see any rattlesnakes at the time we were there - a rainy, cool week in mid May. Because of all the rain, everything was still very green and all the wildflowers were in bloom. On a clear day you can see at least 6 mountain peaks from the top of the canyon.  This is a great spot to explore Central Oregon.  In fact, we need to go back because we didn't get to everything we wanted to do but we visited Richardson Rock Ranch, Smith Rock, Bend, Lava Lands, Oregon High Desert Museum, Glass Buttes, and more.