Meissner Sno-Park/Trailhead

We car camped here in February to test out winter camping for the first time. Luckily we already had an Oregon sno-park permit so we were able to put it to good use in this area. We snowboarded during the day, headed into downtown Bend for some dinner, then headed back to this sno-park afterwards to setup camp (aka, the back of the car). The first thing we noticed was that the parking lot was still pretty full for 7pm at night. We spoke with some people and heard they were going on a late night hiking trip to the warming hut for a couple of hours. It sounded really exciting and definitely something I would try in the future!

There's bathrooms in the parking lot and near the information signage, overall this sno-park is really peaceful at night and we were able to get a good night's rest. It is pretty busy during the winter months, but we didn't stick around the area since we were mainly snowboarding Mt. Bachelor during the day.

There is dispersed camping around the area. We found a site that was shaded by trees with no neighbors. There was no fire pit where we were so we did not make a campfire to be on the safe side of regulations in the area. Many forest roads around the area, which seem to be popular with OHV's and mountain bikers.

Basically this is a huge parking lot with a bathroom. It's surrounded by some areas were you can find spots in the dirt if you prefer. Even though it was June and super dusty we still managed to find a patch or two of snow while riding the mtn bike trails that begin at the end of the snow park. We like it here because there is never anyone out here after dark. The parking lot can get fairly busy with mtn bikers during the day as this is a popular spot.