Allen Springs Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 13 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $28–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Like the other campgrounds on the Metolius, Allen Springs is located amongst towering Ponderosa Pines, on a turn of the Metolius River that broadens the river view. Most of the campsites are better suited to tents rather than RV's. Keep reading
Recreation
This campground offers many opportunities for hiking and biking with the many trails nearby. The ponderosa pine forest provides shade as well as the chance to go bird or nature watching.
Facilities
This facility has 16 sites that are nestled along the Metolius River. The circular shape of the campground means most of the campsites are better suited to tents rather than RVs. Allen Springs is a No Water campground so campers will need to bring their own supply. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and fire pit. We do have vault toilets onsite There is also a small picnic area onsite.
Natural Features
Nestled in the forest with near the Metolius River. Allen Springs Campground is a great shady family spot with short hikes all around.
Nearby Attractions
The close proximity to the town of Sisters offers many additional amenities and attractions, as well as the nearby Sisters Wilderness Trails.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment and tires before using trails.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. During your time in Central Oregon, you can find wildfire, prescribed fire and smoke information at centraloregonfire.org
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Camping or otherwise occupying a single location (including leaving camping equipment and/or related supplies) for a period longer than 14 consecutive calendar days is prohibited. ‘Location’ means the occupied area, the occupied campsite, and the National Forest System lands in the immediate vicinity thereof. Camping or occupying any location on all National Forest lands for more than 28 calendar days total during a calendar year is prohibited.
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Click here for more information about Deschutes National Forest.
NO generator use is allowed in campgrounds between 10:00PM and 7:00AM (36 CFR 261.10). Silent power banks or battery powered devices are allowed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15 · 8 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 36 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a picnic table and fire pit. We do have vault toilets onsite There is also a small picnic area onsite.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…rather than RVs. Allen Springs is a No Water campground so campers will need to bring their own…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Night sky · 435th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 15:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $28–$30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 16 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 16 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 15 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 81 ft | 193 ft | 2,581 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 002 | walk to | 30 ft | 57 ft | 219 ft | 2,500 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 003 | walk to | 20 ft | 57 ft | 247 ft | 2,443 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 004 | walk to | 20 ft | 64 ft | under 10 ft | 2,344 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 005 | walk to | 20 ft | 53 ft | under 10 ft | 2,379 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 006 | walk to | 20 ft | 53 ft | under 10 ft | 2,426 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 30 ft | 2,275 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 69 ft | 19 ft | 2,212 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 009 Host | host pad | 26 ft | 154 ft | 2,272 ft | ||
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 69 ft | 20 ft | 2,153 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 81 ft | 28 ft | 2,091 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 23 ft | 2,029 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 115 ft | 134 ft | 2,058 ft | $28–$30 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 014 | walk to | 18 ft | 62 ft | 38 ft | 1,948 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 015 | walk to | 18 ft | 62 ft | 23 ft | 1,906 ft | $28 |
| ALLEN SPRINGS CAMPGROUND | 016 | walk to | 18 ft | 70 ft | under 10 ft | 1,866 ft | $28 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Green Ridge LookoutDeschutes National Forest · 1.0 mi
Pioneer Ford CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.6 mi
Lower Canyon Creek CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 2.0 miLower Bridge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 2.1 mi
Smiling River Campground2.5 mi
Allingham CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 2.8 miFrom Sisters OR: Travel 9.6 miles northwest on Highway 20, then 11.1 miles north on Forest Road 14.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Camp Sherman, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Allen Springs Campground is in Oregon’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Cliff Bentz (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJeff MerkleyU.S. Senator · Oregon
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRon WydenU.S. Senator · Oregon
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at Allen Springs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Allen Springs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Allen Springs Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Allen Springs Campground (Deschutes National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at Allen Springs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Allen Springs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Allen Springs Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Allen Springs Campground (Deschutes National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Allen Springs Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 15 sites at Allen Springs Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Allen Springs Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Allen Springs Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Allen Springs Campground (Deschutes National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com