Cold Springs Campground (OR)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 1 of the next 1 nights; a database flag says not open read 16:38 UTC
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 22All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
A pleasant, small spring runs through the center of this popular, shaded campground. Located just southwest of Sisters, Oregon, Cold Springs Campground is nestled below a thick Ponderosa Pine forest mixed with aspen in the wet areas. This campground offers opportunities for hiking and bird watching and is a great option for the whole family. 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
There are 23 single campsites in this facility. Water is available by hand pump and there are three vault style toilets. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and fire ring. With a loop road, bicycling throughout the campground is a favorite pastime for families that come to Cold Springs Campground.
Natural Features
Nestled in the forest with a pleasant, small spring running through the center of this facility, Cold 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
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment and tires before using trails.
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.
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
During your time in Central Oregon, you can find wildfire, prescribed fire and smoke information at centraloregonfire.org
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).
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
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.
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
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 156 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “Water is available by hand pump and there are three vault style toilets.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…23 single campsites in this facility. Water is available by hand pump and there are three vault style…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- Night sky · 620th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 23 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 23 of the 23 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. 22 of the 23 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 97 ft | 2.6 mi | 323 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 94 ft | 2.6 mi | 251 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 94 ft | 2.6 mi | 289 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 79 ft | 2.6 mi | 151 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 79 ft | 2.6 mi | 150 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 114 ft | 79 ft | 2.6 mi | 103 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 79 ft | 2.6 mi | 43 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 75 ft | 2.6 mi | 150 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 75 ft | 2.6 mi | 186 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 92 ft | 2.6 mi | 111 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 116 ft | 2.6 mi | 221 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 103 ft | 2.5 mi | 289 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 95 ft | 102 ft | 2.5 mi | 285 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 102 ft | 2.5 mi | 225 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 113 ft | 2.5 mi | 197 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 156 ft | 83 ft | 2.5 mi | 88 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 83 ft | 2.5 mi | 103 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 75 ft | 2.6 mi | 115 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 80 ft | 2.6 mi | 182 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 75 ft | 2.6 mi | 191 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 88 ft | 2.6 mi | 296 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 022 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 88 ft | 2.6 mi | 305 ft | $25 |
| Loop 1 | 023 Host | host pad | 54 ft | 2.6 mi | 181 ft | $25 |
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
Graham Corral Horse CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 2.5 mi
Indian Ford CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.7 mi
Whispering Pines Horse CampDeschutes National Forest · 4.8 miLava Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 8.4 mi
Scout LakeDeschutes National Forest · 9.1 mi
Blue BayDeschutes National Forest · 9.2 miFrom Sisters, OR: Travel 4.2 miles west on Highway 242 (McKenzie Pass Highway).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Black Butte Ranch, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 23°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Cold Springs Campground (OR) is in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Janelle Bynum (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. 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 moneyJanelle S. BynumU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 5th 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 Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Janelle S. Bynum, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cold Springs Campground (OR) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cold Springs Campground (OR) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cold Springs Campground (OR). 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 Cold Springs Campground (OR) (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 Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cold Springs Campground (OR) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cold Springs Campground (OR) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cold Springs Campground (OR). 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 Cold Springs Campground (OR) (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 Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Cold Springs Campground (OR), Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 22 sites at Cold Springs Campground (OR) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cold Springs Campground (OR) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cold Springs Campground (OR). 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 Cold Springs Campground (OR) (Deschutes National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com