Contorta Point Group Camp
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Contorta Point Group Campground is located on the south shore of Crescent Lake in Deschutes National Forest. It offers visitors the opportunity to experience scenic beauty and recreational activities throughout the Cascades region. Keep reading
Recreation
Crescent Lake is a prime location for boating, fishing and swimming. The Summit Lake Trail is popular among hikers and mountain bikers, offering excellent views of Diamond Peak across Crescent Lake. Visitors can take advantage of skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling in the winter months. Crescent Lake Snowpark offers a base camp for exciting winter excursions. The Summit Lake Trail is open to snowmobiling.
Facilities
The campground offers two group sites within walking distance of the lakeshore. It can accommodate two groups of 40 or one group of 80. Approximately 10 vehicles fit at each site. Amenities are minimal at this campground. Vault toilets are provided. Sites are equipped with tables. Roads and parking spurs are dirt. Drinking water and electrical hookups are not available. A nearby resort on Crescent Lake offers lodging and a general store. Supplies and equipment rentals are also available.
Natural Features
Cresent Lake is nestled in a glacier basin east of the towering Cascade Mountain Range. It boasts brilliant blue-green water and sandy beaches. A forest of lodgepole pine provide the backdrop to the area, with mountain hemlock, fir and spruce also in the mix. Wildlife found in the area includes deer, native fish and migratory birds.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can explore wilderness areas, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and approximately 1,600 miles of trails that comprise nearly 2.5 million acres within the Deschutes National Forest and the adjacent Ochoco National Forest. Lava Lands Visitor Center in nearby Bend, Oregon, and the unique geological landscape of Newberry National Volcanic Monument draw visitors to the region as well. Visitors enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, known as Oregon's Highway in the Sky, which climbs into the clouds on a 66-mile drive through the Cascade Range, weaving past snow-capped peaks and alpine lakes.
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
This is a NO WATER at this facility so campers will need to bring their own supply.
ATV / OHV riding is not permitted within the campground – please limit use to transportation in and out of the facility.
This facility is pet friendly so long as animals are picked up after and kept on their leashes.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
The Contorta Point beach is not included with the reservation – the beach is available to all for public use so campers are asked to be courteous to other visitors.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment and tires before using lake or trails
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).
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.
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.
During your time in Central Oregon, you can find wildfire, prescribed fire and smoke information at centraloregonfire.org
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
- 2 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are minimal at this campground. Vault toilets are provided. Sites are equipped with tables. Roads…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water and electrical hookups are not available.”
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Night sky · 211th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:34 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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
“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 16:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
SpringDeschutes National Forest · 0.5 mi
Contorta Flat CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.6 mi
Windy Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 1.1 mi
Whitefish Horse CampDeschutes National Forest · 1.2 mi
Simax Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 3.2 mi
Crescent Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.3 miFrom Highway 58 at Crescent Lake Junction, follow Forest Road 60 for 9.3 miles around Crescent Lake. Travel 1 mile west on Forest Road 280 to the campground entrance gate.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Crescent Lake, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 20°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Contorta Point Group Camp 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 →