East Lake Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $27From, per site
- Sites
- 2827 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
East Lake Campground sits at the edge of beautiful East Lake in the caldera of Newberry Volcano. Most sites in this campground are on the lake or no more than a few minutes walk away. There are opportunities for bird watching, bicycling, sightseeing, and canoeing. East Lake is a little shadier than the other lakes and is a perfect way to beat the heat of the summer. There are nearby hikes into the lava rock and close by waterfalls. The area is part of the Newberry National Monument in Deschutes National Forest. Keep reading
The area is popular for its geological significance and multitude of recreational activities, making it an ideal individual and family camping excursion. For more information about the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, please visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/deschutes/recarea/?recid=66159 Recreation Visitors can take advantage of boating, kayaking, swimming and fishing on East Lake. A boat ramp is located in the campground, and the lake has a 10 mph speed limit. For anglers, the lake provides the perfect setting to fish from boat or the shoreline. It supports rainbow trout, brown trout and Kokanee salmon. In September, the outlet of adjacent Paulina Lake may be choked with Kokanee moving to spawn in Paulina Creek. The Crater Rim Trail, considered one of the finest high country trails in the area, boasts vast stretches of forest, deserts and mountains. The trail has many access points and connectors to other trails.
Facilities
East Lake Campground offers a boat ramp and several sites close to the shore or within easy walking distance to the beach. It is perfect for trailer, tent or RV camping. Sites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Flush toilets and drinking water are also available.
Natural Features
East Lake is located within the collapsed caldera of Newberry Volcano. Nearly five miles in diameter, the caldera encircles the basins of East Lake and Paulina Lake. East Lake covers 1,044 acres and is 180 feet at its deepest point. Paulina Creek flows from the lake and has chiseled a narrow gorge through the caldera's west wall creating a remarkable twin waterfall. Thermal vents and hot springs along the lake's northeast edge help create a highly productive ecosystem. The surrounding undeveloped wilderness, clean streams and diverse forests support a variety of wildlife, including black bear, bighorn sheep, deer, native fish and migratory birds. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 323-1746.
Nearby Attractions
Big Obsidian Flow Trail offers a 1-mile interpretive trail that climbs up and onto this impressive lava flow of obsidian (black volcanic glass) and pumice. The Big Obsidian Flow is 1,300 years old, the youngest lava flow in Oregon. Lava Lands Visitor Center in nearby Bend, Oregon, is a great starting point for visitors to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through educational programs and exhibits. Lava River Cave, also located in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, is nearly a mile long. The northwest section of the cave is the longest continuous lava tube in Oregon.
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
Boat launch parking is for day use only and requires a recreation fee separate from camping fees. Park your boat trailers and vehicles at your campsite please.
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 · 6
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.
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
- 28
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 5 of 28
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Flush toilets and drinking water are also available. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…rings with grills. Flush toilets and drinking water are also available. Natural Features East Lake is…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Night sky · 392nd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:43 UTC
recreation.gov lists 27 of the 28 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $27 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 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
29 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 27 mapped sitesAll 29 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 28 of the 29 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 | 40 ft | 52 ft | 174 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 173 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 92 ft | 279 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 89 ft | 178 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 90 ft | 187 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 006 | type not stated | 36 ft | 297 ft | $33.97 | |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 177 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 81 ft | 277 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 186 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 76 ft | 273 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 125 ft | 170 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 163 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 171 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 014 Host | host pad | 40 ft | 179 ft | $33.97 | |
| Loop 1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 54 ft | 278 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 54 ft | 290 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 88 ft | 335 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 93 ft | 355 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 54 ft | 368 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 54 ft | 349 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 65 ft | 353 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 403 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 023 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 84 ft | 322 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 288 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 107 ft | 394 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 79 ft | 400 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 027 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 79 ft | 419 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 432 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 029 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 89 ft | 345 ft | $27 |
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.
25 of 29 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cinder Hill CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.1 mi
Cinder Hill CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 1.4 mi
Little Crater CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 1.6 mi
Chief Paulina Horse CampNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 2.4 mi
Newberry Group Camp SiteNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 2.4 mi
Paulina Lake CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 3.3 miFrom Bend, travel 23.5 miles south on Hwy 97, then 16.6 miles east on County Road 21 (Paulina Lake Road).
From LaPine travel 6.8 miles north on Hwy 97, then 16.6 miles east on County Road 21 (Paulina Lake Road).
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for La Pine, OR
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
East Lake 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 →