Lava Lake Campground
1Heads up1 fire 38 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $28–$56Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 43All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lava Lake Campground is located along the Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway within the heart of Central Oregon's Cascade Range. Keep reading
Recreation
Lava Lake Campground offers access to hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing and scenic driving.
Facilities
This waterfront campground features 44 sites some of which are designated as tent-only while others provide space for small RV's and trailers. Lava Lake Campground also has a day use area and boat ramp.
Natural Features
Lava Lake is located on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range at an elevation of 4,740 feet surrounded by mature pine forests with bull rushes and lava outcroppings lining its shores..
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can explore wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, lakes and reservoirs and approximately 1,600 miles of trails within the Deschutes 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 will also enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway which climbs into the Cascades from Central Oregon's high desert valley over a 66-mile drive weaving through snow-capped peaks and alongside 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
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment and tires before using lake or trails
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per single tent site. Two RV’S with tow vehicle per double site or two vehicles per double 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).
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
- 43 · 5 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Night sky · 402nd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:38 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $28–$56 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
44 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 44 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. 43 of the 44 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 | 102 ft | 462 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 399 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 95 ft | 503 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 95 ft | 430 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 111 ft | 534 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 006 Host | host pad | 40 ft | $34.70 | ||
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 101 ft | 483 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 55 ft | 540 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 469 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 511 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 444 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 407 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 62 ft | 466 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 014 Tent Only | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 48 ft | 410 ft | $28 |
| Loop 1 | 015 Tent Only | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 48 ft | 369 ft | $28 |
| Loop 1 | 016 Tent Only | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 49 ft | 310 ft | $28 |
| Loop 1 | 017 Tent Only | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 49 ft | 262 ft | $28 |
| Loop 1 | 018 Tent Only | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 62 ft | 211 ft | $28 |
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 109 ft | 259 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 320 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 80 ft | 302 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 345 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 023 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 55 ft | 594 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 647 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 73 ft | 674 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 744 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 743 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 028 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 72 ft | 805 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 803 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 865 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 52 ft | 757 ftLittle Lava Lake | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 032 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 52 ft | 778 ftLittle Lava Lake | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 726 ftLittle Lava Lake | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 034 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 45 ft | 742 ftLittle Lava Lake | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 741 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 036 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 55 ft | 775 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 037 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 51 ft | 720 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 038 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 52 ft | 659 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 039 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 52 ft | 693 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 040 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 644 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 041 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 54 ft | 608 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 61 ft | 581 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 043 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 62 ft | 525 ft | $28–$56 |
| Loop 1 | 044 Multi | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 472 ft | $28–$56 |
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 44 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Little Lava LakeDeschutes National Forest · 0.5 mi
South Campground - Hosmer Lake (OR)Deschutes National Forest · 3.4 mi
Mallard Marsh CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.5 mi
Little Fawn CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.6 mi
Point Campground - DeschutesDeschutes National Forest · 4.1 mi
Elk Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 4.9 miFrom Bend, travel 38.4 miles southwest on Cascade Lakes Hwy (46), then 1.0 miles east on Forest Road 4600 500.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Three Rivers, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 21°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
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
Lava Lake Campground 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 →