Little Crater Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $27From, per site
- Sites
- 5047 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated on the edge of the beautiful Paulina Lake, Little Crater Campground is conveniently located within Newberry National Monument. Visitors to this area are taken aback by the incredible views this area has to offer, highlighting volcanic landscapes intermixed with diverse forests, typical of central Oregon. Popular for both its geological significance and multitude of recreational activities, Little Crater Campground is ideal for individual and family camping excursions. If you are visiting Oregon with the aim of getting the best camping experience, this might be it. Keep reading
Offering campsites next to Paulina Lake, activities available at this campground include hiking, bird watching, bicycling, sightseeing and access to nearby trails. For more information about the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, please visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/deschutes/recarea/?recid=66159 Recreation The unique location of Little Crater Campground offers visitors opportunities to hike shoreline trails and alpine vistas. Visitors can also take advantage of time on the lake, boating, kayaking, swimming and fishing. For anglers, this lake offers fantastic fishing opportunities. Spanning a surface area of 1,531 acres, the lake supports rainbow trout, brown trout and Kokanee salmon. In September, the outlet of Paulina Lake may be choked with Kokanee moving to spawn in Paulina Creek.
Facilities
There are 49 sites located on a fairly thin ledge right on the lake and all the campground sites are a very short walk to the water. The sites are ample sized and most are good for tents, trailers or RVs. Picnic areas, boating, shoreline trails, and stunning views of the lake, along with the conveniences of drinking water and vault toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while still having some of the conveniences of home.
Natural Features
Paulina Lake is located within the collapsed calder of Newberry Volcano. Nearly five miles in diameter, this caldera encircles the basins of Paulina Lake and its twin, East Lake. Neither lake receives water from an inlet or stream - instead both rely on rain, snowmelt and hot springs for water. 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 porcupine, bighorn sheep, deer, bats native fish, migratory birds and even the occasional black bear. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 323-1746.
Nearby Attractions
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 interpretive programs and exhibits. Visitors can explore the Lava River Cave, also located in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. At 5,211 feet (1,588 m) in length, 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
This campground has great access for those wishing to launch trailered boats. Fishing and swimming off the boat dock is prohibited.
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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
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
- 50
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 50
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the conveniences of drinking water and vault toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…the lake, along with the conveniences of drinking water and vault toilets, give visitors the opportunity to…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Night sky · 421st darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:57 UTC
recreation.gov lists 47 of the 50 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 16:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
50 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 47 mapped sitesAll 50 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 29 of the 50 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. 47 of the 50 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 | 86 ft | 146 ft | 2,659 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 78 ft | 91 ft | 2,778 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 72 ft | 162 ft | 2,681 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 169 ft | 2,705 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 72 ft | 2,827 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 90 ft | 88 ft | 2,848 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 120 ft | 204 ft | 2,716 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 133 ft | 217 ft | 2,769 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 249 ft | 2,848 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 83 ft | 2,936 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 237 ft | 2,893 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 92 ft | 82 ft | 2,975 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 82 ft | 108 ft | 3,006 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 212 ft | 2,973 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 66 ft | 102 ft | 3,058 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 017 | type not stated | 40 ft | |||||
| Loop 1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 100 ft | 3,090 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 80 ft | 254 ft | 2,969 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 68 ft | 3,160 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 105 ft | 230 ft | 3,036 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 022 | type not stated | 30 ft | 194 ft | 3,079 ft | |||
| Loop 1 | 023 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 71 ft | 74 ft | 3,222 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 95 ft | 3,196 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 149 ft | 3,143 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 55 ft | 3,250 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 107 ft | 177 ft | 3,153 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 028 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 56 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 029 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | yes | 46 ft | 59 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 030 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 88 ft | 147 ft | 3,218 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 104 ft | 149 ft | 3,267 ft | $27 |
| Loop 1 | 032 | type not stated | 18 ft | 151 ft | ||||
| Loop 1 | 033 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 152 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 034 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 46 ft | 142 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 035 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 46 ft | 157 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 036 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 57 ft | 153 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 037 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 62 ft | 157 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 038 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 161 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 039 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 75 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 040 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 40 ft | 173 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 041 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 40 ft | 160 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 042 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 91 ft | 88 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 043 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 86 ft | 185 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 044 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 97 ft | 81 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 045 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 96 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 046 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 88 ft | 97 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 047 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 85 ft | 217 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 048 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 85 ft | 232 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 049 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 109 ft | 92 ft | $27 | ||
| Loop 1 | 050 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 58 ft | 2,714 ft | $27 | |
| Loop 1 | 051 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 68 ft | 2,770 ft | $27 |
25 of 50 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Newberry Group Camp SiteNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 0.8 mi
Chief Paulina Horse CampNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 0.8 mi
Paulina Lake CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 1.6 mi
East Lake CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 1.6 mi
Cinder Hill CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 2.7 mi
Cinder Hill CampgroundNewberry National Volcanic Monument · 2.7 miFrom Bend, travel 23.5 miles south on Hwy 97, then 14.5 miles east on County Road 21( Paulina Lake Road), and 0.5 miles north on Forest Road 2100 570.
From LaPine travel 6.8 miles north on Hwy 97, then 14.5 miles east on County Road 21( Paulina Lake Road), and 0.5 miles north on Forest Road 2100 570.
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
Little Crater 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 →