Magone Lake
1Heads up1 fire 23 mi away
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:31 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Magone Lake Campground is situated along its namesake lake in the northern reaches of Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. Visitors enjoy fishing, canoeing, swimming and hiking. Keep reading
Recreation
The Magone Lake area offers swimming, fishing, hiking and mountain biking opportunities. The lake contains eastern brook and rainbow trout. A boat ramp is available on-site. Visitors also enjoy viewing wildflowers and interesting geology throughout the region.
Facilities
The campground offers both a picnic shelter and overnight campsite for groups to reserve. These sites can accommodate up to 75 people each. Individual family sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Picnic tables and campfire rings with grills are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
The campground is set in a forest of Engelmann spruce and ponderosa pine. Magone Lake covers about 50 acres and features both deep holes of up to 100 feet and shoals on the north side. Geologists believe Magone Lake was created by a landslide in the early 1800s. It is located in the southern reaches of the Malheur National Forest. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (541) 575-3131.
What the agency tells you
No hookups available.
Click here for more information on the Malheur National Forest.
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Fish Your National Forest.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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.
Campers and day users must bring garbage bags. This is a pack it in pack it out facility.
A $5.00 fee will be charged at the campground for each additional vehicle.
Magone Lake Campground is in a remote forest location with very limited or no mobile phone coverage.
Drinking water is available only during warmer months; water will be shut off from early to mid-October until mid to late May (specific dates required to prevent freezing depend on area temperatures).
The GROUP CAMPSITE has a locked gate to prevent those without reservations from entering the site before or during reserved periods. The lock combination is issued as a part of the reservation confirmation email. Please arrive prepared with the combination. A campground host may be available during the summer season, and the ranger district offices have the combination information available. It is the responsibility of visitors to arrive prepared to enter the group site. Thank you.
The PICNIC SHELTER has a gate that can be closed as needed, but typically remains open. If the shelter is unreserved the public may access and use this space. If there is a reservation, campground hosts or USFS staff may attend to this gate. Th picnic shelter gate does not have a combination lock. The GROUP PICNIC SHELTER IS DAY USE. No overnight camping.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings with grills are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground is set in a forest…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 152nd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 2 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:31 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“A $5.00 fee will be charged at the campground for each additional vehicle.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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 16:31 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
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. 1 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
Sunshine Guard StationMalheur National Forest · 13 miDixie CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 16 mi
Middle Fork CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 16 miDeerhorn CampgroundMalheur National Forest · 17 miHead O' Boulder Forest CampMalheur National Forest · 18 miFrom John Day, Oregon, take U.S. Highway 26 east for approximately 9 miles. At the junction of County Road 18, travel north approximately 10 miles. At Forest Road 3620, turn left and drive approximately 1 mile to Forest Road 3618. The campground is 1 mile from the turnoff. The reservable group site is on the right, the shelter is in the day use area on the left.
From Prairie City, Oregon, take U.S. Highway 26 approximately 3 miles west. At the junction of County Road 18, travel north approximately 10 miles. Turn right on Forest Road 3620 and travel approximately 1 mile to Forest Road 3618. The campground is about 1 mile from the turnoff. The reservable group site is on the right, the shelter is in the day use area on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for John Day, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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 · a letter you can send
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
Magone Lake 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 →
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 moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd 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 Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magone Lake are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magone Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magone Lake. 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 Magone Lake (Malheur 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 Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magone Lake are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magone Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magone Lake. 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 Magone Lake (Malheur 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 Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Magone Lake, Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magone Lake are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magone Lake keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magone Lake. 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 Magone Lake (Malheur National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com