North Twin Lake Campground
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 1 of the next 1 nights read 16:52 UTC
- A night
- $23From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Twin Lake Campground islocated just north of the South Twin Resort on North Twin Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Located on North Twin Lake, this campground offers a small beach at the shallow end of the lake that is great for wading and swimming. Fishing is also quite popular though motorized boats are prohibited on this body of water.
Facilities
North Twin Lake Campground can accommodate RV, trailer or tent-campers, however, water and electric hookups are not available. Campers will need to bring their own water supply. All sites are equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill and the campground has vault toilets available. There is an RV dump station just after the entry of the nearby Gull Point Campground Natural Features North Twin Lake was formed about 20,000 years ago when rising magma encountered groundwater. This resulted in violent steam explosions which formed a broad shallow crater that later filled with water. Nearby peaks, lava flows and old-growth forests provide visitors with a varied landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Twin Lakes Trail #5.1 is an interpretive trail leaving the campground near the water that informs visitors about "dwarf mistletoe" infecting the ponderosa pine trees in the area. Visitors can explore wilderness areas, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and approximately hundred of miles of trail. Newberry National Volcanic Monument, approxiately 45 minutes by vehicle, 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 Lava River Cave, the longest continuous lava tube in Oregon. Visitors enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Bywaywhich climbs 66 miles 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 facility so campers will need to bring their own supply.
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 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.
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.
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
- 19
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…ring with grill and the campground has vault toilets available. There is an RV dump station just after…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are not available. Campers will need to bring their own water supply. All sites are equipped with a picnic table…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Night sky · 345th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $23 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 16:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 19 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop1 | 001 HOST | host pad | 682 ft | |||
| Loop1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 68 ft | 619 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 52 ft | 439 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 79 ft | 400 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 39 ft | 349 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 31 ft | 315 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 90 ft | 299 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 209 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 157 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 31 ft | 283 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 25 ft | 167 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 25 ft | 146 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 45 ft | 170 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 311 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 347 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 394 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 49 ft | 395 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 509 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 588 ft | $23 |
| Loop1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 91 ft | 677 ft | $23 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
South Twin Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.0 mi
West South Twin CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.2 mi
Sheep BridgeDeschutes National Forest · 1.3 mi
Gull Point CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.9 mi
Reservoir CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 4.3 miFrom Bend, OR: Travel 26.8 miles south on Highway 97 to Wickiup Junction, then 11.0 miles west on County Road 43, then continue 4.6 miles west on County Road 42, and finally 0.2 miles south on County Road 4260.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for La Pine, 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 · 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
North Twin 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 →
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 North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at North Twin Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Twin Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Twin Lake Campground. 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 North Twin Lake Campground (Deschutes 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 North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at North Twin Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Twin Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Twin Lake Campground. 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 North Twin Lake Campground (Deschutes 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 North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at North Twin Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at North Twin Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. North Twin Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run North Twin Lake Campground. 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 North Twin Lake Campground (Deschutes National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com