North Waldo
1Heads up1 fire 49 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 4341 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Waldo Lake is one of the largest natural lakes in Oregon. It offers a uniquely peaceful setting on the water and along remote shorelines, surrounded by forests of Douglas fir and mountain hemlock. Recreation in the area is abundant with the lake an ideal location for water activities like sailing, canoeing and swimming. Keep reading
Recreation
Waldo Lake is circled by the Jim Weaver Loop, 20 miles of trail for hiking and biking. Bikes are allowed on the trails, but not in the nearby Waldo Lake Wilderness. There is also easy access to the Pacific Crest Trail and North Waldo is also a popular starting point for many wilderness trails and lakes, most notably the Rigdon, Wahanna and Torrey Lakes. There is a 1-mile Shoreline Trail between North Waldo Campground and Islet Campground which provides a short and pleasant hike along the lakeshore.
Facilities
North Waldo is the most popular of the Waldo Lake Campgrounds. There are 58 sites with fire rings and tables, 34 are reservable. The boat launch is somewhat deeper than the others on the lake, which is more accommodating for large sailboats. The drier environment supports fewer mosquitoes, but they are still plentiful in season. This facility is operated by American Land & Leisure. We appreciate hearing from you. Comment cards are available from campground hosts or online at www.americanll.com.
Natural Features
Situated high on the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades at 5,400 feet in elevation, Waldo Lake is one of the purest lakes in Oregon (9.8 square miles with a maximum depth of 427 feet). It has no permanent inlet to bring nutrients into the lake for plant growth. The lack of plant life contributes to its purity, allowing you to see to depths of 120 feet on a calm day.
What the agency tells you
Generator and chainsaw use are prohibited in undeveloped areas around Waldo Lake.
Generator use is allowed in developed campgrounds--quiet hours are posted.
Boat motor use is restricted to electric motors only.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Emergency landing only for float planes
14 day boat moorage limit. People must be staying at Waldo Lake while mooring their boats.
Islands are day use only, no overnight camping.
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.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Willamette.MiddleFork@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 43 · 3 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 271st darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 41 of the 43 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 41 mapped sitesAll 43 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 41 of the 43 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| NORTH WALDO | 001 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 669 ft | 763 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 002 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 663 ft | 792 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 003 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 562 ft | 757 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 004 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 647 ft | 849 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 005 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 515 ft | 828 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 006 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 599 ft | 946 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 007 | standard nonelectric | 112 ft | 479 ft | 930 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 008 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 580 ft | 1,006 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 009 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 489 ft | 1,055 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 010 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 581 ft | 1,075 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 011 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 55 ft | 485 ft | 1,108 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 012 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 120 ft | 605 ft | 1,225 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 013 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | yes | 105 ft | 490 ft | 1,255 ft |
| NORTH WALDO | 014 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 76 ft | 618 ft | 1,332 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 015 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 76 ft | 615 ft | 1,393 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 016 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 97 ft | 488 ft | 1,345 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 017 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 91 ft | 502 ft | 1,433 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 018 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 103 ft | 600 ft | 1,471 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 019 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 91 ft | 515 ft | 1,511 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 020 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 130 ft | 643 ft | 1,612 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 021 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 108 ft | 359 ft | 1,812 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 022 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 98 ft | 462 ft | 1,708 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 023 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 108 ft | 283 ft | 1,811 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 024 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 98 ft | 383 ft | 1,708 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 025 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 109 ft | 219 ft | 1,763 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 026 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 109 ft | 201 ft | 1,725 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 027 | walk to | 70 ft | 127 ft | 1,808 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 028 | walk to | 70 ft | 115 ft | 1,808 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 029 | walk to | 118 ft | 115 ft | 1,697 ft | ||
| NORTH WALDO | 030 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 128 ft | 172 ft | 1,564 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 031 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 101 ft | 153 ft | 1,442 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 032 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 115 ft | 285 ft | 1,494 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 033 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 101 ft | 160 ft | 1,355 ft |
| NORTH WALDO | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 115 ft | 307 ft | 1,408 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 035 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 86 ft | 185 ft | 1,249 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 036 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 104 ft | 349 ft | 1,321 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 037 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 233 ft | 1,195 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 038 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 104 ft | 352 ft | 1,227 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 039 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 79 ft | 250 ft | 1,127 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 040 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 116 ft | 341 ft | 1,078 ft | |
| NORTH WALDO | 041 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 108 ft | 235 ft | 1,019 ft | |
| S&P | Double S&P | type not stated | 42 ft | ||||
| S&P | Single S&P | type not stated |
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Islet CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 0.8 miShadow Bay Campground (Waldo Lake)Willamette National Forest · 4.7 mi
Shadow BayWillamette National Forest · 4.9 mi
Skookum Creek CampgroundWillamette National Forest · 7.4 mi
Little Cultus CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 7.6 mi
Cultus Lake Boat In - West CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 8.0 miFrom Oakridge, follow Hwy 58 east for 25 miles to the Waldo Lake Road (FS Road 5897). Follow Waldo Lake Road for 11 miles to FS Road 5898. Follow FS Road 5898 to FS Road 5895. Continue on FS Road 5895 to North Waldo Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Crescent Lake, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 20°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
North Waldo is in Oregon’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Val Hoyle (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Inside the Cedar Creek Fire perimeter, 2022, 127,311 acres, with all 41 measured campsites inside it. Tree cover here read 63% in the 2021 product and 25% in the 2024 one.