Ochoco Ranger Rental
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 14 mi
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 26 of the next 30 nights read 16:52 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
Ochoco Ranger Station was established in 1906 as part of the Western Division of the Blue Mountain Forest Reserves. By 1911, Ochoco Ranger Station was part of one of seven ranger districts on the newly formed Ochoco National Forest. The site quickly grew from a single office/residence building to a compound with an office, residence, storage building and barn. This house was constructed in 1940 specifically for the district ranger by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the US Forest Service. It showcases the rustic architectural styles common to this era. The scenic location of the Ochoco Ranger Rental offers easy access to Walton Lake, Big Summit Prairie and much of the Ochoco National Forest. This rental allows visitors to enjoy all the comforts of home in a beautiful, natural setting. Keep reading
Recreation
This house is a year-round rental, allowing visitors to participate in summer or winter recreation. The 8-mile Lookout Mountain Trail #804 begins at Ochoco Ranger Station and takes hikers to the top of Lookout Mountain. Nearby Walton Lake, a developed recreation site, is located about 7 miles northeast of Ochoco Ranger Station and offers an easy hike around the lake that also connects with the more difficult Round Mountain Trail. Walton Lake offers the opportunity to fish, swim or paddle. Winter enthusiasts can enjoy Walton Sno-Park, located just past Walton Lake, which offers cross-country ski trails and snowmobile routes.
Facilities
This beautifully appointed two-story house has two large bedrooms and a half bath with a flush toilet upstairs, and a bedroom and a full bath with a flush toilet and hot shower downstairs. The house is furnished with two queen beds and three twin beds. There is a well-equipped kitchen with cook stove and refrigerator, as well as basic kitchenware and cleaning supplies, including a vacuum cleaner. The large dining room has a table and chairs for eight people. Relax and enjoy the fully furnished living room. The house is fully electric and offers a two-car garage. The fireplace is not in use. Food, trash bags, towels, washcloths, dish soap, first aid kits, flashlights, extra batteries and bedding are not provided. The roads to the house will be plowed and open in winter; however, visitors will be responsible for clearing the sidewalks and driveway during heavy snowfall periods. Visitors are also responsible for cleaning the house, packing out trash and locking up before leaving. The house is managed for and set up to accommodate up to eight (8) guests. Additional guests can conveniently be accommodated at the campground across the street.
Natural Features
Nestled under big ponderosa pine, the house is situated in upper Ochoco Valley and surrounded by the Ochoco Mountain range. The highest peak in this range is Lookout Mountain, at 6,900 feet, which is near the house. The Ochoco Mountain range is known for its unusual rock formations. Visitors to this area may be lucky enough to see wild free-roaming horses. Other wildlife around the forest include squirrels, chipmunks, antelope, deer, elk, hawks, osprey, eagles and great horned owls.
Nearby Attractions
Walton Lake, Lookout Mt. trails, Big Summit Prairie Charges & Cancellations In order to allow for maximum use of the facilities, a cancellation policy has been put in place to encourage customers to make any cancellations as soon as possible so that others may reserve and enjoy the unoccupied facility. Reservation fees are refundable on a pro-rated scale as outlined below. > 100% refund of reservation fees, when cancelled 31 days or more, prior to your arrival date* > 50% refund of reservation fees, when cancelled 15 to 30 days, prior to your arrival date* > No refund when cancelled 14 days or less, prior to your arrival date > If a customer arrives at a facility and decides to leave early, the days not used are not refunded * A $10.00 cancellation fee will be deducted from the amount of the refund given the customer
What the agency tells you
The combination to the rental will be in the confirmation letter; combination lock is on the back door
Cell phone coverage is poor to unavailable; no phone available on-site
No RVs or camp trailers are allowed at this site
Everything else this campground posts · 7
The maximum number of people is eight
No pets or livestock are allowed on the premises
All garbage must be packed out
Smoking is prohibited inside the house
Click here for more information about Ochoco National Forest
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.
Check-in Time is 1:00pm and Check-out time is 11:00am
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric, 1 water
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…large bedrooms and a half bath with a flush toilet upstairs, and a bedroom and a full bath with a…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Birding
- Cross Country Skiing
- Hiking
- Historic Sites
- Hunting
- Information Site
- Mountain biking
- Mushroom Picking
- Other Recreation Concession Site
- Picnicking
- Ranger Station
- Scenic drives
- Snowshoeing
Full this Saturdayread 16:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
“Reservation fees are refundable on a pro-rated scale as outlined below. > 100% refund of reservation fees, when cancelled 31 days or more, prior to your arrival date* > 50% refund of reservation fees, when cancelled 15 to 30 days, prior to your arrival date* > No refund when cancelled 14 days or less, prior to your…” · 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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
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 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| OCHOCO RANGER RENTAL | ORR | cabin electric | 30 amp | 200 ft | $90 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ochoco Forest CampOchoco National Forest · 0.1 mi
Walton LakeOchoco National Forest · 5.1 miWhite Rock CampgroundOchoco National Forest · 6.1 miWhistler CampgroundOchoco National Forest · 7.4 mi
Ochoco Divide Group SiteOchoco National Forest · 7.4 miWildwood CampgroundOchoco National Forest · 7.4 miFrom Prineville, Oregon: Travel approximately 13 miles east on Highway 26. Turn right at the junction to Ochoco Ranger Station (County Road 123), and continue for approximately 7.5 miles. Turn left onto Forest Service Road 2610, which is just past the restrooms on your left. Drive past Ochoco Creek and then make an immediate left turn. The Ochoco Ranger Rental House will be the first structure on your right (the address is 33689 Ochoco Ranger Station Loop). Please park in the garage or driveway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Juniper Canyon, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°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
Ochoco Ranger Rental 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ochoco Ranger Rental 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ochoco Ranger Rental keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ochoco Ranger Rental. 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental (Ochoco 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ochoco Ranger Rental 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ochoco Ranger Rental keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ochoco Ranger Rental. 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental (Ochoco 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Ochoco Ranger Rental, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Ochoco Ranger Rental 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ochoco Ranger Rental keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ochoco Ranger Rental. 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 Ochoco Ranger Rental (Ochoco National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com