Simax Group Camp
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Simax Group Campground is located on the northeast end of Crescent Lake in Deschutes National Forest, offering visitors some of the most beautiful scenery in central Oregon and easy access to an abundance of recreational activities. Designed as a fully accessible campground, the four group sites and large picnic pavilion provide all visitors with ample opportunities to explore the area's diverse lush forest and spectacular surroundings. Keep reading
Recreation
At Simax Group Campground, water skiing, sailing, windsurfing, sunning, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, off-roading and fishing are popular with visitors. Hiking on one or more of the trails in the area offers a wide variety of scenic terrain, ranging from lakeside trails to routes weaving through towering pine, fir, and spruce trees, typical for the area. For anglers, Crescent Lake provides the perfect setting to fish from boat or the shoreline. Fish species found in the lake include kokanee salmon, mackinaw, rainbow trout, brown trout and mountain whitefish. Summer months offer the best fishing.
Facilities
Four separate group sites offer visitors opportunities for both lakeside and forest camping. Picnic areas, sandy beaches and stunning views of the lake, along with the conveniences of drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while still having many of the conveniences of home. The roads and spurs throughout the campground are paved. This site was designed to be fully accessible for those with disabilities and is the first of its kind in the Northwest. A trail system designed for accessibility links the group site to the day-use areas and beaches.
Natural Features
Crescent Lake, nestled in a naturally glaciated basin behind a moraine dam, lies east of the towering Cascade Mountain Range. Its brilliant blue-green water, sandy beaches and water temperature are exceptional for a high-elevation lake. Towering lodgepole pine trees provide the backdrop for this area, with mountain hemlock, fir, and spruce also in the mix. Volcanic activity throughout the surrounding area of Deschutes National Forest is evident in its landscape, showcasing cinder cones, calderas and lava flows.
Nearby Attractions
The trailhead to Fawn Lake starts at the northeast end Crescent Lake and is open to hikers and horseback riding. The trail, 4.7 miles one-way, begins in a forest of white fir, Douglas fir and mountain hemlock before making a transition into lodgepole pine, ending at the Crater Butte Trail near Fawn Lake. There are views of Redtop and Lakeview Mountains at Fawn Lake. Lava Lands Visitor Center in Bend, Oregon, offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through interpretive programs and exhibits. Visitors will also enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, known as Oregon's Highway in the Sky, which climbs into the clouds on a 66-mile drive through the Cascade Mountain range, weaving through snow-capped peaks and alpine lakes. A nearby resort on Crescent Lake offers lodging and a general store. Supplies and equipment rentals are available to visitors.
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
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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.
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
- 4 · 4 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…the conveniences of drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…the lake, along with the conveniences of drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Night sky · 260th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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
“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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 4 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA SIMAX GROUP CAMP | Group A | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 315 ft | 408 ft | $164 | |
| AREA SIMAX GROUP CAMP | Group B | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 161 ft | 226 ft | $164 | |
| AREA SIMAX GROUP CAMP | Group C | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 161 ft | 383 ft | $164 | |
| AREA SIMAX GROUP CAMP | Group D | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 315 ft | 494 ft | $164 | |
| AREA SIMAX GROUP CAMP | PAV1 | day use | 25 ft | yes | 324 ft | $64 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. 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
Crescent Lake Guard StationDeschutes National Forest · 0.6 mi
Crescent Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.8 mi
Crescent Lake YurtsDeschutes National Forest · 0.9 mi
Contorta Flat CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.0 mi
Contorta Point Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 3.2 mi
SpringDeschutes National Forest · 3.6 miFrom Highway 58, turn south at Crescent Lake Junction on Forest Service Road 60. Travel 2.2 miles to the junction with Forest
Service Road 6005. Continue a mile south, following signs.
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
Simax Group Camp 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 →