Smiling River Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 12 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29–$31Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Nestled in Deschutes National Forest, Smiling River Campground offers visitors some of the most stunning scenery in central Oregon and easy access to an abundance of recreational activities. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking and fishing top the list of recreational activities for visitors. For anglers, the spring-fed Metolius river offers a stunning setting for fly-fishing. Its clear, cold water supports rainbow trout, whitefish, bull trout and kokanee salmon. For day hikers and backpackers, the area offers a wide variety of scenic terrain, ranging from riverside trails to routes in subalpine forests.
Facilities
Smiling River Campground offers sites that accommodate both tent and RV camping, however hookups are not available. Picnic areas, trails and scenic overlooks, along with the conveniences of firewood, drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while still having many of the conveniences of home.
Natural Features
Many sites at this campground look out to Metolius River, a tributary of the Deschutes River. The headwaters of the river are at Metolius Springs at the base of Black Butte, a 3,076-foot cinder cone. The clear, cold river flows north from the springs through diverse coniferous forest and a landscape of volcanic activity. The area provides habitat for mammals such as mule deer, coyote and cougar. Migratory birds and native fish also call the area home.
Nearby Attractions
The Metolius-Windigo Trail, open to hikers, bikers and horses, is more than 100 miles in length, and begins near the Metolius River headwaters west of the town of Sisters, Oregon. The trail was created in the 1980s primarily to serve long-distance horse riders seeking an alternative to the Pacific Crest Trail. 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.
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
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.
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
Everything else this campground posts · 6
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.
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
- 35
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…of firewood, drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…along with the conveniences of firewood, drinking water and flush toilets, give visitors the opportunity to…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 455th 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$31 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
36 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 36 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. 35 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 305 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 391 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 301 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 404 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 368 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 95 ft | 283 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 91 ft | 121 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 91 ft | 32 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 37 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 75 ft | 34 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 31 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 80 ft | 52 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 123 ft | 84 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 116 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 80 ft | 116 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 79 ft | 89 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 79 ft | 91 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 90 ft | 181 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 106 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 94 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 92 ft | 83 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 80 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 88 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 84 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 89 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 026 HOST | host pad | $29 | |||
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $29–$31 | ||
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 104 ft | 256 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 279 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 386 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 316 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 124 ft | 427 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 399 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 82 ft | 326 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 035 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 293 ft | $29–$31 |
| SMILING RIVER CAMPGROUND | 036 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 394 ft | $29–$31 |
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.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Allingham CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.4 mi
Lower Canyon Creek CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.6 mi
Gorge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.6 mi
Camp Sherman CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.8 mi
Pine Rest CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.8 miAllingham CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.5 miFrom Sisters, Oregon, travel 9.6 miles northwest on Highway 20, then turn right on SW Camp Sherman Rd / Road 14 for about 5 miles, then follow right onto SW Camp Sherman Rd / R F D 1419 for about half a mile. Make a left onto NF-1419 / 113, then a slight right onto SW Metolius River Rd / NF-900 and follow into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Camp Sherman, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
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
Smiling River 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 →