Soda Creek Campground
1Heads up1 fire 31 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 10All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Soda Creek Campground sits adjacent to Soda Creek as it flows across an open meadow into Sparks Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Sparks Lake's clear water and mountainous backdrop make it a popular destination for paddling and photography.
Facilities
Soda Creek Campground can accommodate RV, trailer or tent campers, however, electric hookups are not available. There are limited sites that are RV friendly, with most of the sites suitable for smaller vehicles or tent camping. All sites are equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill and the campground has vault toilets available. Campers will need to bring their own water supply.
Natural Features
Sparks Lake, fed by streams originating on the slopes of Broken Top, rests atop a porous, volcanic lakebed. Throughout the summer the lake level decreases as snowmelt declines and water seeps underground into nearby lakes and streams.
Nearby Attractions
The accessible Ray Atkeson Trailhead begins near Sparks Lake Day Use area. The trail winds through lava channels and lodgepole pines. Less than a mile in, visitors will reach the Ray Atkeson Memorial Overlook where they will find one of the most iconic views in Central Oregon. Visitors can travel the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, a 66-mile drive through the Cascade Range that weaves 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 rivers, lakes 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 · 8
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.
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
- 10
- 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. Campers will need to bring their own…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…toilets available. Campers will need to bring their own water supply. Natural Features Sparks Lake, fed by…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Night sky · 522nd darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 3
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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
10 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 10 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. 10 of the 10 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 178 ft | 111 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 153 ft | 139 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 153 ft | 198 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 112 ft | 330 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 112 ft | 401 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 69 ft | 390 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 339 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 338 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 59 ft | 299 ft | $24 |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 59 ft | 241 ft | $24 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Quinn Meadow Horse CampDeschutes National Forest · 3.5 mi
Elk Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 5.1 mi
Mallard Marsh CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 5.2 mi
South Campground - Hosmer Lake (OR)Deschutes National Forest · 5.3 miFrom Bend, travel 26.2 miles west on Cascade Lakes Hwy (46).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sunriver, 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
Soda Creek Campground is in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Janelle Bynum (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →