South Shore
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 7 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 37All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
South Shore Campground is located along Suttle Lake, shaded by Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine. One section of the camp sits on the shoreline, while the other is nestled on a hillside. Most sites have lake views. The 3,400-foot elevation and the lake breezes make South Shore Campground a comfortable summertime destination. Keep reading
Recreation
There is a boat launch available at this camp. Popular activities include power and non-motorized boating, sailing, water skiing and wind surfing. Anglers can fish for rainbow trout, kokanee salmon and brown trout, and there is a fish cleaning station on-site. Hikers and mountain bikers have access to the 3.2-mile Suttle Lake Shoreline Trail.
Facilities
Each site has a gravel parking spur, picnic table and campfire ring. Dump stations are dispersed through the campground. Drinking water and vault toilets are provided.
Natural Features
Nestled along the Cascade Mountains, the Deschutes National Forest is one of the most popular recreation forests in the Pacific Northwest. It offers a variety of landscapes, from fields of sagebrush and hay to old-growth forests and glacier-carved volcanic peaks. Suttle Lake is a natural lake formed by glaciers. It has a forested shoreline and offers views of nearby Mt. Washington.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Sisters is about 15 miles away, offering shopping and restaurants.
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
Boat launch parking is for day use only and requires a recreation fee seperate from camping fees. Park your boat trailers and vehicles at your campsite please.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment and tires before using lake 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.
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.
Click here for more information about Deschutes National Forest.
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
- 37 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the campground. Drinking water and vault toilets are provided. Natural Features Nestled along the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are dispersed through the campground. Drinking water and vault toilets are provided. Natural Features…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 454th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:08 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
37 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 37 mapped sitesAll 37 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 37 of the 37 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 36 of the 37 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 124 ft | 10 ft | 1,372 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 124 ft | under 10 ft | 1,255 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 108 ft | 25 ft | 1,098 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 93 ft | 139 ft | 1,121 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 108 ft | under 10 ft | 991 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 108 ft | 1,001 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 83 ft | under 10 ft | 860 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 100 ft | 121 ft | 903 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 83 ft | 30 ft | 779 ft | |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 49 ft | 685 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 69 ft | 599 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 106 ft | 177 ft | 593 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 58 ft | 487 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 134 ft | 433 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 126 ft | 36 ft | 364 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 126 ft | under 10 ft | 278 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 111 ft | 29 ft | 121 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 37 ft | 196 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 30 ft | 275 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 92 ft | 56 ft | 345 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 72 ft | 151 ft | 695 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 219 ft | 728 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 023 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 101 ft | 249 ft | 829 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 353 ft | 856 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 353 ft | 772 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 257 ft | 680 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 027 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 102 ft | 338 ft | 641 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 028 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 248 ft | 521 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 232 ft | 389 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 124 ft | 220 ft | 267 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 127 ft | 256 ft | 174 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 033 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 90 ft | 365 ft | 953 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 90 ft | 278 ft | 951 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 342 ft | 1,058 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 036 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 265 ft | 1,055 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 332 ft | 1,144 ft | $30 |
| AREA SOUTH SHORE | 038 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 93 ft | 228 ft | 1,130 ft | $30 |
25 of 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Blue BayDeschutes National Forest · 0.3 mi
Scout LakeDeschutes National Forest · 0.7 mi
Link CreekDeschutes National Forest · 0.9 miJack Creek CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 5.0 miRiverside CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 5.4 mi
Riverside Campground (Deschutes National Forest, OR)Deschutes National Forest · 5.5 miFrom Sisters, Oregon, take Highway 20/126 northwest for about 12 miles. Turn left onto Forest Service Road 2070 toward Suttle Lake Campgrounds. Travel just less than a half-mile to the South Shore entrance on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Black Butte Ranch, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 23°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
South Shore 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 →