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Bureau of Land Management · Steens Mountain Cooperative Management And Protection Area · OR

South Steens Campground

1Heads up1 fire 29 mi away
Wildfire
Jackass Butte fire · 29 mi away · 24,724 acres · 92% contained · updated Aug 10, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Aug 10, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
5,320 ftElevation
377 ftWater · an unnamed pond
63.2 miSE of Hines, OR
18%Tree cover
Bortle 1Night sky · darkest of 770 in OR

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

South Steens Campground is located in the heart of Steens Mountain. Visitors will find picnic tables and grills at 36 family campsites amid juniper and sage. The equestrian site, designed specifically for horse users, is directly adjacent to the family campground. Recreational stock (horses, mules, llamas, goats, etc.) are not allowed in the family portion of South Steens Campground, but are welcome and comfortable at 15 equestrian sites complete with tie posts and small corrals. Keep reading

Know Before You Go

The typical season of use at South Steens Campground is mid-May through mid-November. Vault restrooms and drinking water are available. The use of pelletized or certified weed-free hay is required on all BLM public lands in Oregon and Washington. Point of Interest South Steens Family and Equestrian Campgrounds are close to the Historic Riddle Brothers Ranch, several hiking trails, and the Little Blitzen and Big Indian gorges.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…is mid-May through mid-November. Vault restrooms and drinking water are available. The use of…”
Drinking water
Yes
“…mid-November. Vault restrooms and drinking water are available. The use of pelletized or certified…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

Biking
Hiking
Horse Camping
Horseback riding
Wildlife viewing
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe agency’s record
Runs itBureau of Land Managementthe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 10

What you actually pay

The sign priceBureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Camping Fees are $16/vehicle, per night, for a single car, truck, or RV and towed vehicle.
All sites available on a first-come, first-served basis.
No reservations accepted.
Please occupy site before proceeding to payment kiosk (near campground entrance) for payment.
Traditional cash and check payment accepted at payment kiosk.
Stay limit14 Days
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicle$5

“Additional passenger vehicles $5/night.” · the Bureau of Land Management’s own fee record

What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 5
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
What this campground adds: The Bureau of Land Management’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Sep 7, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Coordinate42.65674, -118.72847
The phone541-573-4400

Where it is

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

This Afternoon67°Mostly Sunny
Tonight45°Partly Cloudy
Saturday70°Mostly Sunny
Saturday Night41°Partly Cloudy

NWS forecast for Denio, NV

Source: National Weather Service, BOI forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 33°F, day 68°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.

100°32°10°

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.

Measured at: MC DERMITT 26 N, OR (USC00355335), 47 miles away and 856 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Cliff Bentz, official portrait

South Steens 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Bureau of Land Management publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.002 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 770 rated federal campgrounds in Oregon · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the BLM’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Denio, NV, 46 mi N (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026