South Twin Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29–$62Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
South Twin Lake Campground sits on the shores of South Twin Lake, a small lake adjacent to the much larger Wickiup Reservoir. Keep reading
Recreation
South Twin Lake provides visitors with the opportunity for fishing, swimming and paddling. Motorized boating is not permitted.
Facilities
This facility has sites that can accomodate, tent, trailer or RV campers. Each site comes with a picnic table and is equipped with a fire ring. This campground offers potable water and flush toilets, as well as, a nearby boat launch area leading to the water. Boat launch parking is for day use only and requires a recreation fee separate from camping fees.
Natural Features
The lake was formed about 20,000 years ago when rising magma-encountered groundwater resulting in violent steam explosions. The resulting explosions formed a broad shallow crater, which later filled with water. The lake covers an area of 99 acres with average depth of 33 feet with a maximum depth of 58 feet. South Twin Lake is a lure's toss from the Deschutes arm of Wickiup Reservoir and less than a mile south of North Twin lake.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can explore wilderness areas, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and approximately hundred of miles of trail. Newberry National Volcanic Monument, approxiately 45 minutes by vehicle, is a great starting point for visitors to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through interpretive programs and exhibits. Visitors can explore Lava River Cave, the longest continuous lava tube in Oregon. Visitors enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Bywaywhich climbs 66 miles through the Cascade Range, weaving 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
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per single tent site. Two RV’S with tow vehicle per double site or two vehicles per double 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 · 4
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.
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.
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
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…This campground offers potable water and flush toilets, as well as, a nearby boat launch area leading to…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with a fire ring. This campground offers potable water and flush toilets, as well as, a nearby boat launch…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Night sky · 336th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:38 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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$62 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 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 21 of the 21 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 | 36 ft | 94 ft | 178 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 239 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 107 ft | 143 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 78 ft | 78 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 142 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 68 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 151 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 85 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 173 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 205 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 289 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 374 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 379 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 470 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 350 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 93 ft | 441 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 411 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 325 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 95 ft | 368 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 269 ft | $29–$62 |
| Loop 1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 321 ft | $29–$62 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
West South Twin CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 0.2 miSheep Bridge CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.0 mi
Gull Point CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.0 mi
North Twin Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.0 mi
Sheep BridgeDeschutes National Forest · 1.5 mi
Reservoir CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.3 miFrom Bend, travel 26.8 miles south on Hwy 97 to Wickiup Junction, then 11.0 miles west on County Road 43, then continue 4.6 miles west on Forest Road 42, and finally 2.0 miles south on Forest Road 4260.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for La Pine, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 21°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 Twin Lake 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 →