Timpanogas
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Sites
- 31 on recreation.gov
- Season
- June 1Opens June 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Timpanogas Shelter sits on shore of its namesake lake at an altitude of 5,300 feet in the Willamette National Forest within the Oregon Cascades Recreation Area. The cabin was patterned after the old Civilian Conservation Corps 3-sided shelter and was built in 1991 with the help of a University of Oregon outdoor school class and the Walker Rim Snowmobile Club. The cabin is typically open from late June through late October. It is accessible by car, but the last 7 miles of the road are rough and narrow. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers enjoy fishing for brook trout and cutthroat on upper and lower Timpanogas Lakes, even though the lakes are closed to motorcraft. Canoeing is also possible on the lakes. Those not inclined to fish can enjoy hiking or mountain biking on numerous trails in the Timpanogas area, especially in late August when huckleberries are ripe for picking. This includes the Timpanogas Lake Trail, which starts at the Timpanogas Campground. The Diamond Peak Trail Area, Pacific Crest Trail and Diamond Peak Wilderness are also nearby.
Facilities
This rustic 15 x 18 shelter with a dirt floor is designed to accommodate 6-8 people and comes equipped with a sleeping loft, a table with benches and a wood stove for heat. A picnic table, campfire ring and pit toilet are located outside. Additional camping is available on-site for up to 20 people. Drinking water, firewood and electricity are not provided. The cabin does not have a cook stove or cooking supplies. Potable water is available from a hand pump at the nearby Timpanogas Campground until late September. Items such as bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies, trash bags, dish soap, towels and an ice chest are not available. Insect repellent is highly recommended. Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is situated in a mountainous and heavily forested area where it is possible to see Diamond Peak, Sawtooth and Cowhorn Mountains. Timpanogas Lake is just one of several alpine lakes in the area. Willamette National Forest offers prime habitat for such species as Roosevelt elk, black bear, northern bald eagles, mule deer and bobcats, among other wildlife.
Nearby Attractions
Trails for hiking and mountain biking are located less than a mile from the shelter.
What the agency tells you
Drinking water is not provided on-site but is available from a hand pump at the nearby Timpanogas Campground until late September.
High elevation lakes attract heavy concentrations of mosquitoes through the summer, so come prepared
Entry to the shelter is by combination lock; guests must contact the Middle Fork Ranger District Office (541) 782-2283 at least several days prior to arrival for the combination. Call for the combination weekdays only; the site administrator is not available on weekends.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
The last 7 miles of road to this shelter are rough and narrow
Guests must pack out all trash and clean cabin before departure
Smoking is not permitted
Check in 1PM. Check out 12PM
Guests should contact the Ranger District prior to arriving to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms, that may affect their visit
Learn more about the Willamette National Forest
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.
Renters need to bring lighting devices for the cabin due to recent theft of in-house lights and solar panel.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…heat. A picnic table, campfire ring and pit toilet are located outside. Additional camping is…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…have a cook stove or cooking supplies. Potable water is available from a hand pump at the nearby…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Berry Picking
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:45 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:45 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · the site map
All 3 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 3 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. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA TIMPANOGAS | CABIN1 | cabin nonelectric | 116 ft | 932 ft | $60 |
| S&P | Extra Vehicle | type not stated | $6–$14 | ||
| S&P | Timpanogas CG | type not stated | $6–$14 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Windy Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 5.3 mi
Whitefish Horse CampDeschutes National Forest · 5.5 mi
SpringDeschutes National Forest · 5.9 mi
Contorta Point Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 6.3 mi
Contorta Flat CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 6.7 mi
Kelsay Valley Horse CampUmpqua National Forest · 6.7 miFrom I-5, take Exit 188A onto Highway 58 and proceed just past MP 37 (east of Oakridge), turning right onto Kitson Springs Road. Proceed 0.5 mile to junction with Forest Service Road (FSR) 21, also signed as Diamond Drive. Turn right onto FSR 21 and continue approximately 32 miles, turning left onto paved FSR 2154. Continue on FSR 2154 approximately 10 miles (pavement ends at the 3.4 MP). At the 2154-6010 junction, stay on the 2154 (right); continue to stay on the 2154. At the next junction of the 2154-372 stay (right). Continue for a short distance. Watch for a gate on the left side of an unmarked spur, just after a switchback. If you reach the road into the Timpanogas campground, you've driven too far.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Crescent Lake, OR
Typical weather
Typical June night 38°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical June night 38°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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 · a letter you can send
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
Timpanogas 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyCliff BentzU.S. Representative · Oregon’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJeff MerkleyU.S. Senator · Oregon
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRon WydenU.S. Senator · Oregon
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Cliff Bentz, I’m a constituent in Oregon’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 3 campsites the agency files at Timpanogas, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timpanogas keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timpanogas. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timpanogas (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Jeff Merkley, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 3 campsites the agency files at Timpanogas, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timpanogas keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timpanogas. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timpanogas (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon
Dear Ron Wyden, I’m a constituent in Oregon. I tried to camp at Timpanogas, Willamette National Forest, Oregon, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 3 campsites the agency files at Timpanogas, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Timpanogas keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Timpanogas. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Timpanogas (Willamette National Forest, Oregon) via campanac.com