Whitefish Horse Camp
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 29 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $23–$27Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
In Deschutes National Forest, Whitefish Horse Campground offers visitors some of the most stunning scenery in central Oregon and easy access to an abundance of recreational activities in the Cascade region. A favorite among horse enthusiasts, the campground looks out onto the waters of Crescent Lake. With snow-capped peaks, high elevation lakes, scenic rivers, and several wilderness areas located nearby, this campground offers visitors the opportunity to experience both the serene and wild aspects of central Oregon. Keep reading
Recreation
A favorite among horse enthusiasts, the campground provides visitors with access to a variety of trails. Lakes, lava flows, and forested areas provide the backdrop for many of these rides. Whitefish Creel Trail is popular with both hikers and horseback riders. This trail can be accessed from the west end of Crescent Lake and follows Whitefish Creek up through lodgepole pines to a beautiful view of Diamond Peak at Diamond View Lake. From there, the trail descends along Trapper Creek through Engelmann spruce and white fir to the west end of Odell Lake. Equestrians may want to traverse at least a portion of the spectacular Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), one of America's premier National Scenic Trails. This trail showcases some of North America's most fantastic scenery, winding its way its way from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington. Portions of the trail traverse Diamond Peak at timberline. Wilderness passes are required for this trail.
Facilities
The campground has 17 large equestrian sites, each equipped with double or quadruple metal corrals. Sites 008, 013 and 018 have four horse stalls, while all the others have two horse stalls. Picnic tables, campfire rings/grills, and ample room for parking vehicles and trailers are available at each site. Drinking water is also available, as is access to vault toilets. Horse campgrounds have been designed to accommodate people who need to corral their horses. With a limited number of these kinds of campgrounds, please consider camping in one of the many other campgrounds nearby if you do not have a horse. This horse camp is open usually by Memorial Day, or after snow levels recede. It stays open until snow blocks the road, typically around Thanksgiving. However, water and host services may not be provided after early October.
Natural Features
Cresent Lake is nestled in a naturally glaciated basin behind a moraine dam, east of the towering Cascade Mountain Range. Its brilliant blue-green water, sandy beaches, and water temperature are exceptional for a high-elevation lake. The area provides habitat for mammals such as mule deer, coyote, and cougar. Migratory birds and native fish also call the area home. These species, along with many others, depend on surrounding undeveloped wilderness, clean streams, and diverse forests to live.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors can explore wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and approximately 1,600 miles of trails in the 2.5 million-acre Deschutes National Forest and adjacent Ochoco National Forest. Lava Lands Visitor Center in Bend, Oregon, is a great starting point for visitors to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through interpretive programs and exhibits. Visitors may also enjoy traveling the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. The 66-mile drive through the Cascade Mountain range, weaves through snow-capped peaks and alpine lakes, highlighting the beauty of central Oregon.
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
Whitefish Horse Camp is intended for use by campers with horses. Horses must be kept in stalls provided
Horse Campers must use Certified Weed-Seed-Free Hay when staying at any USFS Horse Campground. Horse trails are accessible from this campground
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment, and tires before using lake or trails
Everything else this campground posts · 9
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.
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
- 17 · 17 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…water is also available, as is access to vault toilets. Horse campgrounds have been designed to…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and trailers are available at each site. Drinking water is also available, as is access to vault toilets.…”
- Stay limit
- 28 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 206th darkest of 770 in OR
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 14:51 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $23–$27 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 14:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 17 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 17 of the 17 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. 17 of the 17 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 WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 002 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 150 ft | 341 ftSummit Creek | 476 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 004 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 123 ft | 424 ftSummit Creek | 328 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 005 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 145 ft | 543 ftSummit Creek | 329 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 006 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 123 ft | 519 ftSummit Creek | 205 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 007 | equestrian nonelectric | 30 ft | 145 ft | 557 ft | 200 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 008 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 132 ft | 560 ftSummit Creek | 91 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 009 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 163 ft | 603 ft | 106 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 010 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 132 ft | 537 ftSummit Creek | 221 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 011 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 194 ft | 556 ftSummit Creek | 423 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 012 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 141 ft | 735 ftSummit Creek | 341 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 013 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 141 ft | 798 ft | 258 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 014 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 179 ft | 587 ft | 324 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 015 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 117 ft | 622 ft | 245 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 016 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 114 ft | 665 ft | 228 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 017 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 89 ft | 715 ft | 152 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 018 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 114 ft | 775 ft | 160 ft | $23–$27 |
| AREA WHITEFISH HORSE CAMP | 019 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 89 ft | 801 ft | 89 ft | $23–$27 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Windy Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 0.3 mi
SpringDeschutes National Forest · 0.8 mi
Contorta Point Group CampDeschutes National Forest · 1.2 mi
Contorta Flat CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 1.8 mi
Crescent Lake CampgroundDeschutes National Forest · 3.8 mi
Crescent Lake YurtsDeschutes National Forest · 3.9 miFrom I-5, take exit 188A towards Oakridge, continue on Hwy 58 for 69.3 miles, then turn right at NF Road 60 and continue for 2.2 miles. Turn right at Crescent Lake Road and continue for 1.2 miles. Make a slight right at NF Road 60 and travel for 3.5 miles to your destination on the left.
From La Pine, travel south on Hwy 97 for 17.5 miles, then turn right at the Crescent Cutoff Road, continuing for 11.9 miles. Turn right at Hwy 58 and travel for about 2 miles, before turning left at NF Road 60. Continue for 2.2 miles, then turn right at Crescent Lake Road. Go 1.2 miles, make a slight right at NF Road 60, and continue 3.5 miles to your destination on the left.
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 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
Whitefish Horse Camp 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 →